bitch and whine

[rmd]

man, ever since i hit menopause like a brick wall, my skin has been all sensitive. and in the past 48 hours, it's noticed "hey, it's winter! it's dry out! WOOHOO, TIME TO FREAK OUT."

i'm mildly itchy in various spots (at the moment, my upper arms and shoulders, but it varies), and i pulled a bandaid off last nite and there's still a mark where the adhesive was. (i'm not allergic to the adhesive or anything)

i have a doctor's appt soon, so i'll ask if it's okay to up my claritin dose in times like this.

*sigh*

meanwhile, time for ANOTHER mammogram. if L7 or joan jett covered "i enjoy being a girl", i'd have to listen to it a lot on a morning like this. (neither the original nor the phrank version quite fit my mood)

Comments

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I always get itchy in the winter. Very itchy. You mean it is going to get WORSE?

Noooooooooooooo!*chough splutter*

Ahem.

Sorry.

-E

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

Yikes. (I'm too young for my friends to be hitting menopause!) I hope they give you something good for the itchies.

Good luck!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

oh, i hit menopause when they took out my ovaries, so i'm kind of a corner case, there.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

Dry skin in winter is something I've always had, more so now that I've got a woodstove. I just slather on this pretty heavy, cocoa-butter-and-mineral-oil-based moisturizer. I have to do this consistently, though, or I'll develop dry patches that...well. The less said the better.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, i've got some cocoa butter stuff and some glycerine stuff and some shea butter stuff. winter always catches me off guard, tho, and then i have to get all "silence of the lambs" and rub the lotion on the skin.

[(Anonymous)]

In this house we *wuv* Dream Cream from Lush. Works on P's cold-weather eczema, even.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Hem, that anonymouse was me. Dunno how I got logged out.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i need to head over to the lush around here some time. i haven't actually been there, yet. (i haven't run out of shampoo yet.)

[chipmunck.livejournal.com]

*Hugs*

Winter always seems rotten for phsyical conditions. The Dry air just wreaks havoc on everyone! :P

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

I'll second the motion for cocoa-butter-based skin treatments (if you can stand the idea of smelling chocolate out of the corner of your nose all day without going crazy).

While the "skin-crawl" sensation is very similar to a histamine reaction, I'd be surprised if your allergies were at the root of this. Talking to your doctor before upping your dose is a Good Thing (tm).

Meanwhile, have you ever heard L7 and Joan Jett "covering" the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb"? It was at an L7 concert and the Blackhearted One came onstage to join them.

[jessicac.livejournal.com]

Fast and Frightening is now stuck in my head...

Popping wheelies on her motorbike
Straight girls wish they were dykes
She’ll do anything on a dare
Mom and daddy’s worst nightmare

[shadowsmark.livejournal.com]

I've had dry skin in winter since i was 20--my sister and I call it the "creeping crud." Moisturize excessively, and if it works for you, use a little hydrocortisone (ever the weakest over-the-counter formulation) a couple times a day for a few days to get a bad spot under control.

[lara68.livejournal.com]

i wash my face with olive oil, THEN soap. then, after the soap, i rub more olive oil on it.

of course, that won't help your shoulders...

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

I like Kiss My Face a lot...Alicia turned me on to it.

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

I also get itchy, scaly skin in winter and use Eucein products. They make some pretty thick unscented stuff that seems to keep it under control.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing you meant Eucerin? It's good stuff, I second the recommendation.

But watch out for the heavy duty stuff that contains urea. I was using that for a week and managed to "bleach" a purple towel pink. (It works really well for some people, but doesn't come off as thoroughly as you might think is all I'm saying; not dissin' the pee or nuthin').

To jump on the CHIME IN train, I get itchy in winter too... since I had the surgery on my right hand, both the doctor and the scar remind me to consistently moisturize it. I've manage to avoid cracked and bleeding knuckles for two years in a row! Woo!

Nobody mentioned moisturizing baths... those help too.

I also use Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer. This is the stuff I use on my hands because it absorbs well and fast so my hands aren't slippery. I use it on my face occasionally and it's one of the only products that doesn't immediately clog my pores and give me a bunch of zits.

Also, VERY IMPORTANT, it helps a LOT if you moisturize when you're done showering but BEFORE you dry off. This locks the moisture INTO your skin. You can do this with moisturizer or baby oil. (But not as often with the baby oil - it's pretty heavy duty. During long dry winters, I end up doing up the baby oil thing once or twice.)

Anybody know how to deal with an old acid burn that doesn't want to stay moisturized? That one hurts a lot.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

Stuff I forgot to mention:

- Really hot showers are bad for yer skin and will make you more itchy; shoot for warm-to-hot
- Baths help with exfoliation, which can help with the itching; if you soak in water, rather than just shower in it, you slough off more skin cells (sitting in a steam room has a similar effect, I think, if you combine it with a loofa-enhanced shower afterwards)
- Always test new products on a small patch of skin 24 hours before slathering y'self with it to test for sensitivity

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, another winter-dry-skin thing: because I have to work outdoors and I'm always putting my gloves on and taking 'em off, my hands get very dry, and if I'm not careful, I get those incredibly painful little cracks at the edges of my fingernails. Newskin or Second Skin is a lifesaver in such situations.

I also love cetaphil products, but maaan, expensive. That's what a dermatologist recommended to me for reaaaally dry skin.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, the cetaphil stuff is great. i'm still making my way thru a fairly large container of it i got at costco a while back.