Michael’s Story – Living With Eczema

My name is Michael O Sullivan, I am 11 years old. I have had eczema since I was born. As a baby it did not bother me all that much as I was unaware of it as much as I am today. These last few years have been really difficult for me dealing with eczema. It gets really inflamed and sore and is very itchy at night which disturbs my sleep. I have been bullied, called names such as “diseased” leaving me feeling sad and upset.

I have been in hospital with it on more than one occasion. My eczema is all over my body, my legs and arms are the worse areas effected by it. I have a daily routine of baths, cream and sometimes bandages. All this gets really annoying for me and I wish my eczema would just go away. I get very sad and hate that I have it and it just keeps coming back.

During the summer, I used to wear long sleeved tops and long pants to just cover up my eczema and to hide it from everyone so that they would not be looking at me and calling me names.

“During the summer, I used to wear long sleeved tops and long pants to just cover up my eczema”
My mam and dad told me to choose friends who understood what I was going through and who didn’t mock me for my skin condition, those people would be my real friends and would never mock me or make me feel bad for what I was going through.

Today I feel strong and don’t take much notice of all the people who say nasty things about me. I have a great family who do so much for me and my mam always puts on my creams and makes sure my skin is taken care of. Living with eczema is very hard for me sometime but I am hoping that in time it will go and I will no longer have to have all these creams put on me everyday.

I think people should be more aware of what people with eczema go through every day, this would make it a lot less stressful and we would not feel bad about ourselves with the nasty things that other people say.

The end

Thank you

Michael O Sullivan