I don't recall if I asked, but would you go with somebody who had an outbreak of eczema?

[Deja Q]

Be honest.

[NC_Nurse]

1. It's not contagious, so yes.

My daughter has it. She has had plenty of boyfriends who lived through her outbreaks. Didn't seem to
bother them.

[bigwillq]

2. Yes

I use to get it when I was a kid but no longer.

[Lyric]

3. You wanted honesty

So of course I chose yes. I don't have eczema--however, I *do* have rather severe psoriasis. Of the five kinds, I have or have had three--plaque, guttate, and inverse. Fortunately I am in the midst of a rather extended remission at the moment, so my skin is mostly clear. But just a year and a half ago, I had the worst flareup EVER. Psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder--basically, your immune system screws up and goes into overdrive, attacking your own body cells as well as any foreign pathogens. In my case, I had a simple case of strep throat. I was negligent and I didn't completely finish my antibiotic course for it--and three weeks later, I was literally COVERED from scalp to toes in a guttate psorasis outbreak. I was working at a grocery store at the time, and if I didn't wear long-sleeved shirts, customers would ask me if "whatever you have is contagious". It was so humiliating. That's not even counting the places that people couldn't see, where the skin was itchy, raw, and oozing plasma.

With some help from some pretty strong steroid creams and a fresh course of erythromycin to clear out any remaining strep in my body, my flareup finally died down. But to this day, I will never be able to forget to shame and embarrassment of being covered in a horrible-looking rash.

I would never hold something like that against someone. I'm thankful every day that I had my beloved partner to help me through it, who loved me no matter what my skin looked like.