Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jonski]

Hi,

I've posted about this before. I have only been in Korea for about 7 weeks but I have had 2 outbreaks of a serious skin problem with a separate issue of added spots!

About a month back now I had an outbreak of some sore skin around my mouth. I noticed it at night and the problem got significantly worse. The skin patch spread to about a donut sized ring around my mouth. The skin turned red and went incredibly dry. Anything I put on it just aggravated it. It took about a week for it to go and I was sure it was an allergic reaction to something.

Anyway on Monday of this week, it started again. I knew it was coming back as I felt the skin turn tender once more. It's now Saturday, I am over the worst of it and it seems to be fading away. I am seriously annoyed though because I have a date with a really hot co-worker tonight and I feel like the dam Elephant Man. The skin is so dry and flakey and orange looking.

I went to the local pharmacy with a friend and they gave me a lovely tube of grease to put on my face, it soothes it but leaves me looking like I've stuffed my face with KFC. I'm trying to find a connection into what's causing it. It's got to be either something I've eaten or maybe from the fact that I tend to shower twice a day half the week.

I've started to wash my face and brush teeth with bottled water (wasting half the bottle a time) and I am avoiding all contact with Korean water on my face now. I am however not 100% convinced this is the problem. I also can't seem to find anything that I have eaten consistently which may have caused this problem. Only tuna and carrots. Everyday I eat a can of tuna (in canola oil) and usually also munch on a carrot stick. I have since cut both of these out of my diet to try and see if this has caused it, but once again I'm not convinced.

Anyway, I've made this a long one, but please help! I can't be dealing with this every weeks, its about a 7 on a scale of 1-10 of terribleness! (I have had no previous problems like this until Korea)

[jonski]

Ahhhh, sorry for the triple post on this one, the laptop crashed!