On Monday and Tuesday it was about 95′F at the office, so I was expecting some kind of dermal explosion.

On Wednesday it showed up. I woke up with my face, chest, arms and knees breaking out. I put on my office clothes and planned on going in, but after a few minutes in them my skin hurt even more, and began to swell, so I changed and called in sick. By midday my eyes were half shut from being swollen, and I had a few bleeding gashes on my face and arms. My legs were ripped up and it hurt to bend them. It’s nothing compared to how my eczema used to be, but it hurt to touch things, and the pain was very distracting. Maybe it’s just me, but when my whole body is breaking out like that I end up feeling a bit ill as well. And of course, it can be difficult to feel professional when your face is bleeding and won’t stop.

Yesterday I stayed out of the sun as much as possible, including taking my parasol to the bus stop.  It’s treated with SPF 30, the closest thing I can get to sunscreen. [If you have any suggestions for a sunscreen for insanely sensitive skin, please let me know!]

Today my skin is feeling much better. My left arm is still breaking out, and several tiny infections are brewing, so I’m trying to keep them as clean as possible. My right arm is fine though. My face has some long cuts but they’re healing well. It also has red swollen spots that burn, and I’m not even sure what they are, but I’m touching those as little as possible. My left foot has at least 12 little boils on it this morning, hopefully more won’t pop up. I’m wearing jeans so I can’t scratch my legs no matter how much I want to.

I tried to stay upbeat this week, and did a fairly good job, and rarely mentioned my skin. The best part was that people chose to ignore it, so I was able to pretend that I looked more ‘normal’.

It’s tight and peeling off in little flakes, so I’ve been using scotch tape to get those off as easily as possible. Sounds weird I’m sure, but it’s much more effective than scratching. People can’t really see the chapping unless they’re up close, but it still has me wanting to wrap my head in a scarf and hide. It brings back memories of the years when I looked like a monster. It also hurts to smile, frown, or raise my eyebrows.

I hate this idiot disease. I also feel like this post is badly written, and the only explanation I have is that it’s hard to concentrate on anything very long when my skin is making me feel phrenetic.

The important thing is that my face is breaking out now. My cheeks feel like someone’s stabbing needles through them. So – what am I reacting to? I think between the copious amounts of chocolate yesterday and the plate of cinnamon buns today, and all the ice cream in between, my system is overdosed on sugar. I get a certain rash on my cheeks on holidays and after thinking about it the only difference in my diet at those times is the extra sugar. I had blocked out forgotten exactly the way I feel when I break my diet. Besides the sensation of needles, which make me want to tear off all the skin, I have an attractive red bumpy face. I feel lethargic and queer like the flu is about to hit me, except not quite. I think I’ll take a vacation tomorrow so I can get all this out of my system and stop snapping at my innocent coworkers.

Luckily, a few days ago it began to rain. And rain. Then it stopped for a grey misty day, and now it’s pouring again. Ah, blissful cold dampness! Ever since the rain started my skin has been calming down and my face feels less like a dehydrated alligator.