I've been breaking out in rashes, hives, and my eczema is the worst it's ever been in my whole life. Since last summer!
Had 2 terribly stressful events occur in tandem, and it's like it was too much for me. I worked my whole career in nursing having to wash my hands every few minutes or gel them with alcohol rubs - I know how to take care of my eczema. Nothing I'm doing now helps & as I'm no longer working, it should be a piece of cake to keep my hands good. Not! Been to a dermatologist multiple times, an infectious disease doc & then an allergy specialist.
Which takes me to my exclusion diet. My skin is so bad I can't have skin testing, so he did a whole slew of bloodwork & from there I need to pin down what is a real food allergy. Apparently the blood testing can give both false positives & negatives. I need a non-smiling roll eyes for that one. I have switched to dye & fragrance free laundry soap, bar soap, and carry cetaphil skin cleanser in my purse so when I need to wash my hands I don't have to use the harsh soap in the dispensers.
For a solid month, no wheat, eggs, peanut, tomato, potato, or greens. Like no salad, no kale! Also at the beginning he put all grains on the list too. After 4 days I called to ask him just what I was supposed to eat. Seriously, I can't even put chicken on a salad. He then said ok, if you absolutely have to, it's ok to have a little corn, white rice or oats. I didn't test allergic to these things so I guess he just threw them in for good measure.
Then, after a month, I can slowly start to add things back one by one and see if anything triggers a reaction. That is if the rashes ever clear. So far I am still breaking out in rashes. I think I'm allergic to beef, and I know I'm allergic to one type of fish. Just praying it is a food and not the titanium hardware in my spine & staples from sleeve. I am breaking out in hives over my tailbone & even have a raw spot over a piece of hardware. Praying it isn't that, because if it is, what can I do? My fusion never healed solid, so they can't exactly pull the hardware. Surgeons tell you no one gets allergic to to titanium, but according to Melissa foundation 4% of the people they test are found to have a true allergy.
Anyway, please forgive my long rant. If nothing else, this diet is helping me drop the weight I gained with the prednisone & stress eating. At first I lost a pound a day, even with the loosening of the restrictions I'm still dropping a pound or two a week.
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