Latest / Skinquiries / Living with the Relentless Itch of Eczema

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Living with the Relentless Itch of Eczema · Skinquiries

0:07
Speaker 1: When my skin gets itchy, I'll start to scratch it.
0:10
Speaker 1: And it's kind of like a never ending cycle of
0:13
Speaker 1: my skin itches. I'm going to scratch it.
0:15
Speaker 2: Now it's bleeding, but it still stays itchy. So I
0:17
Speaker 2: got to scratch it some more.
0:18
Speaker 1: And it gets to the point where like, if I
0:20
Speaker 1: have eczema on my elbows and behind my knees and
0:23
Speaker 1: on my neck, it's hard to turn those body parts
0:26
Speaker 1: to move those body parts when it's cracked and bleeding.
0:28
Speaker 2: And that's why I'd be limping after games.
0:30
Speaker 1: It's like, I just can't even move my skin in
0:33
Speaker 1: certain directions without it hurting.
0:35
Speaker 3: I want you to try something. Don't think about itching.
0:40
Speaker 3: Don't think about it. Don't think about that last mosquito
0:42
Speaker 3: bite you couldn't leave alone. And definitely don't fixate on
0:47
Speaker 3: the tag on the back of your shirt rubbing against
0:50
Speaker 3: your neck. How did that go? Well, I imagine not
0:54
Speaker 3: so well. I mean, I don't have a mosquito bite currently,
0:58
Speaker 3: and the shirt I'm wearing does not have a tag
1:00
Speaker 3: on it, and yet somehow I've still managed to make
1:03
Speaker 3: myself feel just a little bit itchy right now.
1:06
Speaker 2: Because that's the thing about an itch.
1:08
Speaker 3: It is remarkably good at making itself the most important
1:13
Speaker 3: thing in the room. For people living with eczema, that
1:16
Speaker 3: negotiation can happen over and over again, all day and
1:20
Speaker 3: deeper into the night. So how do you keep living
1:23
Speaker 3: your life when your skin keeps pulling you away from it? Hello, everyone,
1:29
Speaker 3: and welcome or welcome back to Skin Queries. This is
1:33
Speaker 3: a show about skin, but we all know this, it's
1:36
Speaker 3: a show about people. Because skin health doesn't exist in
1:39
Speaker 3: a vacuum, it shapes everything. It shapes how we're seen,
1:43
Speaker 3: how we see ourselves, and our experiences of confidence, identity, community,
1:49
Speaker 3: and care. I'm your host, Dylan Marron. Today, we're looking
1:59
Speaker 3: at what can happen when an itch becomes impossible to ignore.
2:04
Speaker 3: My guest is Jeremy Paredes, a filmmaker and athlete who
2:08
Speaker 3: has lived with eczema since he was a baby. Now,
2:11
Speaker 3: for years, Jeremy tried to push past the itching so
2:14
Speaker 3: that he could keep his attention where he wanted it,
2:16
Speaker 3: on school, his friends, and most of all, soccer. But
2:21
Speaker 3: an itch doesn't always end when you scratch it. Sometimes
2:24
Speaker 3: scratching only pulls you into a cycle, and that leaves
2:28
Speaker 3: your skin cracked, bleeding, and vulnerable to infection. As Jeremy
2:33
Speaker 3: would discover at just 17 years old, scratching and itch
2:36
Speaker 3: can escalate into something far more dangerous and can even
2:40
Speaker 3: become a matter of life and death. But long before
2:44
Speaker 3: Jeremy understood how serious his eczema could become, He was
2:48
Speaker 3: a kid beginning to notice that his skin looked a
2:50
Speaker 3: little different from everyone else's. And unfortunately, he wasn't the
2:55
Speaker 3: only one to pick up on that.
2:58
Speaker 1: Growing up, especially in elementary school, I started to realize, uh,
3:02
Speaker 1: my skin doesn't really look like normal, like other people's skin. Like,
3:06
Speaker 1: it's red, it's cracked, it's dry, it'll bleed. And as
3:10
Speaker 1: I was going through elementary school, a lot of these kids,
3:12
Speaker 1: they don't really filter what they say. And so they'd
3:14
Speaker 1: be like, ew, what is that on your skin? Like,
3:16
Speaker 1: why is it so cracked? Like, are you contagious? Like,
3:19
Speaker 1: is that skin cancer? And as a five to 10
3:22
Speaker 1: year old kid, I didn't have the mental strength of
3:24
Speaker 1: blocking all of that out.
3:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:26
Speaker 1: So I kind of let it get to me. I
3:27
Speaker 1: was like, oh man, like I'm not normal. I'm not,
3:29
Speaker 1: I don't look like everybody else. And that kind of stung,
3:32
Speaker 1: it hit me and it hurt. And so living in
3:34
Speaker 1: Georgia with 90 degree summers and humidity, I would wear
3:38
Speaker 1: long sleeves, long pants, cover all my skin up. Basically
3:42
Speaker 1: think of like little Jeremy in long sleeves, long pants
3:46
Speaker 1: like it's wintertime, but it's just burning outside just because
3:49
Speaker 1: I was so ashamed of showing my skin.
3:51
Speaker 3: Yeah. I will say kids are almost like genius level
3:56
Speaker 3: at finding your insecurity and like honing in on that
4:01
Speaker 3: and really making you feel really bad for it. I
4:04
Speaker 3: know the feeling well. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
4:07
Speaker 3: As I understand, though, There was another big part of
4:11
Speaker 3: your life ever since childhood, and that was sports. Is
4:15
Speaker 3: that right?
4:16
Speaker 1: Yes.
4:16
Speaker 2: Okay. Absolutely.
4:17
Speaker 3: Tell me about that and tell me about how it
4:19
Speaker 3: played into your life, your sense of self, everything.
4:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
4:24
Speaker 1: I am a competitive person. I grew up playing all
4:27
Speaker 1: types of sports. Soccer and basketball were my two biggest loves.
4:31
Speaker 1: And I played that growing up when I was in
4:34
Speaker 1: San Francisco. When my family moved to China, I would
4:36
Speaker 1: play in the International League. And then when I got
4:39
Speaker 1: back to the States and Georgia, I would play rec
4:41
Speaker 1: and then eventually club and travel soccer and basketball. So
4:45
Speaker 1: that's where I met a lot of people. That's where
4:47
Speaker 1: even with my eczema, I still got to play. I
4:50
Speaker 1: still got to feel like a regular kid. And I
4:52
Speaker 1: made a lot of friends and people who will be
4:54
Speaker 1: in my life forever through sports.
4:57
Speaker 3: That's amazing. And obviously, that's going to affect you playing sports,
5:01
Speaker 3: that you're playing sports outside. How did the eczema affect
5:07
Speaker 3: your sports? career, even as a kid?
5:10
Speaker 1: Eczema was always there. It was always on the top
5:13
Speaker 1: of my mind. When playing soccer, you're either on a
5:17
Speaker 1: turf or a grass ground. And lucky for me, I'm
5:21
Speaker 1: allergic to both. So the little plastic artificial turds in
5:26
Speaker 1: the turf, my skin does not do well with. And
5:28
Speaker 1: with grass, I'm allergic to pollen, trees, grass, animals. So
5:33
Speaker 1: either way, whether I play it on either surface, it
5:36
Speaker 1: was not great for my skin. Every time I'd play,
5:39
Speaker 1: I'd be sweating. My skin would be red. I would
5:41
Speaker 1: be constantly itching at halftime after the game. During the game,
5:44
Speaker 1: you could see me scratching. And that was not a
5:47
Speaker 1: fun feeling to have, especially after games coming off the field.
5:51
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'd be limping. Sometimes I would just be like
5:53
Speaker 1: all red and my mom would look at me like
5:55
Speaker 1: super concerned. But I pushed through anyways because I love
6:00
Speaker 1: soccer so much. And just explain that you're limping from
6:03
Speaker 1: the eczema. So when my skin gets itchy... I'll start
6:07
Speaker 1: to scratch it. And it's kind of like a never
6:09
Speaker 1: ending cycle of my skin itches. I'm going to scratch it.
6:12
Speaker 1: Now it's bleeding, but it still stays itchy. So I
6:15
Speaker 1: got to scratch it some more. And it gets to
6:16
Speaker 1: the point where like, if I have eczema on my
6:19
Speaker 1: elbows and behind my knees and on my neck, it's
6:22
Speaker 1: hard to turn those body parts to move those body
6:24
Speaker 1: parts when it's cracked and bleeding. And that's why I'd
6:27
Speaker 1: be limping after games. It's like, I just can't even
6:30
Speaker 1: move my skin in certain directions without it hurting.
6:32
Speaker 3: God, I mean, when did you realize your eczema became
6:36
Speaker 3: so severe that you had to kind of change your lifestyle?
