I have a rash on my face. It has been on my face in various stages of discomfort for over a month. As far as I am concerned that’s a long time. I’ve sought relief via various creams and natural substances like coconut oil, apple cider vineagar with the “mother,” my own homemade concoction, ice, and antibiotics, a medical option I avoid as much as possible. Nothing gives more than temporary, VERY temporary, relief.
Though the doctor diagnosed it as Perioral Dermititis, it still is a mystery condition. How did I get it? How do I get rid of it? What is it REALLY?
Because nothing was really working and certain creams, according to the ariticles I read on the internet, make the condition worse, I decided to use nothing. I decided not to touch the tickly flaps of skin hanging from my upper lip, but to allow them to shed natural, just let it run their course. By the next morning, the skin flaps turned into course, pebble-like scabs. All around my mouth feels like dried paste. I can hardly open my mouth.
I didn’t start to pick it again until yesterday when I put just enough cream on my upper lip to eat a sandwich. The cream almost dissolved the pebble-like bits of skin and turned into the previous whisker-like skin flaps. By evening, my “whiskers” were gone. All that remained was a light pink rash around my mouth. By evening, after applying cream, the light pink rash was a throbbing, itchy, swollen red rash. I was so miserable, I almost asked Jerry to take me to the ER.
This morning, an even thicker “scab” has formed. It is tight, mildly itchy, and quite uncomfortable, but I’m leaving it be. I have learned my lesson.
What is the lesson?
If you pick a scab, it will bleed and prolong healing. That’s why your mother told you not pick your scab when you were a kid. But you picked it anyway. Listen to mother when she tells you not to pick the scab. Let the scab protect the trauma. Give it time to heal.
Even as grownups, we pick the scabs. We try to rush the healing process when we take things into our own hands (fingers) when God is our ultimate healer. He heals the wounded.
Unfortunately, I decided to pull my entry from the Mrs. America beauty competition this season.
A Book is Born 