pompholyx

I am diseased. I am afflicted. I am unclean. I have dyshidrotic eczema, a.k.a. pompholyx.

Fluid-filled pustules rise out of my skin like mini-volcanoes fit to erupt. Just like a zit, I can squeeze them between my thumbnail and fore-fingernail and POP! The skin bursts and clear liquid droplets explode outward. After the violent eruption the resultant micro-crater drains salty liquid. It itches sometimes. Individually the vesicles are tiny and inconsequential. When they attack as a battalion it sucks. Envision a population density of 100 vesicles per square inch of skin. Eventually I give in to the irritating tingle and rake my nails across them causing hundreds of eruptions.

I believe I mentioned my dyshidrotic eczema a long while back, but never in detail. The relationship between me and my dyshidrotic eczema is manic, physically and mentally. Sometimes it leaves without so much as a goodbye and sometimes from out of nowhere it hits me backhand pimp style. I love you. I hate you. Go away. More. I’ll cut you off.

Overall, I find myself lucky. The eczema’s home is on my right pinky and sometimes it camps out on the web between pinky and ring finger. It is confined to a relatively unobvious and negligible body part. Even at their worst, the vesicles are only visible at distances nearer than six inches. People who get that close to me generally get whacked upside the head for invading my personal space, so they never really get a chance to be morbidly amused by my affliction. If people were to take the time to stare and concentrate they may note that my pinky looks dry and cracked, but that’s about it.

Lately, I’ve been loving on my puss-bubbles. Those little guys have kept me amused for hours on end. Worthless work meetings, crappy movies, boring conversations, and waiting in line can all be spiced up with a little pompholyx juice. Pick, pick, pick. Pop, pop, pop. I can zone out on my pinky and focus solely on rupturing each and every baby zit. It is fascinating. I can pop one then come back to it several minutes later and pop it again. Sweet. The entertainment value alone is worth the tingly itchy feeling.

I am so lucky to have a mild case of dyshidrotic eczema. I know, I know. You’re all like, “Oh, Shenry, please pass the puss virus over here!” If I could I would, but I can’t. No bacteria or virus, it’s coded in my DNA. If it were at all possible, I would swab my frothy vesicles with q-tips and send one to every friend. With each q-tip a note:

Don’t stick this in your ear or you’ll get itchy liquid bumps in your ear and that would suck. Don’t stick this in your mouth or you’ll get the equivalent of tongue acne. For obvious reasons, don’t stick this in your eye. And, please don’t stick this on you genitalia or you may get confused between the eczema and your STD. Speaking of STDs, if you would like herpes let me know and I’ll send you a different q-tip.
...and so it was written, shenry at 10/06/2003 02:14:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .