Trying to stop smoking dust cats wrapped in hay?

Meow, buddy. I can't quit you, dusty hay kitties.

God, I still remember at age 13 being told to only shower every couple of days (or longer if I could manage it) by the dermatologist in order to help alleviate excema - I was incredulous. It was like she was asking me to voluntarily be stinky and weird, and thus, automatically an outsider in the cruel, cruel world of junior high. I carried on showering every day. (Which I realize isn't necessary for everyone but I'm a special breed).

Gosh I showered maybe a half dozen times in junior high. Didn't hurt me none.

I mean, the people hitting me hurt, but that had nothing to do with anything.

I'm just kidding. My district didn't have junior high.

Yes, but you're a boy.

Boys are allowed to be stinky. Girls, on the other hand, not so much. D'uh.

Eczema. You were probably afflicted proleptically as punishment for this very misspelling, which would not have occurred without the affliction.

max
['Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad']

['Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad'] dry and itchy']

6: I wondered why it looked funny but couldn't tell what was wrong with it.

(Story of my life).

And eczema will indeed drive you mad. Itching is a horrible, horrible thing. Anyone remember the New Yorker article where the woman scratched right through to her brain? (I'm sure there's a link to the comments somewhere but I'm lazy and really I just want to make everyone shudder in horror again).

Anyone remember the New Yorker article where the woman scratched right through to her brain?

I bet she doesn't!

You know what's also horrible about having eczema? No smallpox vaccinations. When the dread disease makes its return from the vaults of some bioterror lab in Russia, I'll be condemned to either possible death by vaccination or possible death by infection. (No joke, this used to worry me when I was younger. I was a strange child. Bathing regularly probably didn't matter much in comparison in the junior high school popularity contests).

10: yikes. Also, it's pretty awful all around. I have a cousin who struggled with it. The transformation when he finally had relief from symptoms was astonishing.

11: True. I'm very lucky to have a pretty mild case (flare ups only when I'm stressed now that I'm past puberty, and they're pretty localized and easy to deal with), so I am probably too cavalier about it. Mostly, I just spend more time itching than most people, but according to my doctor it has somehow been "proven" that people with eczema get more joy out of scratching itches than others. I think she may have been pulling my leg, but then again, it does feel pretty good to itch...

DL, max style:
['Um, if you don't mind, I think I'd like to be alone with my rash now.']

I think she may have been pulling my leg, but then again, it does feel pretty good to itch...

Leg pulling, placebo effect: whatever works.

I'm counting on you, son.

...can we make jokes about stinky Stanley stocking steers for peers?

I had that patch test done several times when I was a kid. Just hope this keeps your doctor happy. Mine made me cut everything from my diet but like two things (meat and something else) and then add items back slowly to rule-out a food allergy.

When they did the patch thing for AB, she was allergic to everything but the saline. Not wanting to disrupt her entire life, she compromised by not permitting the dog on the furniture.

IIRC, she's been avoiding her allergist since we got our new dog, as she doesn't want to tell him that we replaced our previous, deceased allergen.

Reading this thread is making me itch.

I'm counting on you, son.

OK Dad, but can we cool it with the indelible ink this time?

I should get one of those patch tests, but I suspect that I would end up with sixty-some little welts.

Eczema is a pain.

My nephew had to have the whole back test thing done when he was very young and, lacking the understanding to get that it was good for him in the long term, he was utterly miserable. Turned out he was allergic to wheat or some shite which meant, long story short, that he basically ate no snack/junk foods throughout childhood. Now he's the skinny one at family gatherings, that little fuck.

15: You can make whatever joke you like, Jesurg, especially if it's going over my head. Those are the best.

Eczema is indeed the bitch. I've developed it over the last two years (mild case), after never having it as a child (though I did have allergies and all that sort of related shit). I've been told I should do the 16 diet to figure out the cause (likely food allergy), but I just don't have it in me. Maybe if it gets worse.

