Contact Dermatitis

I will spare you the rather gruesome photo of it. Two weeks ago I switched to another antiperspirant. It is one I have used in the past but within a few minutes of putting it on I had an extremely violent skin reaction to it. Though I immediately cleaned it off the damage had been done. Both underarms turned scarlet and began blistering. It looked like a burn. After that began daily cycles of scalding and then peeling. I tried all of the over-the-counter treatments recommended to no avail. Today I went to my dermatologist for it. He took one look at it and said "Wow!" so I knew it was pretty bad. He gave me steroid pills and the strongest steroid cream they make. One treatment so far and the color has already faded quite a bit. Now it is itching like mad but I think this is just the skin beginning to heal. It is peculiar how strongly my immune system attacked in response to the deodorant. I am just relieved that the new treatment is beginning to clear this up. I did not relish starting a new year of teaching with this.