6:39
Speaker 1: I would say when my eczema was the worst was
6:42
Speaker 1: in high school. So around 15 to 17 years old,
6:45
Speaker 1: we had a tournament, a showcase, soccer showcase. This was
6:49
Speaker 1: the winter of 2019 at the best place in the world,
6:52
Speaker 1: Disney World. And you would think that's joy and happy,
6:57
Speaker 1: but going into the tournament, my eczema was really flared up.
7:00
Speaker 2: It was all over my body. There was nowhere for
7:02
Speaker 2: it to hide. It was everywhere. And it was painful.
7:05
Speaker 2: It hurt.
7:06
Speaker 1: And I did not want to stop playing. I knew
7:10
Speaker 1: no matter what, I was going to do my best
7:12
Speaker 1: to play. And during one of the games in this showcase,
7:16
Speaker 1: I was scratching so much at halftime. I was scratching
7:18
Speaker 1: so much during the game. I asked my coach to
7:21
Speaker 1: sub me off. And I am devastated now. Not because
7:27
Speaker 1: I'm not playing because I'm not good enough. I know
7:30
Speaker 1: I'm good enough. I wasn't playing because it was my
7:33
Speaker 1: skin that I couldn't control. It was my eczema that
7:36
Speaker 1: took over my life. And I remember sitting on the bench,
7:39
Speaker 1: like almost in tears because of just not being able
7:42
Speaker 1: to play, do what I love.
7:44
Speaker 3: Was there a way that you found that you could
7:47
Speaker 3: still be involved in the team without actually playing soccer?
7:51
Speaker 1: In middle school, my club soccer team would travel to
7:54
Speaker 1: different states in the Southeast. go into different tournaments and showcases.
7:58
Speaker 1: And back then I had like this little eye touch
8:00
Speaker 1: that I would film vlogs on and like edit it
8:04
Speaker 1: on my eye touch and posted and showed my you're
8:07
Speaker 1: talking about an ipod touch right like this is like
8:10
Speaker 1: they don't.
8:10
Speaker 2: The kids don't know the kids don't know about that.
8:12
Speaker 3: No the kids don't know i remember i treated my
8:15
Speaker 3: ipod touch like it was a phone and this is
8:18
Speaker 3: before i 100 oh god you couldn't touch me i
8:21
Speaker 3: was obsessed always searching for the wi-fi yes oh you
8:25
Speaker 3: know it well okay so take me back you you
8:28
Speaker 3: have this ipod touch and you're using it to like
8:30
Speaker 3: basically hone you know like figure out your filmmaking skills Yeah.
8:34
Speaker 1: Just bring it to tournaments, film all the off-field activities
8:37
Speaker 1: we would do, whether it was going to a sandwich
8:39
Speaker 1: shop or hanging out in the lobby of the hotel,
8:42
Speaker 1: just filming the little moments and stories that were happening.
8:46
Speaker 1: And my team loved it, and I loved capturing those memories.
8:49
Speaker 1: So from that, I went into high school my freshman year,
8:53
Speaker 1: joined the video program at the high school, picked up
8:56
Speaker 1: the school camera, and went to my first high school
8:58
Speaker 1: football game and filmed it on the old school camera,
9:01
Speaker 1: made a video. It wasn't a great video, but It
9:04
Speaker 1: was the first time someone really did that at my
9:05
Speaker 1: high school. And so a lot of people were like, oh,
9:08
Speaker 1: this is awesome. Like you should keep doing this. And
9:10
Speaker 1: I thought it was great being someone who loves sports,
9:12
Speaker 1: was playing sports to be around sports and doing something
9:15
Speaker 1: else that I love too. It's combining my passions of
9:18
Speaker 1: filmmaking and sports.
9:19
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
9:20
Speaker 1: Yeah. Some of my good friends were also in the
9:22
Speaker 1: video program with me. And even while I was playing
9:26
Speaker 1: back in my sophomore, freshman year of high school, they
9:29
Speaker 1: would come and take photos and film games for us.
9:32
Speaker 1: So even if I couldn't play in the soccer games,
9:35
Speaker 1: my friends would go to the games, film, and then
9:38
Speaker 1: give me the footage and I would help them edit
9:40
Speaker 1: together little hype videos and highlights.
9:42
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
9:43
Speaker 1: And so I still got to be involved with soccer
9:46
Speaker 1: and still getting to create content. Yeah.
