Scratching is Okay...arm & nails

I think it's amazing how much sleep can heal the body.

For the first time in months that seemed like forever, I am getting more than 2 hours of sleep at at a time!!  And when I wake up, I can really see a difference in my skin.  The swelling goes down, bumps are hardly there, and skin is smooth and repaired from previous scratching!!  Hurray!

My skin is stronger and thicker, which means I don't break the skin (too much) when I scratch lightly.

Me and my skin are having a pretty good relationship right now.

At this stage of a flare-up ending, I think scratching is okay as long as it doesn't break the new forming skin.  I find that when I scratch lightly, I exfoliate a lot of the dead skin that has piled on my skin.  After a good, light scratch, my skin irritates me no more...it is not itchy, has more movement, feels lighter, feels like it can breath, and mentally the stress in my mind is relieved.

Arm is still red but it is smoother and skin is not too broken anymore!  It's impossible to see in the picture and also because I moisturized, but above the redness, there are many small dead skin flakes.  You can also tell that I cut my nails REALLY short.  A friend who works at a nail salon said I shouldn't do that, because it damages the nails...but I don't care!!  I've tried coping with itchy skin when my nails are grown out (still short, but not extremely short like right now) and it just doesn't work for me.  Every morning I'd wake up bloody and in pain because of how much I unconsciously scratched myself...even through coton gloves...so I chose to keep my nails very, very, damagingly short.  The pro of this is even if I have a scratch fest...I don't do much damage.  The con of this is that I have gotten nail bed infections...they are painful!

Positive thought of the day:  I've been saving a lot of money since I don't go out to eat, don't go out for drinks, haven't gone shopping, don't buy gas for car, and don't buy beauty products like make-up & hair-stuff.  I think this means I am qualified to go on a shopping-spree once this is over!!