My Personal Cellulitis Battle and Tips for Taking Care of Your Skin

 Friday night, after spending 36 hours in agony, I finally broke down and went to the ER. My right leg had swollen like a balloon, and had a sore that oozed yellow puss. I tried many things to get the swelling down on my own, but alas, no luck. When I finally got in to the hospital room, they determined I had an infection called Cellulitis. I've been dealing with eczema for almost two years now, and have many sores, primarily on my legs. Apparently one of the sores got infected, causing the swelling and oozing. After a dose of painkillers and an anti-biotic prescription, they discharged me. The pain has greatly reduced, along with the swelling. Infections such as this can be dangerous without treatment. Upon reflection I'm a little surprised this hasn't happened before, due to the eczema sores. I have done everything under the sun to eliminate this skin issue, however, I think my immune system is just on overload with cancer, anemia, hormone imbalance, etc. However, there are many things that can be done to prevent these issues, and I know that as the rest of my body heals, my skin will as well.

Our skin is the largest organ in our body. It also is an important outlet for detoxing toxins from our system. Here are some tips on keeping your skin healthy, and dealing with skin issues.

Skin Care Tips

1. Use Natural Skin Care Products. Throw out the hard soaps, the body washes filled with chemicals, and stick with natural products. Burt's Bee's makes a great body wash. I personal love Zum soaps, made locally here in Kansas City. When showering, it is not necessary to soap our entire body each day. My dermatologist told me that by washing our entire epidermis daily, we are removing protective layers, drying out our skin. The only areas that need to be thoroughly washed daily are under the arms, bottoms of the feet and our privates. Otherwise, I wouldn't do a full body wash more than once a week. The rest of the body gets clean during the shower process without the aid of soaps. 
2. Throw Out Your Lotion. Instead of using lotions, many of which are actually drying and contain chemicals, I put coconut oil on my body after getting out of the shower. It's a great moisturizer and extremely healthy. 
3. Dry Skin Brushing. Our skin is constantly shedding itself. Dead cells can build up on our skin, causing it to dry out, lose it's shine and block toxins from properly exiting the body. Use a skin brush daily before your shower will remove these dead cells, keeping your skin clean and fresh and healthy. Check out this article for more information: Dry Skin Brushing For Whole Body Health.
4. Use a Moisturizing Skin Mask Weekly. Meghan from the blog Making Love in the Kitchen has a great recipe for a skin mask that will revitalize your skin. Check it out here.
5. Tea Tree Oil. If you do have skin eruptions, tea tree oil kills bacteria and is a great tool. I would also suggest after cleaning the skin with the tea tree oil, using zinc oxide to heal the wound. 
6. Proper Diet and Exercise. What we put in our body is often reflected in our skin. Highly processed, sugary foods will certainly make your skin break out. Drinking green smoothies will help you in many ways, including keeping your skin fresh looking. Exercise is also important for moving toxins from the body, many which are released through the skin.