But what does it have to do with smallpox vaccines?

the frequency with which one needs to bath depends on the atmospheric humidity i guess
for example in our arid climate i used to bath once a week in my childhood as my parents scheduled, or skipped a day to shower growing up, otherwise the skin would become very dried up, and i confess i'm not good with applying various body lotions coz hate that oily greasy feeling smelling various fragrances on my skin until it gets absorbed, i feel like the urge to reshower again after applying those, my sister though is an addict for all those and massages, while in Japan i couldn't stand if not to shower sometimes two times a day, the washed tea cups would start to smell in a half a day, coz that humid and favourable to growing various bacteria i guess and i remember thinking how climate affects the national character and habits something

23: Eczema vaccinatum. You don't want it.

i had contact dermatitis due to the tights band, so freezing cold, otherwise the notion of eczema is foreign to me

26: Mine's a case of ongoing contact dermatitis, too. They're trying to determine the allergen, so they strap every known, common irritant to your back for a couple days.

i think b/c mine was due to the tights, it's just the microcirculation got like stranded there and it became itchy and i scratched it inflamming the area, so after the change of the tights to the looser ones it resolved, hopefully there won't be any scars
but this luck of self-restraint regarding scratching was disappointing

25: Yow. But better or worse than getting actual smallpox?

lack

They can both kill you. But the odds of getting EV are much, much higher than getting smallpox.

strap every known, common irritant to your back

It'd be funny if they had to strap a whole cat/dog/horse/whatever to you, rather than just a sample of dander.

When the dread disease makes its return from the vaults of some bioterror lab in Russia

fun fact - nearly all smallpox outbreaks in the last fifty years have been traceable to laboratories manufacturing smallpox vaccine.

In related news, whatever the cause of eczema, the cure is the same; topical steroids and plenty of 'em. The tendency toward timid prescribing of hydrocortisone is a fairly significant cause of avoidable misery in the developed world.

32: Sure, that would be funny. Until you were crushed by the horse. Cruel people might find that even more amusing.

re: 33

General fear of, and stinginess with, prescription is a pain in the arse here in the UK, for definite.

Oh, and fucking absurd guidelines by trusts that insist you can't have X diagnostic test until you've had Y diagnostic test. Or X therapy until you've had Y.

They're a bit like that here, too. I had to be referred to a dermatologist in order to get a steroid cream.

I had to go and get some scans done today, even though I've had them done before [and everything shows up fine on 'em] because they won't do other_scans without doing them first. Even though everyone involved knows that what I need is other_scans.

Similarly, I need a referral to a specialist about X but they won't do that until I go through a course of physio -- which most of the people involved suspect won't work -- because physio is a prerequisite for a referral of this type.

So with hypoallergenic dogs, like mine or the future First Dog, how does having hair instead of fur solve the problem of dander? Non-shedding dogs still have skin- or is it the combination of skin and fur that is allergenic? Of course, hair dogs can still cause some allergies, but supposedly less severe.

Can someone explain the difference between hair and fur to me? Every explanation I've ever heard makes no sense. Observationally, dogs that people say have hair rather than fur have what I'd call coarser fur, but what's the bright-line?

Most sources seem to say it's the same thing, except dogs designated as having hair have a coat that keeps growing and doesn't shed but needs to be cut, while dogs with fur have a coat that stops growing seasonally and dies, resulting in shedding.

dogs designated as having hair have a coat that keeps growing and doesn't shed but needs to be cut,

I've heard this, but it makes no sense. What, without regular grooming the dog would eventually be buried under its own hair? Any animal's hair has a growth cycle where it hits a maximum length and then falls out. I suppose the 'dogs that shed seasonally and dogs that don't' makes sense as a real distinction.

39: There isn't. Hair and fur are the same thing.

I suspect it's a shorthand for "would have longer hair than desired if it wasn't clipped" and "tends to shed less."

