Researching
February 22, 2010 – 8:40 amI’m writing my last paper of the semester! It’s due 3/1, so this next week I’ll be busy with it. It’s not a particularly involved paper – pretty straightforward, actually – but I’m writing it about a topic that hits home for me: eczema. Pathogenesis, current treatment, and then a proposal for an appropriate nutritional protocol. This is sortof difficult for me to think about; So much of what I have personally done nutritionally over the years has been with the goal of improving my eczema. But despite it all, I still deal with eczema. I still haven’t rooted it out. Some of the research I’ve been doing, particularly about the genetic basis of eczema, makes me feel a bit better about not having been able to cure it. But on the other hand it’s frustrating – I should be able to fix this. So writing this paper is an exercise in humility, in acknowledging my own limitations. I’m able to say what I know about what works, what helps at least in part. And some things work for some people but not others. I’m still working on the problem. Hopefully some day I’ll figure out how to eliminate my eczema completely. This paper is a review, or maybe an overview, of everything I know about how to help people with eczema. While holding in tension the fact that my left hand is itching inexorably, and behind my right ear is a bed of inflammation.
sigh. I’m healthier than I used to be.