Revisiting an(other) old friend
This disease is awful. But there's one thing that, for me at least, is the worst part of all.
Yes, it sucks that it attacks the genitals. It sucks that it causes the impact that it does. It sucks that it takes perhaps the most ridiculously long amount of time to heal out of any disease known to man. And it sucks that affects yours self-esteem and sense of attractiveness and sexiness the way it does.
But most importantly, I think, it sucks that nobody seems to actually understand it. Western medicine certainly doesn't, or at least, that knowledge is not common if they do. Natural remedies have some effect, for sure, but they work incredibly slowly. This is not uncommon for natural remedies, but because there's little to no understanding of it in western medicine, there's not really an 'industrial strength' healer. I came to the conclusion that clobetasol was only sightly more effective than the natural treatments I had been using, so have stopped using it. But this isn't a case of "western=bad, natural=good" either. There's plenty of snake oil out there among the natural theories too. Perhaps it's remedies that work for some but not others, however, some just make you go "WTF??"
This lack of understanding of BXO has come to light for me over the last couple of weeks as I've had perhaps the first case of what I'd consider to be a setback in many months. I had been itchy on my BXO skin for a while when I was sick with a cold, and have written it off as being related. I started treating it with moisturiser with only minimal improvement. I then tried Clobetasol, no change there. Tried Creme Complete, no change either. I even gave Miconazole a shot, in case it was some sort of fungal infection - no change. Looking back now, I suspect it was caused by me eating far too much sugar, as I started to get hives on my fingers where I had been holding my mobile phone in its rubber case as well. I've had that case for years, and never had an issue with my skin. Yet all of a sudden, I develop an itch on my penis at the same time as my hands develop irritant contact dermatitis? Clearly, it was something internal causing something weird with my skin all over. I had been eating a lot of sugar, and some dairy. I stopped both and removed my phone from its case, and not only have my hives healed but my skin overall feels much more supple.
But I tried something else too... Hydrogen Peroxide. I haven't used it for months, yet I tried it out of desperation hoping it might soothe the itch. It worked very well, and within hours of being covered in it under my foreskin, I was seeing very thin layers peeling off. I've been applying it several times a day, and each time I do I notice peeling afterward. Hydrogen Peroxide is something I used to regard as a more 'attacking' treatment, but that was because of the peeling it created. It actually seems now that it's healing, and that healing mechanism is what encourages the dead skin to peel off. It also appears that Hydrogen Peroxide works very well on the thin BXO layers. In the early stages, the layers are very thick. Hydrogen Peroxide did a good job at getting that peeling started, but because it took a long time to shed a single layer, also created the impression that progress had slowed. I think, with thinner layers all over now, there's always something peeling, so you notice it more.
Like I say, it just annoys me that we have to figure all this stuff out by ourselves. There's no 'definitive guide to BXO' website or textbook. Nobody who understands it seems to have shared everything they know in a manner that is logical and makes sense and actually works. I just know that, going through that setback really really sucked and was horrible. I wish I didn't have to go through it, and that I didn't have to use trial and error to get my already compromised genitals back on the painfully slow path to recovery.
Yes, it sucks that it attacks the genitals. It sucks that it causes the impact that it does. It sucks that it takes perhaps the most ridiculously long amount of time to heal out of any disease known to man. And it sucks that affects yours self-esteem and sense of attractiveness and sexiness the way it does.
But most importantly, I think, it sucks that nobody seems to actually understand it. Western medicine certainly doesn't, or at least, that knowledge is not common if they do. Natural remedies have some effect, for sure, but they work incredibly slowly. This is not uncommon for natural remedies, but because there's little to no understanding of it in western medicine, there's not really an 'industrial strength' healer. I came to the conclusion that clobetasol was only sightly more effective than the natural treatments I had been using, so have stopped using it. But this isn't a case of "western=bad, natural=good" either. There's plenty of snake oil out there among the natural theories too. Perhaps it's remedies that work for some but not others, however, some just make you go "WTF??"
This lack of understanding of BXO has come to light for me over the last couple of weeks as I've had perhaps the first case of what I'd consider to be a setback in many months. I had been itchy on my BXO skin for a while when I was sick with a cold, and have written it off as being related. I started treating it with moisturiser with only minimal improvement. I then tried Clobetasol, no change there. Tried Creme Complete, no change either. I even gave Miconazole a shot, in case it was some sort of fungal infection - no change. Looking back now, I suspect it was caused by me eating far too much sugar, as I started to get hives on my fingers where I had been holding my mobile phone in its rubber case as well. I've had that case for years, and never had an issue with my skin. Yet all of a sudden, I develop an itch on my penis at the same time as my hands develop irritant contact dermatitis? Clearly, it was something internal causing something weird with my skin all over. I had been eating a lot of sugar, and some dairy. I stopped both and removed my phone from its case, and not only have my hives healed but my skin overall feels much more supple.
But I tried something else too... Hydrogen Peroxide. I haven't used it for months, yet I tried it out of desperation hoping it might soothe the itch. It worked very well, and within hours of being covered in it under my foreskin, I was seeing very thin layers peeling off. I've been applying it several times a day, and each time I do I notice peeling afterward. Hydrogen Peroxide is something I used to regard as a more 'attacking' treatment, but that was because of the peeling it created. It actually seems now that it's healing, and that healing mechanism is what encourages the dead skin to peel off. It also appears that Hydrogen Peroxide works very well on the thin BXO layers. In the early stages, the layers are very thick. Hydrogen Peroxide did a good job at getting that peeling started, but because it took a long time to shed a single layer, also created the impression that progress had slowed. I think, with thinner layers all over now, there's always something peeling, so you notice it more.
Like I say, it just annoys me that we have to figure all this stuff out by ourselves. There's no 'definitive guide to BXO' website or textbook. Nobody who understands it seems to have shared everything they know in a manner that is logical and makes sense and actually works. I just know that, going through that setback really really sucked and was horrible. I wish I didn't have to go through it, and that I didn't have to use trial and error to get my already compromised genitals back on the painfully slow path to recovery.
Comments
Post a Comment