9:48
Speaker 2: But just maybe not in the way I thought it
9:51
Speaker 2: was originally going to go.
9:55
Speaker 3: It's wild what some teenagers have to go through.
9:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
10:00
Speaker 3: Are big adult problems to lose this big thing, and
10:03
Speaker 3: you're a really young person. As much as you're comfortable
10:08
Speaker 3: going into detail here, I'm curious to really dig into
10:12
Speaker 3: how losing soccer, even though you're editing video for them,
10:16
Speaker 3: making hype videos, how did losing soccer like affect your
10:21
Speaker 3: mental health?
10:22
Speaker 1: Yeah. Soccer was something that I played ever since I
10:25
Speaker 1: could remember. Ever since I started walking, I feel like
10:28
Speaker 1: I kicked a soccer ball and something that I always
10:30
Speaker 1: relied on as something where I could hang out with friends.
10:34
Speaker 1: I could release some energy, like something that took my
10:37
Speaker 1: mind off of everything I ever worried about. Not having
10:40
Speaker 1: an outlet like that was hard. It was tough. And
10:43
Speaker 1: it wasn't just soccer. It was not being able to
10:46
Speaker 1: play soccer, not being able to go to school, not
10:48
Speaker 1: even being able to walk without limping and hurting. It
10:51
Speaker 1: was all of these things that made me realize that
10:54
Speaker 1: my eczema was so debilitating to where I didn't have
10:56
Speaker 1: a normal life.
10:57
Speaker 2: I felt held back by it. Yeah, of course.
11:01
Speaker 3: Now, you just referred to the fact that you were
11:04
Speaker 3: staying home from school. You weren't even going to school.
11:06
Speaker 3: The eczema got so bad that you were taken out
11:09
Speaker 3: of school?
11:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. So my mom and I decided that If I
11:13
Speaker 1: couldn't even walk between my classes, between my periods, there
11:16
Speaker 1: wasn't really a point for me to put myself through
11:20
Speaker 1: all the trouble of not just physically not being able
11:23
Speaker 1: to move, but mentally and emotionally, I feel drained just
11:27
Speaker 1: trying to live a normal life when I literally couldn't.
11:30
Speaker 1: I literally couldn't go between classes. I couldn't focus in
11:33
Speaker 1: class because I was scratching and itching and making a
11:35
Speaker 1: mess of my dead skin cells everywhere.
11:38
Speaker 2: So as we like to call that snowing in the
11:40
Speaker 2: eczema community, but- Love that. But it's embarrassing.
11:44
Speaker 1: You don't want to be sitting in class and you
11:46
Speaker 1: just have flakes everywhere on your clothes, on your desk.
11:50
Speaker 1: It's just like something that you don't want to be
11:52
Speaker 1: shown publicly. And so after going through weeks of my
11:57
Speaker 1: eczema getting worse and worse and realizing that I can't
12:00
Speaker 1: even function at school, we decided to let me rest
12:04
Speaker 1: at home, stay on the couch and just try to
12:07
Speaker 1: figure out ways to manage my itch. Like if I'm itching,
12:11
Speaker 1: like go get an ice pack. or stay very on
12:14
Speaker 1: top of lotioning, or do something with your hands, or
12:17
Speaker 1: put gloves or socks on your hands, like just any
12:19
Speaker 1: way to stop the itch.
12:20
Speaker 3: Which is so hard because when you're focused on stopping
12:24
Speaker 3: the itch, you are thinking about the itch. 100%. It's
12:28
Speaker 3: a mind game for sure. Now, what does your day-to-day
12:33
Speaker 3: look like in this time when you're home?
12:36
Speaker 1: When I'm home, isolated, without going to school, without playing soccer,
12:40
Speaker 1: It's a lot of my mom and I doing research.
12:43
Speaker 1: We're going to doctor's appointments and dermatologists talking to different experts,
12:47
Speaker 1: seeing what options do we have, what's something new that
12:50
Speaker 1: we could try that could help my skin. But for
12:52
Speaker 1: a lot of it, it was hard to even focus
12:54
Speaker 1: on schoolwork at home.
12:55
Speaker 2: I'd be so itchy.
12:56
Speaker 1: I'd just be laying there, skin hurting, cracked, and just
12:59
Speaker 1: trying to get through the day. And honestly, I actually,
13:02
Speaker 1: now that you mention it, I do remember what I
13:05
Speaker 1: did during the day.
13:05
Speaker 2: I slept. Totally.
