Elimination Diet-Phase 1 Complete

Day 23 of the Elimination Diet.

Day 15 of taking Itracornazole 200mg.

I’ll start re-introducing dairy products tomorrow. Yay!

I’m not feeling fatigued anymore, eating plenty of fruit, salad, brown rice & some meat. Also guilty of eating ham :S it has been my one allowed item for some days.

Also, haven’t had breathing allergies for over a week (last time it was because of a cat – I love cats, that’s not fair).

Hands are almost clear. Sole of my left foot has baby skin. Sides of both my feet are covered in tiny blisters, but they don’t seem to itch as much as when I have it on the soles of my feet and hands.

Moving to freezing cold weather in a couple of weeks, hopefully that will help a bit?

My feet are really dirty at the moment from walking on my flip-flops all day, so I’ll post some tomorrow.

R.

Day 21 – Elimination Diet

Day 13 of taking Itracornazole 200mg.

I’ve had noticeable improvement in the sole and in between toes of my left foot. Yay! I know it still looks bad, but if you pay close attention there are no blisters with liquid in the last 2 pictures. The skin is super thin in the last picture, but at least there are no blisters.

The sides of both feet is a different story, they have worsened in the last week. I never thought my DE and stress could be related, but I received some very bad news last week, I am very anxious and I think it might have triggered a new flare up.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

2 more days of the elimination diet – first product I’ll re-introduce is eggs! or dairy… I have to admit I don’t really miss gluten, or sugar (I eat fruit when I want something sweet and I’m ok with it).

Next Monday I’ll get the results of the mycotic tests, and on Thursday I have an appointment with my dermatologist. I’ll keep taking Itracornazole till then.

R.

 

Scratch & Pop

Day 15 of the Elimination Diet.

Day 7 of Itracornazole 200mg.

I’m not sure what my body is doing, last night a large patch of blisters appeared on the sides of both my feet. I couldn’t  sleep, scratched until I popped some and felt a lot of liquid oozing out. Eventually I fell asleep.

My hands have blisters on the base of both my index fingers, I can feel them, but they’re not too visible.

My face has cleared up, there are no bumps on my face! (I’ve had bumps for a couple of months).

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

R.

Small new patch

Day 14 of the Elimination Diet – I no longer crave cheese, or bread. Strange, huh?

Day 6 of Itracornazole 200mg (something doesn’t add up in my calendar, I think I took 2 pills in one day -accidentally- at some point).

I take back what I said yesterday. A few hours after I posted, a patch of tiny blisters appeared on my right index finger, another patch on my right pinky and itch on my left index finger.

I also have some new red spots on my face.

Not sure what triggered it, my hands were so beautiful and soft yesterday. The only thing I did different yesterday was have 100% grapefruit juice (about 1 liter throughout the day).

My feet where itching a bit last night, but I managed not to scratch fiercely.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

To fewer blisters,

R.

It’s working?

Day 13 of the Elimination Diet

Day 5 of taking Itracornazole 200mg + Micosep B (on feet)/Clobetasole Propionato (on hands).

Hands, 95% clear. No itch, no swelling, no pain. They were already starting to heal before taking Itracornazole, but I feel the healing was accelerated and there are no signs of an upcoming flare up.

Left foot still looks terrible, itching has come down but I still get a few attacks a day where I just want to scratch it with a cheese grater, swell has come down. Still painful.

Right foot, I had a flare up the day I started taking Itracornazole. So now it’s in the scaling phase.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Food wise: I feel like an eating machine (I munch all day long), still low on energy. Planning on starting some home yoga today, see if it helps.

Seeing a small light at the end of the DE tunnel 🙂
R.

Maybe this will work?

Day 9 of the Elimination Diet.

So, this morning I went to my old dermatologist and I mentioned to her that I suspected that last time Itracornazole had played a role in making the DE go away.

Incredibly enough, she agreed!

She prescribed:

• Panastat 200 (Itracornazole 200mg) once a day for 15 days
• An anti mycotic, anti inflammatory cream for my feet
• Clobetasol propionate for my hands

I’m very hesitant on the topical steroids (both creams have it) and I mentioned it to the dermatologist, she explained that very little actually gets absorbed as the skin on palms of hands and feet is very thick. That I should never apply it on more sensitive areas like the face and that taking oral cortisone made no sense to treat DE.

I’ll be seeing her again in 2 or 3 weeks before I leave Argentina, hopefully there will be some improvement in that time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Still keeping the everything-free diet, 14 days to go. First thing I’ll incorporate after that? Eggs! (or maybe that’s just what I’m craving right now and I’ll change my mind later on).

Stay positive!
R.

