George

Age at interview: 17

Brief Outline:

(Text only clips) George has had eczema since he was a child. He and his parents hoped it would clear up as he got older but this has not been the case. George’s eczema impacts on him physically, making his skin cracked and sore, and makes him feel very self-conscious.

Background:

George is 17 years old. His ethnic background is White British.

More about me...

George has had eczema since he was 3 years old. Eczema was quite a big part of his childhood as it was very painful and would often wake him up at night. His parents thought he would only have eczema as a child and that he would eventually grow out of it. However, when it became clear that this was not happening at age 12/13 and his eczema was affecting more parts of his body, he and his parents went to see a GP. George had not felt able to be more vocal before this point about how much eczema was affecting him. He says that having eczema can “get you down over a long period of time”. George was referred to a dermatologist but ended up waiting around 6 months for the appointment. He currently uses a shop-bought moisturiser, prescribed steroid cream and shower gel replacement called Oilatum. He likes the shower gel replacement because it helps his skin but doesn’t have the same downsides as the moisturiser which can feel very unhygienic on clothes and rubs off when he’s moving about. Stress, hot weather and wearing tight clothing/shoes for a long period of time can all make George’s eczema worse. He finds that anything which makes him sweat tends to dry out his skin and he currently takes tablets to treat hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) which helps with this.

George’s eczema causes him physically and emotionally difficult to live with. He remembers having severe eczema on his hands when he was 14, making it extremely painful to write at school. Sitting still for a long time, especially in a hot classroom, can make it particularly difficult to concentrate because his skin gets so itchy and sore. He then finds that trying to ignore his eczema can become a distraction. George hasn’t talked to his teachers about eczema and he wouldn’t take in his creams because he doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact he has a skin condition. He doesn’t like it when other people notice his eczema. He worries that other people may use information about “faults” to embarrass him. George finds that his male friends especially make a lot of jokes and he does not want this to happen about his eczema. Although George understands a bit more about eczema now that he’s older, he thinks that teenagers are often judgements and so he worries about what his peers might think. George plans to go to university next year and hopes that the other students there will be more mature and understanding. He would like to study medicine, partly because having a long term health condition like eczema has allowed him to meet a lot of doctors and learn about their jobs.

George encourages other young people to do their own research about eczema but also be wary that sources may contradict each other. He thinks it’s always a good idea to go and see a doctor; he adds that if you have had a bad experience with one doctor, you can ask to see another one. His advice to doctors is to take into account how long the person has had eczema and to talk about long-term treatment/management, including emotional support because his eczema has been “more damaging emotionally than physically”.

George prefers to focus on ways to manage his eczema.

Is there anything that you’ve not been able to find out about eczema from either your doctors or looking online?

I haven’t been greatly- I haven’t looked into it, into other causes of it but I guess I would like to know what’s caused it in me but I’d rather concentrate on getting rid of it or dealing with it rather than just knowing where it came from cos I know it’s probably not going to go away. 

George also has a condition called hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) which he says is hormonal and upsets his eczema.

And I mentioned how in hot weather when you sweat it makes it, makes it worse for me cos it dries your skin up. And there’s a pill. I can’t remember which stops you sweating. I don’t know, can’t remember the name of it and that was quite helpful.

Where did you find out about that tablet?

My dermatologist told me about it.

Ok and do you know what it’s for, what generally it’s used for?

I think it is something to do with hormones, used to treat hyperhidrosis which is excessive sweating which I think I have that but they are linked, the eczema and the hyperhidrosis.

Ok. Is that a link that your GP knew about or is it something that you?

It’s something I kind of deduced myself but the-, yeah, my GP and the dermatologist both agreed with me.

George feels he has become more confident with ‘maturity’. This helped him tell his doctor how much eczema was affecting him and he was referred to a dermatologist.

So my family GP who I’ve-, I trust quite a lot. She’s known I’ve had eczema for a long time but I’m not really sure why she hasn’t referred me to a consultant dermatologist so a specialist because I think she didn’t realise how bad it was until I was more vocal about it which was when I could. Cos when I was young I didn’t really know how to explain it so my mum had to do it but so yeah, now when I can talk about it and how much it hurts she understood how bad it was and sent me to someone who knew what they were doing.

George struggled without his emollients on a school trip.

When it was bad last year for my GCSEs I would put it on pretty much every other day on my shoulders and my legs and arms but now cos I’ve just started the holidays for after my second set of exams it hasn’t been a problem recently. So I’d probably put it on maybe once every two weeks. And I went to Switzerland recently for a school trip and it was close to the, it was nearly the low 40s so it was really, really hot and it got quite bad so I had to- but I didn’t have any cream with me because I didn’t have it cos you’re not allowed to take more than 100mls so that was, that was really nasty and I couldn’t do anything there but I was only there for 3 days.