13:07
Speaker 1: Because I would sleep during the day because I was
13:10
Speaker 1: so scared of nighttime.
13:11
Speaker 3: Yeah.
13:12
Speaker 1: I was so scared to get into my bed knowing
13:15
Speaker 1: that I would have endless cycles of itching. I'd be
13:18
Speaker 1: bleeding all over my sheets. I wouldn't get a wink
13:20
Speaker 1: of sleep. I remember always being scared of nighttime of
13:23
Speaker 1: going to bed because mentally my mind was just terrified
13:27
Speaker 1: of the idea of going to bed and just scratching
13:30
Speaker 1: my skin raw.
13:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. There's that like witching hour that comes in the
13:35
Speaker 3: night too, where it's like you're alone. All the thoughts
13:38
Speaker 3: start coming.
13:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.
13:39
Speaker 2: It was inevitable. It was inevitable to escape.
13:43
Speaker 1: So January of 2020, it got to the point where
13:47
Speaker 1: my mom started to realize I was losing a little
13:49
Speaker 1: color in my skin. I wasn't moving around as much.
13:52
Speaker 1: Emotionally and mentally, I was drained. It was hard to
13:55
Speaker 1: wake up with a smile, with positivity, thinking that something
13:58
Speaker 1: good was going to come out of this And on
14:01
Speaker 1: February 13th of 2020, my mom looked at me and
14:04
Speaker 1: she was like, can you even move? Like, how do
14:06
Speaker 1: you feel? Do you feel like you're even alive? And
14:10
Speaker 1: I shook my head no. I was like, I don't
14:12
Speaker 1: feel like myself at all. I don't feel great. I
14:14
Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm even living at this point. And
14:18
Speaker 1: so my mom took me to my pediatrician and she
14:20
Speaker 1: took my vitals.
14:21
Speaker 2: They were extremely low.
14:23
Speaker 1: And she decided the best thing to do was send
14:26
Speaker 1: me to the ER. Hmm. And so I took the
14:29
Speaker 1: ambulance ride to the ER, which I have never done before.
14:32
Speaker 2: So I had my mom take a few pictures of it.
14:34
Speaker 2: I thought it was kind of cool.
14:35
Speaker 3: No, no, no. Come on, of course.
14:36
Speaker 2: Being in the back of the ambulance, you got to
14:38
Speaker 2: get your photo shoot.
14:39
Speaker 3: I mean, you got to turn it into something.
14:41
Speaker 2: Got to turn it into something.
14:42
Speaker 3: It's a memory now.
14:43
Speaker 2: Oh, 100%. It's type two fun. I get to the
14:48
Speaker 2: hospital via ambulance.
14:50
Speaker 1: I'm immediately rushed to the trauma room and they are
14:54
Speaker 1: pumping medicine into me.
14:55
Speaker 2: They put a needle through my neck.
14:58
Speaker 1: Pump medicine down to my heart and are basically just
15:01
Speaker 1: trying to keep me alive. That's when my family and
15:04
Speaker 1: I are told that I'm in septic shock.
15:06
Speaker 3: Whoa.
15:07
Speaker 1: And the septic shock was caused due to infection getting
15:11
Speaker 1: into my blood.
15:12
Speaker 3: From the eczema.
15:13
Speaker 2: Because of my eczema.
15:14
Speaker 1: Because I had so many open cracks in my skin,
15:18
Speaker 1: infection got through my skin, into my blood and put.
15:21
Speaker 2: Me in sepsis.
15:22
Speaker 3: Oh my God. How old are you at this time?
15:24
Speaker 2: 17. Oh my.
15:27
Speaker 3: That's insane. How's your mom reacting?
15:31
Speaker 2: Oh, it's sad.
15:34
Speaker 1: I mean, my mom was with me in the ambulance.
15:37
Speaker 1: My dad and brother met me at the hospital and
15:41
Speaker 1: it was commotion. I mean, there were nurses and doctors
15:44
Speaker 1: and my family, everyone in the trauma room trying to
15:46
Speaker 1: figure out what was happening. It was a lot to
15:50
Speaker 1: see my family cry because of my condition, because of me.
15:54
Speaker 2: I felt so guilty. Yeah.
15:57
Speaker 1: Putting that on them, putting this responsibility on them. Ever
15:59
Speaker 1: since I was bedridden at home in January, I feel
16:02
Speaker 1: like my mom was just 24-7 always looking out for me.
16:06
Speaker 1: And I feel like my dad and my brother supported
16:08
Speaker 1: me best they could while still trying to live their
16:11
Speaker 1: life too.
