Skin.

Source

I’ve started a new category, very simply called Health.

I decided to start this category seeing how my health hasn’t been the best this year. I noticed that I was getting stupidly down about my condition and have decided to take matters into my own hands by actually writing about it just to have a good laugh.

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

For yonks, I’ve had pretty bad skin (I blame my father who has the same condition). Everywhere. My legs. Thighs. Face even. Arms. During the Aussie summers, I’d scratch away at my arms, thinking they were just ordinary heat rash. I would slap on calamine lotion. I’d sit under a fan. Splash water on the itch, anything to make it go away.

Last year, I noticed that I had a particularly bad patch on my left thigh. Thinking it’d go away eventually, I left it alone.

Well folks, as all good stories go, it remained and soon spread like wildfire. I started gazing at what looked like a colony of angry red ants – pig ugly and a fuck to scratch.

I tried various creams. Eventually, I gave up and went to a skin specialist who immediately told me that I had an allergy to prawns. DAMN!

Unfortunately, due to the prolonged nature of the rash, it had, by now, blown up into a great big case of eczema. Nice.

The cream the doctor gave initially toned things down for a bit but it really didn’t work out as the rash kept returning. The doctor advised me to go on a steroid cream.

I decided then and there that no, I could not keep relying on western medication. After reading up about how steroid creams could thin the skin over time, I decided to give alternative medication a shot.

I went to see a recommended Chinese doctor who looked at my scarred legs and proclaimed that I was not to eat:

• Prawns
• Squid
• Crab (I love crab)
• Basically all seafood except fish
• Mangoes (damn!)
• All types of nuts
• Assam laksa
• Tom Yum (damn!)
• Overly spicy stuff (damn! damn!)

Basically the stuff I love eating is a no-no.

******

Next entry: Chinese Medication

The image has nothing to do with the condition of my skin, although I do like to imagine that they look like dust bunnies.