My skin is so sore I can’t even hug my husband – sleeping in the same bed is a big no, I’m stunned he’s standing by me?
A mother of four has found her skin condition is so bad she can’t have sex with her husband.
Nerys Phillips, 51, from Harray in the Orkney Islands, had flakes falling off her arms after using topical steroid cream to treat her painful eczema for 20 years.
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She quit steroids in March of this year after years of suffering from “red sleeve syndrome,” which made it impossible for her to snuggle with her husband or sleep in the same bed.
Nerys claimed her skin was so sore that her relationship with Darren Philips was “thrown out the window.”
The condition caused a rash all over her body that she could compare to being immersed in a “cauldron of boiling water” – and her skin flaked so badly that she carried a mini vacuum cleaner with her.
The former account manager said her family had relied on takeout for years due to her inability to hold a knife steady.
She said: “My relationship with my husband has been completely blown out of the window as I’m pretty gross. Last year he thought I was going to die because he didn’t know what was wrong with me.”
“It’s been better since we found out it was topical steroid withdrawal but I haven’t had a relationship with him since January. We don’t share a bed because we can’t. We can’t hold hands or hug, it would really hurt.
“We’re not allowed to have physical contact. I’m lucky that my husband is a good man and is by my side, but it really pushed my limits.”
The 51-year-old reveals that stressful situations like seeing her 75-year-old mother Glenys cause her skin to become severely inflamed – leading her to joke that it’s like she’s “allergic” to her own mother.
Even contact with everyday objects such as car keys or tomatoes can be a trigger.
Nerys can’t even use her iPhone’s Face ID or fingerprint Touch ID as the condition has drastically changed her appearance, wiping all skin from her fingertips
She added: “Some days I wake up all swollen, red and blotchy. But it’s not about that, it’s about how I feel. it’s the pain
“I was prescribed painkillers and antihistamines. Nothing touches it, I get no relief.
“I think it’s the stress that has made me so psyched around my mom. When you put yourself in a stressful situation you actually get a big fat attack, I just had to laugh about it.
“I can manage at home, but not on the road.
“Looking back, I could have treated it with natural remedies like sea salt baths.
“I’ve found that natural things like coconut oil and cod liver oil are really good too.
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