‘My face swelled up and I lost vision for days due to traumatic skin condition'
A woman says she was left hospitalised and unable to see due to her debilitating skin condition.
Beatrice Gaucahas suffered from eczema since she was born, often causing rashes to appear between her joints. By the age of 20, the skin condition had spread to her face, which eventually lead to her suffering the "worst flare-up" of her life, leaving her in hospital.
The now 22-year-old began sharing her skin journey on TikTok (@beatrice_gauca ) gaining over 41,200 followers.
"At my worst flare-up, my face swelled up, crust started forming around my eyes and I lost my vision for two days as my eye was sealed shut," the children’s gymnastics instructor, from Ireland, said. "I had no skin left on my face because it had peeled off and I felt a strong burning sensation. It was one of the most painful and traumatic experiences of my life."
Beatrice's flare-up continued to worsen causing her to go to hospital where she remained for two weeks. Doctors performed approximately five biopsies to try and find out what was wrong with her. She say's doctors pinned her symptoms down to an eczema flare up.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
She has documented her story online (Jam Press Vid/Beatrice Gaucahas)She said: "I was very emotional through this time, I thought I would never have my skin on my face back to normal ever again. I thought I would be scarred for life. I felt like I had no one to turn to for comfort or support. Most of my family were abroad visiting my grandfather as he was severely ill at the time, which had me more down as I wasn’t able to see him since I was also in hospital myself.
"Of course I spoke to my family every day on the phone and they helped me a lot in regards to staying strong and having faith that I will recover, but virtual support and comfort is very different to an interaction in person."
Since being in hospital, Beatrice has made a full recovery and has learnt to accept her skin condition. She now follows a strict diet to lessen the effects of the disease and doesn't let her flare-ups affect her mentally. She said: "Before I learned to accept my skin condition, eczema had taken a large toll on my mental health and social life.
"I stopped going out to see friends, even stopped going anywhere when I had the slightest flare-up as I was so embarrassed at the time and didn’t want anyone seeing what I was going through. But, I am doing much better now, mentally and physically.
She was left hospitalised (Jam Press/Beatrice Gaucahas)"I have made a big change in regards to diet and now my diet consists of healthy greens, fruits and vegetables, fish oil and drinking a small shot glass of collagen liquid every day. I have completely cut out wheat, gluten and dairy from my diet and since the change in routine have not suffered from a flare-up since."
The gymnastics instructor is now on a mission to raise awareness on eczema and help others who are suffering. Sharing her skin journey on TikTok, she has garnered over 2.4 million views and 256,000 likes. Captioned "My skin will never recover from this, I'm going to be scarred for life", Beatrice shares a collection of clips of herself during her flare-up and afterwards.
Beatrice added: "I have come to accept my condition and no longer see it as a flaw but as a reason to get out there and help others that are suffering with the same condition as me.
"It is important for me to share my story to show others going through the same situation that they are not alone and that it does get better and you will heal your skin. My main motive is to spread awareness about eczema to everyone around the world."
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