Days 7 & 8- Elimination Diet

I’ve only been doing this diet just over a week? It feels like ages!

The upside is that I eat all day long and haven’t put on an ounce nor feel bloated. I’m also barely training and not surfing, which I miss, but I’m not sure I’d have energy to do.

The downside: I can only eat at home because I need to make sure that what I eat is gluten, dairy and egg free. I still feel low on energy.

My hands seem to be better, they don’t itch as much. My left foot it still itching and hurting a lot (still doing baking soda rubs and ice packs), and my right foot had a small flare up 2 nights ago. Haven’t been taking fexofenadine for the last few days either.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with another dermatologist, I want to get a second opinion to alternative treatments other than topical steroids.

Have an itch free night,
R.

Day 6 – Elimination Diet

I can sum up today with:

• Lots of work & low energy.
• Had ham on my rice crackers, that tasted soooo good!
• Got distracted with work and burnt the lentils I was supposed to have for lunch (“carbonized them” might be a better term), ended up eating salad.
• Plenty of fruit (grapes and plums) and rice crackers (maybe they’re not good but I’m hungry all the time).
• Mycotic exam. Doctor made a face when he saw my left foot (currently have it resting on an ice pack after I scratched it mercilessly)
• Watched “Trainwreck” while eating meat and salad. Again (the meat & salad I mean, I hadn’t watched Trainwreck before). Salad was yummy, I love avo. I love lamp.

  

Bring on day #7!
R.

Day 5 – Elimination Diet

Doing the elimination diet while I’m at home is easy, the issue is when I go out for breakfast (something my partner and I do regularly). Lately, I’ve just decided to eat before or after, and just ordering plain tea. Boooring!

Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to get my mycotic exams done, hopefully that’ll bring some light into the whole DE thing and how to make it go away.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking as to how my first outburst stopped: Right at the time I started my first DE treatment with Clobetasol propionate I also had a fungus on my left toenail, so I asked my dermatologist for something to make it go away. She prescribed Itracornazole 100mg and gave me a really high dose (2 pills in the morning & 2 pills at night for one week, a 4 week period of rest and then repeat).

I looked up what Itracornazole 100mg was and this is what I found:

Itraconazole is one of the most broad spectrum antifungals available and includes activity in Aspergillus, Blastomyces Candida(all species including many fluconazole resistant isolates) Coccidioides, Cryptoccocus, Histoplasma, Paracoccidioides, Scedosporium apiospermum and Sporothrix schenkii. It is also active against all skin fungi. It is not active against Mucorales or Fusarium and a few other rare fungi. It is the best agent against black moulds, including Bipolaris, Exserohilum etc. Resistance to itraconazole is described in Candida, although less often than with fluconazole and also in Aspergillus.

If dyshidrosis.co.uk‘s theory that Candida is one of the causes of DE, then I might be onto something.

I wonder if my dermatologist will be willing to prescribe Itracornazole or Nystatin to test if there is a link and if it helps with my DE.

Have an itch & pain free day!

R.

 

 

Days 3 & 4 – Elimination Diet

Honestly, today I feel like I will need to get my left foot amputated: Swollen, painful, itchy, cracking, oozing (it feels a lot worse than in the picture).

Right foot is ok, there are blisters and sores but at least it doesn’t itch much and it doesn’t hurt.

My hands hurt because they are so dry and cracking, I’ve been putting on a natural cream with Vitamin A and Aloe Vera (unscented, recommended for psoriasis), but the skin’s still cracking.

Painful, swollen, itchy, oozing liquid, basically: disgusting.

I’m going back to Capoeira training tomorrow (took 3 weeks off due to travels for Christmas, New Years and Holidays) and if I can barely walk, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to be jumping around. On the other hand, I can’t let DE take over my life completely, it already fucks up so many things.

Still going steady with the elimination diet, on the evening of day 3 my partner cooked some chicken with salad and yesterday I had lentils for the first time in I can’t remember how many years. I made plenty so I could have leftover lentils for today’s lunch.

Lunch: Yummy Argentine Steak with Lentil, tomato, roquette & onion salad

Afternoon Snack: Blueberries & Banana

 

The diet is definitely doing something…I now poop different. That’s as much a difference as I’ve seen so far. Oh, and I feel tired all the time and got a sore throat in mid summer (I haven’t gotten sick – other than DE – in years!).

I’ve only completed day 4 of No Gluten, No Dairy, No Fast Food, No Alcohol, No Eggs, No Soy (although it feels forever because I’ve been gluten free for a month), let’s see what results the next 19 days bring!

Crossing my fingers for an itch-free weekend,
R.

Interested in the Elimination Diet? Check out the basics here