When I went to the doctor on Saturday (after being sick since the first week of November), I also showed her the bright red patches on my wrist under my watch. Contact dermatitis, she said...I'm allergic to my watch.
I like my watch. I have to have a watch. At work I monitor things in 10 minute increments and hour increments. I must have a watch. And what kind of a person becomes allergic to stainless steel? Is that even possible?
When the rash first started to appear a month ago, I thought I had gotten something on the watch, so I scrubbed it and cleaned it and put it in hydrogen peroxide and later bleached it and thoroughly cleaned it. It didn't work.
So along with a host of other drugs that have me feeling much better (I can breathe and sleep and am not sneezing every 2 minutes and am getting over an infected head), I also have some cream stuff that I apply twice a day. It seems to be helping, but I still wear my watch...I wrap my wrist in rolled gauze first, of course.
So I'll need to buy a new watch, one that does not have stainless steel on it.
Any ideas?
7 comments:
Maybe there is zinc in the watch. Zinc allergies are very common.
I developed an allergy to my stainless steel medic alert bracelet a few years ago. I stopped wearing it and switched to a different one and then, a couple of years later, switched back and have been fine.
i'm allergic to zinc and nickel, there might be some of these metals in the watch. there could have been a thin protective layer over the metal that wore off over time and when you washed it, made it worse. i bought some expensive, supposedly gold earrings a few years back that caused me to break out. with further research i found out that they were gold plated, but were not advertised as such, and the plating had worn off and the allergens leaked through causing a reaction. i'm now a real pain in the butt when i buy things that could cause a reaction.
An easy solution that might work is to paint the inside of the watch band and back of the watch face with clear nail polish. As long as you aren't allergic to that it should create enough of a barrier to protect you from whatever in the watch is causing irritation.
You're becoming a total mutant freak like me. We spend too much time together I think.
Anyway, I'm inclined to agree with the others, that there is another metal in the watch that is the real culprit. It's going to be hard to replace since they don't generally include a list of ingredients on watches. That bites, especially since it's a Fossil watch- I like their watches, although I don't own one (or any kind of watch for that matter) myself.
I know it's early, but Happy New Year, Peggy Hill!
Oops. That was intended for someone else from Texas.
Happy New Year, Jenny Robin!
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