I guess what I'm wondering is that dog-breed people believe there's a distinction -- while it can't be the 'stops growing' thing, because that's not true, is there some real rule they rely on to sort breeds, or is it an arbitrary listing: everyone knows terriers and poodles have hair, while collies and retrievers have fur?

44 crossed with 43, which is probably right.

Fur is murder, hair isn't.

There's probably also texture differences that might affect the fragility of the hair shaft (and hence how easily it breaks.)

Hair is manslaughter.

I thought it was meat that's murder. That's why I have meatless cats. I bit on the bony side, but worth it for the clear conscience, I think.

I have meatless cats. I bit on the bony side

You tried to eat your cats, togolosh?

It's all murder.

You tried to eat your cats, togolosh?

He was young and naive, and the reference books in the school library omitted vulgar colloquial definitions.

I had to be referred to a dermatologist in order to get a steroid cream.

In recent years OTC 1% hydrocortisone cream has worked fine for me when I've needed something, and it's a whole lot easier than messing around with the prescription stuff. But I've also gotten a lot better at dealing with stress as I've gotten older, so the outbreaks aren't as bad as they once were.

What, without regular grooming the dog would eventually be buried under its own hair?
You don't think so?
(I'm evil for stealing bandwidth.)

53: Yeah, the 1% stuff wasn't working when I went to the dermatologist.

I sometimes worry about all the frozen cat embryos from people who have in vitro kittens but want to keep some extras just in case, but then they never really use the extras.

55: I'm sure you've already done this, but it was very fiddly for me figuring out what worked and what didn't (e.g., creams good, ointments bad).

57: Mostly "not being in a winter climate" seems to be the answer, alas. (Everything improves in the summer sunshine.) Also "manage stress."

When Newt had a little eczema a couple of years ago, the pediatrician told us to use Aquafor (slightly fluffier Vaseline, basically), and now I essentially bathe in the stuff. It feels like you're rubbing Vaseline on yourself, which is gross, but then it disappears and your skin is miraculously not dry for a day. Advice only guaranteed for people with cripplingly dry skin.

"Avoid hospital soap" is also good. That stuff is brutal.

24: That's interesting, read; what kinds of national temperament do you associate with the different atmospheres? (Not that Japan is much like all other semitropical places.)

The problem that I've had of late is that the eczema attacks the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet (creating deep cracks, etc). It's really, really hard to find an effective cream that will sink in there. I feel like it's all trial and error, trying to figure out what will work, and most of the advice I've ever gotten, medical or not, hasn't been applicable.

62: gloves/socks w/ cream at night?

62: You'd think that would work, wouldn't you? If I am under stress, it is super resistant even to that wonderful trick and it takes weeks to heal. Of course, it might also have something to do with the fact that I can't actually sleep with them on so I'm not getting the full benefit of a night, just an hour or two or however long I can stand it.

Fortunately, when I "manage stress" (I hate, hate, hate being told to do that by the docs- I'm in fucking graduate school, the economy is imploding, I will never get a job, how do you think I am supposed to be managing my stress??) the outbreaks clear right up.

I'm in fucking graduate school, the economy is imploding, I will never get a job, how do you think I am supposed to be managing my stress??)

The only thing more stressful than not having a job is having one. Graduate school is an unfortunate mix of the worst of both.

I second 59 and 63. Aquafor at bed time and after every shower. With gloves if you're going to bed.

The only thing more stressful than not having a job is having one.

The version of this I've always heard is the only thing worse than having a job is looking for one.

The version I heard is "The only thing worse than looking for a job is working on while sober."

Graduate school is an unfortunate mix of the worst of both. gets you used to living on the cheap ....

I had a rash-thing which I discussed with my doctor (only because I was already in to see her about the heart block thing and to get an EKG, and she just recommended hydrocortisone cream.)