16:11
Speaker 2: But it was hard. It affected all of their lives.
16:13
Speaker 2: Of course it did.
16:14
Speaker 1: Yeah.
16:14
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a huge ripple effect from this. So
16:20
Speaker 3: talk to me about what happened while you were in
16:22
Speaker 3: the hospital. What kind of support were you getting? Those
16:26
Speaker 3: days that must have felt endless in the hospital.
16:29
Speaker 2: What was that like?
16:30
Speaker 1: I was moved from the trauma room into the ICU
16:33
Speaker 1: and I was in the ICU for the next six days.
16:36
Speaker 1: And you would think being in the hospital almost dying
16:40
Speaker 1: would suck.
16:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:42
Speaker 1: But I consider it my turning point in my story.
16:46
Speaker 1: Over those six days, I had loads of family and
16:50
Speaker 1: friends come visit, bring gifts, spend time with me, show
16:53
Speaker 1: their support, tell me, we can't wait for you to
16:56
Speaker 1: get out. We can't wait for you to be back
16:57
Speaker 1: to being you, like true Jeremy, where eczema wasn't debilitating
17:01
Speaker 1: and taking away the fun parts of my life. And
17:04
Speaker 1: hearing that and seeing my friends, my family show up
17:08
Speaker 1: in support, we call it my village. My mom and
17:10
Speaker 1: I call it my village. It takes a village to
17:13
Speaker 1: get me back to where I am today. And that
17:16
Speaker 1: continuous support made me realize that, you know what? We're
17:20
Speaker 1: going to find the light at the end of the
17:21
Speaker 1: tunnel and figure this out because you're not going to
17:24
Speaker 1: let down this many people who have come to see you,
17:26
Speaker 1: have come to visit you, who want to see you
17:28
Speaker 1: get better. So in any way possible, you're going to
17:30
Speaker 1: have a positive mindset. You're going to wake up every
17:33
Speaker 1: day grateful to be alive. And you're going to go
17:36
Speaker 1: about your day and figure out how we're going to
17:38
Speaker 1: manage this eczema and being back to being me. Yeah.
17:41
Speaker 1: I bet this doctor in the ICU, it just so
17:43
Speaker 1: happened that this dermatologist was visiting around the patients. And
17:49
Speaker 1: he was the first dermatologist that was like open to
17:52
Speaker 1: us trying different things until something worked, until something was right.
17:57
Speaker 1: And I did end up finding a biologic that worked
18:00
Speaker 1: for me in combination with another lotion, which helped a lot.
18:04
Speaker 3: That's amazing. What happened after you were admitted to the hospital?
18:08
Speaker 3: Like how long did it take for you to get
18:11
Speaker 3: back to your usual self again?
18:13
Speaker 1: So I was admitted into the ICU February of 13th. 2020.
18:18
Speaker 1: Got out February 19th of 2020, back home. And then
18:23
Speaker 1: early March of 2020, I decided, you know what? I
18:26
Speaker 1: have a positive attitude. I'm finding different medications for my
18:30
Speaker 1: skin that are working. I'm going to go on this
18:33
Speaker 1: high school film convention to Washington, DC, a 10-hour bus ride.
18:37
Speaker 1: And I'm going to do it and see how my
18:39
Speaker 1: skin handles it. And I brought all my medications, my lotions,
18:44
Speaker 1: My mom was one of the chaperones on the trip.
18:45
Speaker 1: So I felt comfortable knowing that if something did happen,
18:49
Speaker 1: she was there. And a lot of my friends that
18:51
Speaker 1: were going on the trip were my film school friends.
18:54
Speaker 1: They were people who had visited me in the hospital
18:57
Speaker 1: who understood my accident situation. And they are the ones
19:00
Speaker 1: that are always like, go get an ice pack when
19:02
Speaker 1: you itch or here's some lotion or don't scratch. Like
19:05
Speaker 1: they were some of the most supportive and helpful people
19:08
Speaker 1: in my recovery process and in my journey. And so
19:10
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable going to DC. It felt like I
19:13
Speaker 1: still had my village and being able to go so
19:15
Speaker 1: far away from home for something I love to do,
19:18
Speaker 1: which is film and being able to manage my eczema accordingly.
19:21
Speaker 2: It felt great.
19:22
Speaker 1: It felt like a step towards the right direction of
19:25
Speaker 1: being independent, of being back to Jeremy's old self.
