3rd time

well I now have EC for a third time. Managed to be completely cured twice, last occassion I was completely healed was over two years ago, and have been EC free over all of that time.

I know how I got it this time, accidently bit part of my lip or more specifically the gums just below the vermillion border... which created an ulcer and the process began (I think one of the previous times I ate jalepeno's which also caused an ulcer that started the process). The ulcer caused my lips to dry, and skin came away from the vermillion border. It peeled once the skin below felt itchy and dry and peeled again. So far its peeled 3 times, and now onto the 4th set of skin

The peels take about 1 week to 10 days, very thick and crusty. When the crusts fall off, its still sometime a bit wet underneath (similar to my beginning experiences on the prior occassions). Towards the end of the peels last time, I think peels became increasingly thinner and thinner.

Wake up in the morning, and often there is whitish gunk on my lips where some of the lip has disolved into a pastey liquid while I sleep.

Trying not to move my lips, smile, sneeze which further rips the lips. Esp when new skin, very easy to create a rip in the centre of the lip. Difficult to talk at the beginning of a peeling cycle. After a few days, the lip starts to feel dry, slightly furry (you can really feel the difference between the areas north and south of the vermillion border). Opening and closing the mouth, near the vermillion the lips seem to stick together more.

Doing everything I can to keep the new skin / wound dry... I've become somewhat of an expert at doing this over time... and the process involves

- making sure everything you eat doesn't touch lips
- drinking in a certain way, so water doesn't touch (I do this by drinking onto my tongue and keeping a gap between my tongue and lips (the problem is always mainly on my lower lip)
- brushing the teeth in a certain way that the toothpaste stays away from my lips, including rinsing (this is the hardest - as quite often brushing can completely stuff them up
- and avoiding sweet food / drink as much as possible... the main reason being that the Sugar remains in the saliva and which eventually ends up on your lips... lips then become sticky and germy... not good.

gone back to moisturising with organic coconut oil. I am encouraging the lips to peel, but trying not to pick, or mess about with the new skin. Main purpose of the coconut oil is to help remove the dead skin, which tends to stick to the new skin underneath which just makes the whole crusting compound over and over itself... so once you eventually remove it (or accidently knock it off) you risk ending up back at square one by removing all the fresh skin... Its a fine balance, as you don't want to remove the skin prematurely or excessively rip it...

Not sure on the direction on removing the skin. I think from the front of the lip to the back is my preferred method

Last time around I also encouraged gradually the skin to be removed with my top lip (avoiding picking)

Other stuff is:
- toothpaste is organic, non flurogated
- soap and shampoo natural, but still using hand soap @ conveniences
- before I got this I was eating a lot of sugar, esp sweets and drinking soft drinks (for about 6 months, from having hardly any sugar)
- otherwise diet is mainly organic, mainly wholefoods, but not exclusively (was becoming increasingly mainstream)
- increasingly began drinking alcohol (approx 2-3 per week) from about 1 month beforehand, increased significantly in the 2 weeks prior
- lots of job related stress
- stopped exercising (bike riding) about 3 months ago
- no obvious sebbhorreric dermatitis at the time (I also get this periodically)

Anyway a bit of a bummer to be back here again... the stuff about roaccutane is interesting (I was on max dose for 12 months about 15 years ago). Sorry about being overly descriptive, this is partly here for my own reference so that I can figure out how to reduce the healing time and avoid onset. Tweet