Eczema Archives | The Wellness Explorer

Life beyond chronic illness – gardening and healing updates

July 27, 2020July 27, 2020

I have been spending a lot of time outside gardening lately, at least 1-2 hours everyday. That may not seem like a lot to some people but for someone who has barely left the house in almost a YEAR, this is huge. As my hands heal and I get my strength and energy back, I’ve been able to start developing a life again outside of chronic illness. I am no longer bedridden. I am actually doing a lot these days out of bed, as I wrote about here and here. Although I’m still not leaving the house on my own to …

Slow living is healing my body

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Life has changed a lot over the past several weeks, hasn’t it? Here in NYC we are still on lockdown in the outside world. For me though, this is just more of the same, as I enter my 9th month of being housebound due to chronic illness. I don’t mind being at home all the time, as odd as that may sound. Do I want to be able to do more outside? Of course! I would especially love to be able to see my family or go on a hike in the forest. But these days with most public places closed …

Day in the life healing from eczema

May 5, 2020April 8, 2020

I thought I’d take you through a day in my life to show what it’s like having a chronic illness (eczema) and the ways I’m trying to heal and get through. I have improved a lot over the past few months and this is where I’m currently at in my healing – not totally debilitated anymore (thank god!) but not fully functioning yet either. Sort of at a weird halfway point. If you’d like to see where I was a few months back when things were extremely BAD you can check out my other eczema posts here. So at this point …

Quarantine advice from someone 7 months bedridden (chronic illness)

June 19, 2020March 30, 2020

There is SO much fear going around these days with this worldwide Coronavirus situation. I know this is on the minds of just about everyone and we have all been affected, either directly or indirectly, by this pandemic. I feel like those of us with a chronic illness or health problem are especially getting hit hard right now, in part because our physical and mental well-being is already in a more fragile state. And in part because the supplies that we rely so heavily on to keep us going may be in short supply now! For me, having eczema covering my …

16 Things That Are Helping Me Survive Eczema

May 5, 2020January 19, 2020

Today I thought I would share the many hacks and strategies I’ve come up with that have made it possible for me to survive severe eczema on my hands and better manage this debilitating condition. Eczema is extremely torturous to deal with and if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past 6 months, it’s how to rearrange my environment in order to get by as best I can. If anyone else is wondering, “How do you survive while barely able to use your hands for months?,” here’s the hacks I’ve put in place. Rubber bands on everything The only part …

Recovering from Severe Hand Eczema

May 5, 2020December 27, 2019

I’m getting better! If you haven’t read part 1, part 2, and part 3 of my healing journey with severe eczema so far, you can read them here. When I last left off, I was determined to embark on a thorough healing routine, similar to the one I had put myself on when healing my feet 6 years ago. This was proving to be very difficult though, for a few reasons: 1) Having severe eczema on my hands is a LOT worse than what happened with my feet – yes, 6 years ago I wasn’t able to walk but other than …