Progress, part II: Brimming with experience, just not in my area

I have meant to say in the last post but kept forgetting. One of the worse parts of the leaking is the smell. I could always smell the liquid that oozed from my skin. I could smell it all the time and smelled it everywhere. It made me all the more convinced that my hands are rotting.

17 June 2011 - Millbrae

Went to a doctor here who's supposed to be very good but expensive according to my uncle. The doctor is a PhD of age eighty-odd who can read medical texts of Russian, English, and Chinese and has a lot of confidence. He also had a lot of advice to give. Said what I had was "hot-poison" and gave 5 days' worth of medicine that smelled like some medicine-y soup with pork, but tasted bland but a little salty. Also a soak that smelled the same, but contained far more sticks and leaves that it made the soak very thick. I felt like I was marinating my hands. He just said it was possible that it's both fungal and dermatitis.

My hands by this point has worsened. One giant blister covered R3 bottom knuckel, palm side, giant blisters that covers a third to half of each palm--there was very little skin on my hands that weren't somehow affected. My arms are also getting redder and more itchy. Sleeping, despite the supposedly calming effects of the medicine, is still very difficult. I would have problems getting to sleep and would wake up from itching and/or scratching. I would give up on trying to sleep and sometimes would just sit there until it's warm enough to get out of bed. I had started to dread sleeping some time ago, so at least I would be able to consciously lessen the itching sensation. I think I'm sleeping only a few hours every night by this time.

By this time I'm not eating most seafood except fish that is not tuna/salmon, no eggs, no fried stuff, no tropical fruits.

6 days later there was very little, if not no improvement. The eczema has spread to the other fingers on each hand, further onto the arms.

23 June 2011 - Millbrae

With the medicine gone, we went back to the doctor to see what he has to say. He didn't have much to say, but changed the medicine so it's stronger in nature. When we went back to get teh medicine, the doctor smeared some aloe gel on the back of my left hand, saying to see if it helps and if it does, I can go back to get some. He smeared a lot on my hand and I had to spread it all over the back and around my wrist.

When we got back home I didn't think much of it. The gel was a little thick and dried fairly fast--it made a shiny, tough surface on top of my irritated, but unbroken skin (unlike every other part of my hands). My hands have been constantly itching for the past month, so I didn't think much of the back of my hands itching or took heed when my aunt said my hands looked more swollen since it has been looking swollen for weeks and I can't really tell whether it's more swollen since I stare at it all the time.

He put the gel on me around 15:00. But 17:30 I decided to wash the gel off because I felt that it was making my wrist hard to move and it was uncomfortable. I had thought that the glossy surface that the gel had made caused the illusion of a more swollen arm. After washing the gel off, though, I felt the back of my left hand and wrist swelled and hurt much more--and realised the suddenly worse areas were all places the gel had been placed. The back of my had was red, felt tight, stung like a bed of needles, and swelled to convex dome from my knuckes to my wrist. I couldn't move my wrist anymore.

Thinking back, while I'm most likely reacting to the gel, washing with just water probably agitated the skin further. I'd been taking very minimal showers because showers hurt like hell.

My hand worsened two-fold. I remember that I haven't been sleeping or would not even try to sleep until early morning already, but my hand oozed so much more that night that I decided I'm not going to sleep at all. It was painful and itchy. Going under the covers would only make me mind my hand even more. I stayed out in the living room and huddled under blankets on the black chair, planning to doze once I got very, very sleepy, but determined to occupy myself with only fics until then.

I got about half an hour of sleep last night.

My hands crusted over from the liquids, breaking through skin that would not heal all over the back of both hands. The three giant blisters palm-side are tough, covered my palms in one giant pouch in each hand and a couple on two fingers, very puffy and filled to the brim with liquids on the inside.