19:32
Speaker 3: OK, so we all know what happens mid-March of 2020.
19:37
Speaker 3: You use the beginning of the pandemic to recover. Take
19:41
Speaker 3: me through the recovery. When do you feel that you
19:44
Speaker 3: can start getting back to physical activity? How long does
19:47
Speaker 3: it take?
19:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, recovery during COVID. it was pretty quiet.
19:51
Speaker 1: I mean, you would have class online, which I basically
19:54
Speaker 1: felt like I was already doing, doing homework at home. Yeah,
19:57
Speaker 1: you're like, I've mastered this. I've mastered online school already.
20:00
Speaker 1: You would have things to do with friends outside social distancing,
20:04
Speaker 1: of course. So we would go to the park and
20:06
Speaker 1: we would talk from our cars and we would throw
20:09
Speaker 1: a football from yards away from each other. But just
20:13
Speaker 1: things like that were calming. They weren't too much for
20:16
Speaker 1: my skin. And I eased back into running, into kicking
20:21
Speaker 1: a soccer ball, throwing a football, playing spike ball. I
20:24
Speaker 1: would say by April and May, I was continuously outside
20:28
Speaker 1: wanting to play sports and hang out and run and
20:32
Speaker 1: do all these physical activities. And I miss doing them.
20:34
Speaker 1: And when I started to realize that I wasn't having
20:37
Speaker 1: the pain that I once had, that I could actually
20:39
Speaker 1: play and do it, there was a.
20:41
Speaker 2: Huge smile on my face.
20:42
Speaker 1: There was almost like a weight lifted off my shoulders
20:44
Speaker 1: that I feel like I was back to being me.
20:46
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
20:48
Speaker 3: How did your relationship with filmmaking continue to evolve in
20:53
Speaker 3: this time?
20:54
Speaker 1: When my skin really started to affect me when I
20:58
Speaker 1: was staying home from school and not playing soccer, two
21:00
Speaker 1: of my film friends actually had talked to me about this.
21:03
Speaker 1: They were like, hey, what if once you're better, we
21:06
Speaker 1: made some type of documentary about your journey of beating
21:10
Speaker 1: eczema and going back to playing soccer? And I was like,
21:13
Speaker 1: you know what? That sounds like a great idea. I
21:15
Speaker 1: don't really know what my eczema journey is going to
21:16
Speaker 1: look like, but if I end up on top of it,
21:19
Speaker 1: let's do it. So as I was recovering in March
21:22
Speaker 1: and April, I realized that I had a huge collection
21:25
Speaker 1: of photos and videos of my skin throughout this whole process.
21:29
Speaker 1: And so during COVID, we actually started planning for the
21:33
Speaker 1: eczema warrior documentary is what we called it. It was
21:36
Speaker 1: so important to capture the full story to not just
21:39
Speaker 1: show the recovery process and oh, he's back to normal.
21:42
Speaker 1: But to really talk about the mental health that I
21:46
Speaker 1: was struggling with to show that eczema was so debilitating
21:49
Speaker 1: and physically damaging, but my emotional and mental state were
21:53
Speaker 1: also hurt.
21:54
Speaker 2: And that's okay, that you're gonna go through that.
21:57
Speaker 3: What happened after you shared it?
21:58
Speaker 1: When we posted it across social media, it did really well.
22:03
Speaker 1: And someone from the National Eczema Association reached out to
22:06
Speaker 1: me and they're like, we love your story. We would
22:08
Speaker 1: love for you to become an ambassador for the National
22:11
Speaker 1: Eczema Association. And it was a beautiful thing to be
22:14
Speaker 1: able to join this community. go to my very first
22:17
Speaker 1: eczema expo back in 2022 and get to connect with
22:23
Speaker 1: other eczema patients. But I think the biggest thing for
22:25
Speaker 1: me is I got to see other people comment like,
22:29
Speaker 1: my friend has eczema.
22:30
Speaker 2: My sister has eczema. I have eczema. I can relate
22:33
Speaker 2: to your story.
22:34
Speaker 1: It made me realize that there's so many people out
22:36
Speaker 1: there with eczema who don't really speak on it, who
22:39
Speaker 1: are affected by it, but can see my story and
22:41
Speaker 1: be like, that's a great example of not letting eczema
22:44
Speaker 1: define your life and define who you are.
22:47
Speaker 3: I'm just so curious, where is your eczema today?
