"My eczema was so bad I'd get blisters filled with puss, then my skin would split open."

I’ve had eczema for about 20 years now – it’s the worst on my hands and my job doesn’t help either. I’m a dental assistant, which means I’m constantly washing my hands. I don’t know if it was the gloves that irritated them or what it is, but my hands are often red and raw.

In the past my eczema would get so bad that I would get little blisters would fill with puss, then my skin on my fingers and hand would literally split open. It looked like I cut myself.

When I first started my career I had problems immediately. I tried to come up with different ways to keep it under control, but it was really difficult. The eczema would come and go – over the last couple of years however, it’s become worse.

There have been times where I was in so much pain, I would have to wear gloves to protect my hand from just water. It was agony. I was often in tears when I had to wash my hair or my daughters’.

Around one third of Australians suffer from eczema at some point in their lives. For me personally it’s been so tough because there isn’t a simple cure. I went to so many doctors and tried cream after cream.

The only thing that seemed to work was hydrocortisone cream, but I could only use it for five days and was supposed to have a break for a few days in between. During those days when I wasn’t using it my hand would be painful again.

I find that my skin also reacts whenever I use something different or get something different on my hands. A few weeks ago, I ran out of shampoo and was washing my daughter’s hair with an alternative and it ruined my hands immediately.

I was at my wit’s end and always felt like I was chasing my tail. I didn’t know what to do, and that’s when I posted on Facebook to see if any of my friends had any suggestions on how to keep my eczema under control without the cortisone cream.

I was determined not to let this rule my life and I was willing to try anything. I tried a lot of things that didn’t work but one of my friends recommended an Australian natural product MooGoo Eczema and Psoriasis Cream, which is anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and wound healing.

My approach was to rub it in after every single time I washed my hands – easily 100 times a day because of my work as a dental assistant. It took a few weeks before I noticed an improvement, and now the eczema has all cleared up. I’ve been using it for just over two years and it works for me, it’s keeping my hands really good.

It hasn’t cured the eczema, because there is no cure as far as I know, but it keeps my flare ups under control.

Do you have eczema? What helps you to manage it? Tell us in the comments section below.