heavenlyhealing: I get them wet when I shower like once or twice a day, and when I go to the bathroom I'll put them in the skin for about 10 - 15 seconds or so...just periodically...nothing extreme... Yes the scabs will shrink when they dry but that is normal, just be gentle with them and make sure the water doesn't push them off.

pdesmondb: sorry to hear that :( I would recommend drinking through a straw. You could be causing some sort of pressure on your lip by gripping the cup that could cause the skin to peel prematurely...if the skin peels and it is raw underneath or red then it is too early.

I might also add that I personally think it was important to not let them get wet at all for a duration of time because it caused my body to produce this liquid underneath which I think is very important for the body to produce. When I started my trial last year getting them wet WHEN I started they never produced that liquid, however now getting them wet AFTER leaving them dry for so long they are producing the liquid as needed...so I think it's important for the body to go through the dry stage as well.

healing2021: I wrote about it indepth on my site, which I'm guessing you read since you used the word trauma, but yes I'll def try to explain it a bit more. Whether people want to believe it or not the lips do have their own lubrication oil/liquid that is created deep in the lower layers of the lips..when you use a product like chapstick you cause the body to temporarily stop producing this liquid...do it for years and eventually the body won't produce it at all...thus causing constant dryness...after a long time of this it will really take a toll on the lips and cause them to start flaking...you peel the flakes off, more will fill up trying to heal what was there, however since there isn't any of that protective liquid being produced they won't be able to heal properly or stay on...and since you're only giving it lubrication on the top layer instead of the lower layers, you are just covering up the problem...

As for WHY it takes so long to heal, I think I've figured it out for SOME people like me with EC...

When I first had EC, my lips were already bigger than most peoples, but I had not realized over the years just how large they actually had become since EC started. Another person on here pointed it out to me and it really struck a note with me about why it takes just so horribly long to heal. For me my lips have to go down drastically in size and to this takes a horribly long time. The cells have to figure out where they need to be, they can't just shrink to their original size in one cell cycle, it takes several compelete cycles before that happens (which a cell cycle is a little over a month) the sides of my lips have had the least trauma and thus the least amount of swelling, so they will heal the quickets and take less cell cycles to reduce to their normal size. Is has taken about 3.5 months and now I am seeing mainly flaking on the sides of my lips mainly on the top. The center has taken a bigger beating since it started first and also gets "tossed around" a lot more as well causing further trauma when you eat, etc...so it's gonna take a few more cycles to unswell.

I am planning on putting this in my blog in a section called "healing timeline" or something because it's all starting to make a lot more sense to me...and to help people see where they are on the road to healing IF they have the same EC that I have. If you have ec due to a dietary condition you'll have to get that resolved before healing can start, but either way you will still have to do my approach before you will be fully healed.