George’s sleep used to be very disrupted and this would make him “grumpy”.

In the last few years it hasn’t affected my sleep as badly so from 13 and 14 onwards because I’m not sure why, it just this hasn’t affected my sleep. I sleep better. When I was younger I used to wake me up all the time and it would be really painful cos I would have, I would have been asleep I would have probably moved around a lot as a young child cos they, I guess they often do. And that can kind of upset the eczema more but you don’t realise how painful it is cos you’re not awake. Then you wake up and it’s really painful. So I remember that a lot and that’s really not nice.

George feels he has become more confident with ‘maturity’. This helped him tell his doctor how much eczema was affecting him and he was referred to a dermatologist.

So my family GP who I trust quite a lot. She, she’s known I’ve had eczema for a long time but I’m not really sure why she hasn’t referred me to a consultant dermatologist so a specialist because I think she didn’t realise how bad it was until I was more vocal about it which was when I could-. Cos when I was young I didn’t really know how to explain it so my mum had to do it but so yeah, now when I can talk about it and how much it hurts she understood how bad it was and sent me to someone who knew what they were doing.

George feels uncomfortable when his peers and friends ask about his eczema.

Well it happens quite a lot so I’m just used to it cos I know people, [sigh] like my well not my friends do as well. They point out say, “What’s that on your arm?” I’ll say, “Oh, it’s just eczema.” So I’m ok with explaining what it is but I just don’t like the fact they notice cos it, either it shows. I guess they care because they’re my friends but I was wondering how bad it would be for them to have to notice or point it out. And I kind of overanalyse the situation. Cos I’m just that kind of person and then it, just, yeah, it is quite upsetting sometimes but not to the point of I wouldn’t go out or see, not see them cos I know they’re not trying to offend me. It’s just, they’re just being curious which is fair enough.

I’ve noticed with lots of my male friends that they often-, they’re less sensitive. So they would take the mick out of something, other people, something else. And I would, I just don’t wanna be at the end of their joke like that. But I’m sure they’d respect, respect me but sometimes I just think they wouldn’t and I just don’t want that at all.

George is looking forward to university as he hopes his peers will be more understanding.

If I go to university I know, obviously people will be older and they’re going to be adults. So I’d imagine they’d be more respectful or I’d think in my head that they wouldn’t be as judgemental as teenagers. So and I think it’d be a generally less stressful place even though doing a degree obviously isn’t, is quite stressful but I’d be doing a subject I want to f-, and I’d be somewhere away from home which I want to go to. So I think I will be happier generally and that would override any negative aspects of the eczema cos I’ll just-. Yeah, it will be, obviously it’s quite exciting going to university.

George is interested in studying medicine at university.

Having eczema has, having a condition has also it’s kind of inspired me to do medicine because, because of having eczema I’ve seen a lot of doctors and I like what they do and I like them as people. And it would be nice to maybe because if I, if I did a medical degree I’d learn about eczema in more detail and that would be quite interesting. So that’s just a small aspect of why I’d want to do medicine. 

George has some advice for other young people with eczema.

I’d say do your own research but don’t-. Be objective don’t, don’t trust any particular source. And then in terms of what causes it, what you can deal with it and if you find something that would really help like a cream – if you prefer creams or if you don’t like creams there’s, I think there’s other treatments that I am not aware of – but once you’ve done that, just see a doctor and that’s the best thing that you can do. Even if you’ve had bad experiences with them, maybe see a different doctor or ask for, to see a different GP because that’s the best way to deal with it. For me.

George has come across mixed information about hyperhidrosis (a sweating condition which aggravates his eczema).

Have you ever looked online for information about skin conditions?

Yeah, I have but I usually get bogged down information and stuff often contradicts itself, information. But I’d rather speak to a doctor than do my own research.

Could you maybe give me an example of when you found contradictory things online?

So I think I looked up ‘hyperhidrosis’ on Wikipedia and you get loads of information and then there were certain causes for it. And then I looked at, I think it was the NHS Choices website. And it said something different about what causes it. And there’s other treatments that weren’t listed and-, other one, and then another place said this treatment doesn’t work. I remember that. So I just didn’t know where to go.

And how does that compare to you when you speak to your doctors?

Well, they said that a certain website was right. I think it was, I’m sure it would have been the NHS website because that’s what it’s designed to do but I just felt more, I just trusted my doctor more because obviously they know what they are talking about. So I felt more confident.