This is my story of a metal allergy and how I found out that it was one of the most common allergies .
It all began seven years ago when I started a new job in the corporate world. And if you have ever worked in the accounting department, you would understand that when it comes to month end, getting all those figures entered into the system can be extremely stressful. That is when my body started feeling itchy, sporadic rashes started to appear on my stomach, arms and shin areas.
It started off with small red patches and grew bigger in size. The more I scratched, the more it seemed to spread. I couldn’t help it as it was extremely itchy as well as bumpy. Boy, was it itchy and irritating. I even started having sleepless nights from all the itching, not to mention I was already struggling to sleep at night. When my body felt warm or hot, the rashes would become irritated. It was so bad that I was scratching my skin almost half hour round the clock always saying to myself that it will go away. But to no avail. At that point, it didn’t phase me to go see a skin specialist. I guess in my mind I kept thinking that the rashes would go away. Don’t ask me why. It never did go away. I even added a ton of moisturizing lotion to the parts of my rashes. Smearing on the lotion to give my skin a smoothing effect. But nada did it help. Sometimes it relieve the itch but not for very long.
I started doing a bit of research online that if you applied a very small amount of bleach to water may lessen the symptoms of the itching and redness. So that is exactly what I did. I added a tablespoon of bleach to two cups of water. I then took a cotton ball and applied the solution to my itchy skin. I would make a fresh cup of diluted beach water each morning and night. This is when I would apply the solution onto to my itchy skin. It was a relieve for a couple of minutes. But that wasn’t enough for me to stop the eczema from itching.
Eczema lotion over the counter didn’t even worked. Still, I didn’t not know why I never made an appointment to see a skin specialist. Probably because I started a new job and didn’t want to ask for time off. I do not really know the answer.
Months went by with frustration and itchiness.Then I started a new job. Not as stressful like the previous job, so I thought my eczema will just disappear. NO it did not!
Eventually I made an appointment with a dermatologist and was given steroid lotion. She did mention that I could have a metal allergy. A skin allergy will appear on one side of your your body parts. For example; if you get a rash on your arm, it will only spread around your arm area and not to your legs or stomach or other parts of your body. If you have a rash on different parts of your body, it means that this could be a metal allergy. And that is what she though I had. She then proceeded to say, that the only way to find out would be to do a metal allergy test. So I went ahead and did that. She then handed me a few sheet of paper that discussed what food effects nickel and what products.
I had three appointments.
1. Monday: I had the patches applied to my back. They are kept on for 48 hours and cannot get wet. I asked if I could take a shower and they said no. I should rather wipe my body down if need be. The patch on my back needed to stay dry plus no sweating. During the time the patches were on, I felt a burning sensation and saw two of the squares turn red but one of then had mild swelling. One redder than the other. This was itchy.
2. Wednesday: I went to the dermatologist to get the patches removed. The assistant marked around the active dermatitis with a suitable surgical marker and then began to read the reactions.
3. Friday: I went back to the dermatologist to get a second reading done. She then discussed my results. I was then told that I had a Nickel Allergy. She mentioned that this is very common to have and nothing one can do to get rid of it once you are diagnosed with a Nickel allergy. It is basically for life. UGH. News that I didn’t want to hear.