Sunny days, oozy nights and doctors visits

Hey all.

I hope everyone's weekend and St. Patty's was great. The weekend was absolutely beautiful here. Sunny and warm! Friday, I decided to try out a new baking recipe. Garbanzo bean peanut butter blondies with carob chips! I took a chance with the carob since it had dairy and sugar.It did make me itchy, HOWEVER, they were awesome, no matter what my nieces might say!

mmm!

Saturday was so nice that Brad and I decided to wake up early and walk down to the farmers market by campus. You can always count on the crowds when it's nice out, even early in the morning. We picked up some fruit and veggies and Brad got some hummus. We found some great deals too. A big bag of kumquats for only 2 bucks! All in all, the trip was good and we walked over 3 miles. Not bad.

A nice treat before walking back

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Even though I was covered from head to toe on our outing, I still suffered from getting too much sun. The last few days I have been dealing with the consequences: Swelling,oozing, grumpiness and sleeplessness. The good news is, even though I'm still very tired and dry (and itchy), I am feeling a lot better today. And I gotta say, just to do something normal with Brad made it worth it.

On Monday, I had a check up with a new doctor, and it went great. While he wasn't familiar with steroid- induced eczema, he was very supportive with my non-use of steroids. He was actually shocked that the doctors would pump that much into me in short period of time. He suggested UV treatment to help the skin so that is something to think about. I was supposed to get blood work done, but as I expected, wasn't able to because of the low visibility of my veins. Fine by me because I absolutely HATE needles! Next week I will just stop by the lab and get it done there. All in all a good trip and the anxiety I was feeling about it was not needed. I go back in 4 weeks for a follow up and I think that I will print out some articles from ITSAN.org to bring in to him. 

He prescribed me some sleeping pills (yay sleep!!) and gave me a spray called Dermazinc. It is the non-compounded version that contains no steroids. The zinc is supposed to help relieve the itch and help the skin heal. Has anyone used it before? I hope it helps! With the exception of yesterday, I haven't been moisturizing because it actually makes the itch worse, so I think that I will just try a little bit of the spray on my hand and see how that goes. 

I think this week will be a good one. I am going to make sure it's a good one  and look for the blessing instead of the shortcomings. That is definitely something I need to work on. I will also try out a new recipe for ice cream so I will report on that later. It's a sugar free sweet potato one. Mmmm! Gluten, dairy, egg and sugar free. That's how I have to eat so any little treat, I'll take it!

Hope everyone's week is going well!

Brandis

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22