I don't know whether this would work for eczema, but the best thing by far that I've found for dry cracked skin is a product from footsmart. (Carmol should work too, but it's a lot more expensive and not as good. The urea breaks down the seriosu cracks and fissures.) They also sell the socks which have oil-based gel in them to soften your feet.

It's called Podiatrist's Secret Total Foot Recovery Cream. I like the tea tree oil and shea butter ones better than the original. It works best if your skin is damp when you put it on. It's not great as a day-time moisturizer--at least for your hands, because it feels a bit funny and doesn't absorb quickly. With gloves it could be a useful treatment.

Speaking of unpleasant minor ailments, I read somewhere that they were working on a vaccine for yeast infections. I don't quite get how that would work. I mean, I thought that you were supposed to have some candida yeast in there. It's just that they get overrun when you're out of balance.

topical steroids and plenty of 'em. The tendency toward timid prescribing of hydrocortisone is a fairly significant cause of avoidable misery in the developed world.

Yep. I once went through a whole months-long series of doctor visits, misdiagnoses, and useless treatments while watching my hands gradually come to resemble ground meat. Finally I found a dermatologist who would give me steroid cream, and my skin was almost normal within about two days.

I've been using teh Neutrogena sesame oil on my skin, because it's something that I'll remember to put on and you don't have to wait for it to absorb, btu I think that I need something stronger.

I also think that I need to make my boyfriend buy a humidifier, because I do wind up scratching my skin a lot.

71: Well, the vaccine is for candida (thrush), which is mostly an oral/intestinal problem for babies and immunocompromised adults. If it helps prevent yeast infections, that would be a nice bonus, but not the point of the vaccine.

I hate, hate, hate being told to do that by the docs- I'm in fucking graduate school, the economy is imploding, I will never get a job, how do you think I am supposed to be managing my stress??)

Seriously. I went in for a physical recently. Doc asks about stress levels. Poor doc did not deserve the caustic response she got.

I have a personal belief that outside of people on antibiotics or something special, the yeast infection industry is a big racket. I base this belief on the fact that the goddamn medicine makes me a brazillion times itchier than the original medicine. (And then I went herbo-exploring and have had pleasant success ever since.)

how do you think I am supposed to be managing my stress?

Xanax and red wine.

Cala, are you on the job market this year?

There's not really an easy way to answer that question.

Is this a bad topic?

Xanax and red wine.

Excised from a much longer story: I was once assured that the best way to enjoy moonshine was to "make a shine screwdriver - and I don't mean a weak one - and then getcherself about eight Xanax."

The "I don't mean a weak one" was particularly bothersome since their definition of a "shine screwdriver" was a glass of iced moonshine into which one dumped Tang drink powder.

I was just looking at the ingredients in Aquaphor and wanted to mention that there's a product called unpetroleoum jelly that you can buy if you want to avoid petroleum based products.

Is this a bad topic?

No worse than yeast infections.

80: Yes.

Cetaphil is good, too, but a little expensive* if you have to put it on in bathtub sized amounts.

*I mean, for me. Not for you.

76: I had fun with that. My insurance wouldn't cover the cream that was prescribed and the nurse practitioner didn't want me to take the diflucan pill because of a drug interaction, so my insurance was willing to cover with a prescription an over the counter remedy. It didn't work enough after 7 days. When I called back a regular nurse who supports my doctor asked me why I hadn't taken the fluconazole, I said that apparently there were drug interactions. She didn't see any on the screen, but she talked to my doctor who said that I should just stop taking one of my drugs for a couple of days (Klonopin) or if I needed it, I should cut the dose in half.

(I'm trying very hard not to be a snob about nurse practitioners, but I haven't had great experiences with them.)

84: I think that CVS sells some generic Cetaphil products.

I currently lust after the Williams Sonoma handcream which I've used at a few friends' places. It sinks in quickly and feels silky smooth. It's perfect for right after you wash your hands. I figured that it woudl be a bit pricey, but when I went in the store I was shocked to discover that it was 50 to 100% higher than what I thought that they'd charge. A friend of mine got a Christmas one that was half price, but the smell was overbearing and lasted a while.

