TMI, TMI- Question about my lips

Factual Questions
1

I warned you- TMI. Disgusting info about my lips!

I spoke to my doctor about my lips a week ago, so I’m not here to get definite medical help, just to describe the situation before I go see him again.

About 7 years ago (I think?) I must have chewed the top layer of my lips off for some reason; maybe they were chapped and I was hungry, I don’t know :wally. But that’s what I think happened.

So my lip skin layer has to grow back, but I never let it grow back; if I wake up in the morning with a night’s worth of skin growth, I would just suck it off w/o thinking anything of it. But 4 years ago I tried to let the skin grow back over a couple weeks, but I had to stop b/c I had school again and I couldn’t go around w/ corn flake looking pieces of skin on my top and bottom lip.

Now, my doctor prescribes a lip lotion to use on them to help them grow in a way that doesn’t lead to corn flakes, I suppose. But the problem is, even w/ the lotion, that doesn’t change the fact that the skin layer is, for several weeks, very sensitive; by the time I got to week two?, I couldn’t close my lips (the skin would stick together and come off) or eat something w/o cutting it up and putting it in my mouth (anything touching the lips, like sandwich bread, can take the skin off). I don’t have the time to deal with that now, so I suck the skin off and will wait until xmas break.

Over the weeks of xmas break, I think I can do it- allow the lips to grow completely- if:

  • I subsist off of protein shakes, which can be squirted into my mouth w/o chewing anything. And I’d do that for water too.
  • I don’t brush my teeth over those weeks (toothbrush could potentially take the skin off)
  • I only bathe over those weeks (not shower), but don’t wash my face (might mess up lips)
  • I don’t work or go to school over those weeks (school’s out, I’ll see if I get work off completely, I’ll request it if I don’t)- reason is b/c the growing skin can look gross, I think, after a few weeks

I’ll talk to my doctor about this plan, but I’d ask these questions of you:

  • Shouldn’t the skin have stopped growing back long ago? I mean, this isn’t needed skin, it’s not like my lips are raw and uncovered, they have skin. Shouldn’t this layer’s skin cells stop growing after they are depleted?
  • Why is the skin layer so sensitive? Jesus, what an inferior body we have.
2

My lips are rarely completely healed either, although I don’t have this problem at a level I would consider “gross.” Two things that seem to help are making sure I drink enough liquids so that I am not dehydrated and making sure I take care of my allergies well enough so that I am not breathing through my mouth at night.

3

You realize that if you get saliva on your lips when you suck them, you’ve contributed to the “cornflake” texture? Saliva dries your lips horribly, and probably contributed to them not healing very quickly. Drink lots of water, your pee should be clear to quite pale in color. That will help your lips stay moist in a good way, and help your body heal itself. Good luck, sounds painful and like not much fun at all.

4

What is your diet like?

5

Absolutely- I forgot to add another rule to my xmas plan- no licking lips at all. Getting the lips moist from saliva changes their composition to hard, and taking a warm shower makes the steam make them moist and vulnerable- that’s why I’ll only take baths, lukewarm water.

And it’s not painful- this layer is dead to pain, I guess b/c it’s so thin and needless.

My diet? Er, what should I be eating to help my lips?

6

Why does it take so long for the skin to grow back? I sometimes do the same thing in my sleep (I literally peel off the skin until I am down to blood) and my lips are back to normal in just a few days, or maybe a week at most if I have really done a job on them. (No, I don’t know why I do this, except I seem do it if I am ill, especially with a fever, or not sleeping well / stressed so I think it has something to do with that.) I have remarked before how quickly they can regenerate themselves.

I just use a good lip balm like Neutrogena’s overnight lip repair, and I don’t avoid eating or anything like that. If they start to get flaky I exfoliate them with a washcloth and warm water and gently scrub the flakes off, that leaves the softer layer underneath and I am not sure if you are talking about that layer not coming back or what. Is there some reason why you would need several weeks to heal?