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Updated 3 months ago,January 16, 2025
Imagine playing whack-a-mole…but on your face.
Eczema is one fickle illness.
Eczema, or Atopic Dermatitis (as my dermatologist called it), affects 10% of Americans.
Full honors and straight As.
I was enjoying my breakfast when I was interrupted by the rain in my apartment.
It was raining in my apartment.
And the worst part…the water was steaming hot.
Turns out no one was eating (or cooking) burgers at 8 am.
The rainstorm ended up lasting an hour and a half.
Hey, it was a classic New York City experience…right?
I got my first eczema flare-up one week after the leak.
Redness on my eyelids.
I honestly didnt mind the natural eye shadow.
It was manageable and easy enough to ignore.
I figured it would go away in a few days.
I was wrong it got worse.
It encircled both of my eyes.
What was once a cute, natural smokey eye was now me looking like a red panda.
Still cute, but in a terribly different way.
I realized something was actually wrong when it started itching.
5 hours after that first itch, I was seated in the dermatologists office.
He walked in, looked at me, and said Oh, you must be very uncomfortable.
Little did I know he was describing my next four months.
He told me the pain would settle down and gave me a topical steroid.
That tiny tube was my most prized possession for the following month.
The inflammation and itch went away.
I was so grateful for such an easy fix.
I could move on and never look back.
This was when I received the first lesson of my journey; healing is rarely ever that easy.
And then the real flare-up began.
On March 16, I woke up with eczema patches on my jaw and under my eyes.
On March 17, my face became swollen and bumpy from all of the patches.
On March 18, my eyelids began to swell.
On March 19, my vision started to decline from my swollen eyelids.
It was progressing every day and I had no clue how to make it stop.
It began to take over my life, typical of chronic illness to be so selfish.
Eczema was holding me hostage in my own body.
I was doing everything I could to identify the cause of this flare-up.
Everything was a threat, and absolutely nothing was working.
Two weeks later, my lease ended.
I was probably going to do all of that anyway, but I was half in-half out about it.
I couldnt make up my mind if I should leave New York or stay.
This crisis gave me the push I needed to feel 100% confident in my decision to go.
That was all I needed to keep moving forward.
I began to cultivate a community of people who also live with chronic illness.
It has become my passion and purpose.