75: One thing that helped me in my near decade on the job market was to remind myself that even if I didn't get a job in the business, I was still a philosopher.

After you invest all those years in graduate school, it becomes a part of your identity, and failing to get a job in the industry seems like loosing a part of yourself. But it isn't, really. You still know what you know. You can do what you can do. If philosophy were just about an exclusive clique of scholars producing counter examples for each others generalizations, it would be a dreary lot indeed.

The benefits of reading good books cannot be taken away by hiring committees. A lot of people on this very blog have spent time in philosophy graduate school but are employed elsewhere now. They are still philosophers. You can see it in the quality of their thinking.

A lot of people on this very blog have spent time in philosophy graduate school but are employed elsewhere now. They are still philosophers. You can see it in the quality of their thinking.

You keep thinkin', Butch. It's what you're good at.

rob, I know you're trying to help, and I appreciate that, but it is not a helpful line of thinking for me right now.

Sorry. Forget I said anything.

89: Sounds like you should come to NYC and go out drinking with the local commenters. Or go out drinking with various other people of your choice. The drinking's the important bit here.

Eh.

I laughed at 52.

Hm, I like the suggestions here. I wonder if someone will please, please give me a prescription to Xanax if I present as sufficiently stressed out at the health center? In other words, if I just show up?

And I second the Cetaphil suggestion - once I started using that, my skin changed from resembling something that could be on a purse to supple and soft normal people skin! It was fantastic. Also, steroid cream is God's gift and I don't understand why we can't get higher concentrations over the counter. Alas.

I currently lust after the Williams Sonoma handcream which I've used at a few friends' places. It sinks in quickly and feels silky smooth. It's perfect for right after you wash your hands. I figured that it woudl be a bit pricey, but when I went in the store I was shocked to discover that it was 50 to 100% higher than what I thought that they'd charge.

Funny, my wife and MIL were just today discussing how mice that stuff is. I didn't realize it was so pricey - we've been working 2 bottles of it for years. The pump is crapping out, so I have to just cut the top of the bottle off so AB can get to the stuff.

AB has terminally dry skin; I'll have to see if she knows about Aquaphor.

Tell her to give it a chance -- the natural reaction to it is to look at it and go "Ick. It's Vaseline." But the added fluffiness makes it work really differently somehow. (Also, it's not particularly pricey itself, but it's one of those things where if you look next to it on the shelf there will be a store brand in very similar packaging saying "Compare ingredients to Aquafor". The store brand will be just as good.)

I remember reading about some beauty salon legend in NYC whose skin care regimen was described as Dove soap and Vaseline.

I adore Aquaphor. When I am feeling like splashing out and getting fancier than Aquaphor, I also like Ombra Melkfett. It is much like Aquaphor but also has lovely calendula (marigold) and vitamin E.

Our little one has periodically dry and crackly skin on his legs and rubs his cheeks raw on everything--we do a series: oatmeal bath, olive oil if he's really bad, hydrocortizone cream, cetaphil, aquaphor. Usually helps quite a bit.

Also, steroid cream is God's gift and I don't understand why we can't get higher concentrations over the counter.

I was told years ago to use the good stuff sparingly because it thins your skin, and my hands do ding awfully easily, but I can't swear to a cause and effect relationship.

100: Interesting. I had no idea. I would say that my skin could handle being a bit less thick, so I'm willing to go forward with the risks. Bring on the steroids.

After you invest all those years in graduate school, it becomes a part of your identity, and failing to get a job in the industry seems like loosing a part of yourself.

dry as it can be, intellectual discovery is a form of creative self-expression. When you lose access to a setting and community where you can participate in that form of self-expression, you can speak of that as losing a part of yourself. I don't think that's false. It's just that you have a lot more parts than you think you do.