22:50
Speaker 1: My eczema today is 80 to 85% better than what
22:53
Speaker 1: it was in February of 2020. It is definitely still eczema.
22:57
Speaker 1: I definitely still scratch at night. Even when I sweat,
23:01
Speaker 1: it gets really annoying, irritated. I still have to be
23:04
Speaker 1: very on top of my medications and watch what I eat,
23:07
Speaker 1: watch what I'm doing every day. I'm always making sure
23:09
Speaker 1: that After a shower, I'm always lotioning. I'm always moisturizing,
23:13
Speaker 1: keeping my skin calm, cool, collected. I always have ice
23:17
Speaker 1: packs in the freezer if I need to reach for them.
23:19
Speaker 1: I always have a lotion handy on me.
23:20
Speaker 2: I have one right here.
23:22
Speaker 1: You never know when you're going to start itching. You
23:24
Speaker 1: never know when you're going to need a lotion handy
23:27
Speaker 1: or an ice pack handy. I've learned to live with it.
23:29
Speaker 1: And I can say that I'm back to being 100% Jeremy, 100% myself.
23:33
Speaker 1: even with eczema.
23:34
Speaker 2: Okay, I love that.
23:37
Speaker 3: What would you say to someone who today is in
23:41
Speaker 3: your February of 2020? Someone who feels like eczema has
23:45
Speaker 3: just fully put their life on pause.
23:48
Speaker 2: It's easy to say it's going to get better.
23:50
Speaker 1: Yeah.
23:50
Speaker 2: But you never know if it's going to get better.
23:52
Speaker 2: It may make you live in a new reality.
23:55
Speaker 1: But what I will say is the people who fight
23:58
Speaker 1: the toughest battles are the people who are going to
24:01
Speaker 1: be the most selfless, the most kind, People who are
24:05
Speaker 1: going to listen to others, never judge a book by
24:07
Speaker 1: its cover.
24:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:08
Speaker 1: And people who will take in and put out more
24:12
Speaker 1: in the world. And to those people, I applaud them.
24:16
Speaker 1: I see how hard their challenges are, but I share
24:19
Speaker 1: that challenge with them. And I'm an example of making
24:22
Speaker 1: my life better after my battle with eczema.
24:25
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I have to ask, are you still playing
24:27
Speaker 3: soccer these days?
24:29
Speaker 1: With soccer, I played all through college in intramurals and pickup.
24:33
Speaker 1: And then now I'm playing in an adult league. So
24:36
Speaker 1: playing for fun, which I knew that's always what I
24:38
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Yeah. And I got to pursue my
24:41
Speaker 1: passion in filmmaking, which is the ultimate goal of what
24:44
Speaker 1: I wanted to do after college. I was working with
24:46
Speaker 1: NBC Sports on the Olympics, the Paris 2024 Olympics.
24:50
Speaker 2: Oh my God.
24:51
Speaker 1: And I was part of the craft edit teams in
24:53
Speaker 1: Olympic Digital. And so we would create cinematic recaps, features,
24:57
Speaker 1: narrative stories. that would live on socials. And I was
25:01
Speaker 1: part of a team that ultimately did win an Emmy.
25:04
Speaker 1: And I'm living the dream right now. And I think
25:06
Speaker 1: it's possible for anyone battling eczema.
25:09
Speaker 2: Damn.
25:10
Speaker 3: Okay. Well, that's, that is a perfect note to end on. Jeremy,
25:14
Speaker 3: thank you so much. I feel like we can all,
25:16
Speaker 3: even people who don't have eczema can learn a lot
25:18
Speaker 3: from this story. Life can kind of sometimes hand you
25:22
Speaker 3: curve balls and it's really cool to to hear how
25:25
Speaker 3: you can meet those curveballs head on and adapt to them.
25:30
Speaker 3: Thanks for talking to me today.
25:31
Speaker 2: Thank you, Dylan.
25:36
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us for Jeremy's story.
25:39
Speaker 3: We've only got a few more stories to go until
25:41
Speaker 3: the end of the season, but until then, may we
25:44
Speaker 3: surround ourselves with people who help us see a way
25:46
Speaker 3: forward when we can't see one ourselves. Skin Queries is
25:52
Speaker 3: a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. Our producer is
25:55
Speaker 3: Reem El-Meghabi. Project lead is Maria St.
25:58
Speaker 2: Alban.
25:59
Speaker 3: The sound designer is Sam Seguet. And I am Dylan Maron.
26:03
Speaker 3: We will see you next time.