Seems I’ve been “blessed” with a case of excema that’s broken out on my ears. Started on my neck, just behind the ears and applying lotion to those areas helped it rather rapidly… within a couple days. After it had gone away, the very next day, my ears started acting up and before I knew it, I had a very swollen right ear and an irritated looking red ear, the skin red, dry and “scaley”. The next day I was looking something like dumbo, my ears swollen and “pushed out” a bit. Of course I’d been wanting to rip my ears off my head to get rid of the itch.
I’ve been applying Eucerin Aquaphor to them and within a day or so it’s taken much of the redness and swelling away, though my right earlobe is still a little swollen, not nearly as bad as it was. I look normal again, mostly.
However, when the Aquaphor begins to be fully absorbed and the skin becomes explosed, it’s still a bit itchy and I’m finding that, after 3 days straight, I have to keep applying it. What I’m wondering is - how long does an outbreak of excema usually last for once it’s being treated? I know you can’t “cure” the cause, only treat the symptoms 'til the outbreak subsides… but am I going to be applying this stuff for the next week? How long should I wait before I should start being concerned?
Any further suggestions for what to do to help it?
Please note: I am not a doctor, the following is based on my personal experience with eczema, and has never (AFAIK) been tested through medical research. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This advice is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. (So mods, please don’t beat me!)
I’ve had eczema episodically throughout my life. You can get prescription medicine for eczema, (and, not unimportantly, make sure it isn’t something else that needs to be treated, like ringworm). I think the cream you would get is just a prescription strength cortisone cream, but I won’t swear to that. However, I’ve also used a clay mask to good effect on small patches. The patches would come back with OTC cortisone cream, but the clay mask would eliminate the patches.
I also am not a doctor, but in my experience, treatment has worked best when I continued it for a few days after the visible symptoms went away. I’ve had periods where it almost goes away then comes back and I’ve found that I need to be vigilant to attack the very fist sign of it and continue after it’s dissapearance.