It can also cause exciting rebound reactions.

The version of this I've always heard is the only thing worse than having a job is looking for one.

I didn't say having a job was worse, just more stressful. Because you actually have to do shit. Until you run out of money, being unemployed at least means you can totally sleep late.

Also, Cala, sorry for 102, there is definitely all kinds of fun stuff on the other side of academe.

When I got a prescription for hydrocortisone years ago for psoriasis I was told about it thinning the skin. It worked, but when I ran out rather than get a new prescription I just got some OTC stuff and it worked just as well.

it thins your skin

you shouldn't use hydrocortisone as hand lotion, or for just normal dryness or whatever, but if you have irritation or cracking, your skin is already beyond thin, and therefore you should use hydrocortisone, in as high concentration as you can get, until the barrier between inside and outside your body (which is what skin is) is re-established at something like its normal strength. This advice comes to me via one of the world's top 5 dermatologists, who I paid decent although not extortionate money to see (because, despite what you read in Reason magazine, such things are possible and exist in Britain).

106: Comity. I didn't mean to suggest you shouldn't use it when you need it, but only to suggest an explanation of why the strong stuff isn't available OTC.

106: Yeah, my understanding is that the skin-thinning isn't a side effect; it's the whole point.

the world's top 5 dermatologists

I can't help but picture the tournament at which this was determined.

I was going to say: with some nubbly rash or dry skin, you sort of want the skin to thin out, i.e., not be inflamed.

109: In this corner, the current chammmmpeeeen!

109: Hopefully the CW will bring us World's Next Top Dermatologist so it won't be left up to the imagination.

111: And in the center ring, an inexplicably oozing patient.

113: That'll dim the "Eye of the Tiger" real quick.

108, 110: But once the inflammation goes away, you want the skin to be as impact and abrasion-resistant as it was before.

109: It's judged by totally objective marketing professionals, just like Who's Who in Underwater Basketweaving.

But once the inflammation goes away, you want the skin to be as impact and abrasion-resistant as it was before.

Right, which is why you stop using the hydrocortisone at that point.

114: That's the veterinary ophthalmology competition.

Should steroid cream result in, like, bulked up skin that's prone to fits of rage?

I had a friend whose skin problem was treated with a mercury compound by the best doctor in town. The mercury got into her system and she has permanent neurological damage. There was no malpractice because it was a standard treatment at the time she got it, though the standard may actually have been changed on her account. Apparently the treatment was low risk for most people, but not her.

^n't

Hey bave have you made snow-crunching music yet?

61, i was explaining how Japanese generally referred as very hygiene conscious people are forced to do so by their hot and humid climate, whereas we also referred as not very-hygiene obsessed people were not perhaps required to do that rigorously all the washing activities coz cold and dry climate inhibits various microorganisms growth and/or just one's skin condition does not require it that much in our climate, minimal sweating for example
for example whenever i go to the countryside my skin becomes very dry and scaly, b/c i wash it too often as if i'm in the city, while the countryside people's skins do not look that dried, b/c they are accustomed that way perhaps, so i was just thinking about environmental influence on people's habits
i wouldn't comment on other subtropical populations b/c i've never been to other such places except Florida for three days, where i spent time mostly sleeping during daytime due to jetlag

No. I should get on that. The recordings are pretty great, though.

114: That's the veterinary ophthalmology competition.

At the emergency vet we took my cat to when he blocked, there were all these posters and news articles posted around the intake window of the other half of the practice. They were like "Eyeglasses for Eagles:A Heartwarming Tale" and "Owl Ophthalmologist Organizes Outpatient Ocular Optimization."

Headline writers at local papers get into it, man.

"whatevs"? the ToS has sunk to a new low.

I also like Ombra Melkfett.

The Germans are sure into their eincremen. Which is why they have such good skin products. This stuff is also amazing.

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