YES! (VERY long post)

So I managed a few weeks back to get my doctor to squeeze me in and see me at the same time he evaluated my son.

I have been having some pretty nasty skin issues in the last year or so. When i shower - and only when I shower, baths and the pool and washing dishes and washing my face and everything else involving wet, doesn't affect me, ONLY when I shower, I come out and I have huge raised red blotches on my face and arms and very very occasionally, on my sides.

When it first started, it was just a very slight redness that I ignored, and in fact I have successfully ignored it up to the past few months when it suddenly got way way worse. A few months ago, the skin that would get raised and red began to also get itchy and dry - and then flake off. This, to me, was horrifying, becuase most of it occurs on my face.

I spent a LOT of time trying different lotions and moisturizers to help, but nothing was working and the red patches only seemed to be getting worse. During My youngest sons annual in June I casually mentioned this to my doctor and he gave me some samples of an ointment called Protopic.

I used the sample as soon as I got him that day and about three hours later, hopped in the shower. I told myself, in the shower, that one application will surely do nothing, that I will have to be patient and wait to see if the sample cream worked. But then I got out of the shower and the redness was barely there. Well the redness was still there, but the raised part of the rash was gone, the red went away before I was fully dried and dressed and the skin did not dry out where it had rashed.

I kept telling myself to make an appointment with my doctor to get a prescription, the cream is 90$ for a small tube so the doctor wanted me to try the sample to see that it worked before having me spend that much money on it. This and that and that and this happened, and I never got in, until just recently that is.

I didn't have time to take a shower today, I had a bath instead, so I cannot tell you yet if the cream is working, I do know that I can see !! already!! a difference in the size of one of the dry patches on my upper arm, so I expect to see an improvement tomorrow morning after my shower.

I wanted to write this post becuase I spent a lot of time on the internet searching "red rash after shower" and found a lot of other people asking the same thing - what is wrong with me!! I hope that by putting this here, someone else searching for answers about a strange rash after showering will get an answer.

My doctor told me it is eczema, he prescribed Protopic - it's very pricey BUT, unlike other eczema creams, it is NOT a steroid, it can safely be use don the face - even on the eye lids!

As time goes on, I will occasionally update on the state of my rash. The information packet on the cream says it can take up to four weeks to see an improvement - although I have had improvements in terms of less itching and reduction in size of a patch of eczema already. it can only get better from here on out, now, can't it?

The other problem I am having is Acne. becuase of all the moisturizers and lotions I slathered on my face - often multiple times a day, I have developed acne. I bought Spectro Sensitive Skin face wash and Spectro Vanishing Cream to help combat that. I like the face wash a lot, It definately does NOT dry my skin out, nor leave it greasy. it jsut feels..good, ya know?

One thing I like about the Spectro Face wash is that you rub it in a circular motion on your face for 30 seconds, then wipe it off, no harsh scrubbing, yet my face feels clean! I can't even begin to say anything on the Vanishing cream as I have only applied it twice so far, but I was treading on the interwebs the ingredients for proactive and I know that a lot of people swear by proactive, Spectro vanishing Cream contains many of the same ingredients as the Proactive does, so I honestly am expecting an improvement.

In any case, it feels good to know that while I am not yet in the clear skin stage, I am on my way to it, that I am doing something besides bitching to the interwebs that I have acne and dry skin.

This pleases me!