A Bunch of Randomness

I don’t know WHAT made me think that I actually had time to maintain a blog for myself. Must have been a bit of temporary over-ambition. So, since so much has happened since I was able to post, and since I really don’t have much time right now, this is going to be very random. (Do you like the squirrel? I like the squirrel. He’s so cute!)

I Have Resorted to Drugs

I got really tired of the itching and the swelling and the frantic wringing of the hands with the towel, so I started taking Benadryl and Advil a few days ago. It has helped tremendously. I got to itching early this morning, but I also had forgotten to take my Benadryl so that was very much my fault. I also had some chocolate milk…again, my fault. Plus, I have some blisters that are very “ripe” and the itching is always worst right before they bust.

The Results from my Caffeine vs Caffeine-Free Experiment Are In

I wanted this to be its own post, but oh well. I, over the course of a few days, drank an entire 12-pack of caffeine-free Coke. Well…hubby had one to see if the taste was different, so I guess it was just 11. No dyshidrotic eczema reaction. None. So now we know for sure that it’s not refined sugar causing the dyshidrosis.

That left me 99.999% sure that my trigger is indeed caffeine. But, I wondered if maybe there was some other element in coffee that could be the problem. So I’ve been drinking decaf coffee. For 3 days. My hands have not gotten worse. What was already there is still cycling, and the little bit of caffeine in my milk this morning seemed to agitate the existing blisters, but I have not seen any new blisters erupt in a week now. So, sad as it makes me, I am officially allergic to caffeine. *sobs*

Playing with My Wheatgrass Juicer

I received my wheatgrass juicer sometime last week…can’t remember the exact date. I didn’t have any leafy greens on hand when it came, so I tried it with carrots and apples. I was rather impressed by the little thing. It’s more efficient than my expensive Breville, and not nearly as strenuous to operate as I thought it would be. It even handled a beet, though I will admit I had to coax it a bit.

The one thing that I haven’t gotten to juice with it yet is wheatgrass. I went to Ingles to get some, and I know they used to carry it because I bought it there before, but they don’t seem to have it anymore. So I got some kale, baby spinach, celery, and cucumbers, along with what I already had in my fridge.

I’ve been trying to juice at least one juice per day, but I think I missed a day in there somewhere. Green juice, much to my surprise, is very energizing. I must not have noticed the effects before because I already had so much caffeine in me. However, making a green juice taste good is a bit challenging. I made a root juice the other day that had kale, beet, carrots, ginger, and apple. It was delicious.

The only drawback that I’ve found to the juicer is having to assemble and disassemble it for use and cleaning. However, cleaning the Healthy Juicer is MUCH easier than cleaning my Breville centrifugal juicer. There’s no mesh to have to scrub the pulp out of…just a plastic gear that rinses easily. So that’s nice. It takes a bit longer to juice, but the clean-up ease makes up for that.

Aloe Vera Juice aka “Dirty Dishwater”

My mama, concerned about my hands, gave me some of her aloe vera juice. Now, if you’ve never had aloe juice, you must understand that this stuff looks, smells, and tastes like dirty dishwater. It’s terrible. Just disgusting. But, since she was kind enough to give me some, I feel obligated to use it.

The first couple of days, I couldn’t handle but just a couple of sips. And of course, a couple of sips really aren’t going to do much good. I decided to swab my hands with it, which was actually very soothing. I managed to get a more significant amount in me today, but it’s really just awful stuff to try to drink.

The only way I’ve ever been able to tolerate it is mixing it with grape juice, but I have no juice nor any grapes with which to make juice. Mixing it with anything else, the taste is still overwhelming to me. But, it’s supposed to be an excellent anti-inflammatory and I suppose if I can chug down a quart of saltwater, then I can make myself swallow aloe juice. Tomorrow.

Progress with my Dyshidrotic Eczema

I think my hands are getting better. They’re not worse, save for that itching spell earlier. I’ve been alternating soaks and scrubs, since the baking soda scrub seems to make my hands raw if I do it two days in a row. I’ve also discovered that if I can slather cream on every 2-3 hours, that combined with the Benadryl seems to keep the itching under control. Getting up after sleeping a few hours is my most uncomfortable part of the day because my hands get dried out.

I’ve been using various Carely’s products in cycles. The eczema cream is great, but it still stings a little when I first put it on, and it seems to sting worse if I use it more than twice per day. So, the rest of the day I’m using the Regeneration cream and this DIVINE moisturizer called Cupuacu Face & Body Butter.

I’m in love with this lotion. It smells wonderful, which is unusual for Carley’s products. Not that their products smell bad, just that they don’t always smell what I would call good. But, the fact that they work so wonderfully makes the lackluster aroma a non-issue. However, finding one of their products with such a nice scent that also moisturizes like nobody’s business is like finding gold as far as I’m concerned.

Ok, I suppose I should wrap it up now. I’m buried in work and have rambled on long enough I suppose. Hopefully, I’ll be able to resume daily blog posts sometime in the next week. After I get some real sleep, perhaps.