I think my BP may have cured me

[kiiarah]

This post requires a bit of back story, but please bear with me because I would really like to get others' opinions on this. About six years ago I somewhat spontaneously developed a condition called dyshidrotic eczema. This is basically a fancy word for horrible rashes and itching, typically on palms of the hands and soles of the feet. A quick google search will confirm this is a nasty problem to live with. I saw various doctors and dermatologists, who all tried prescribing me different creams and steroid treatments, all of which were only mildly effective and provided only temporary help. None of them could tell me what caused it, apart from the fact that a whole range of factors can contribute and that there is no known "cure" or means of correcting it. One of them theorized that it was caused primarily by internalizing stress, a fancy way of saying that the stress I was not actively recognizing was manifesting physically. The itching and swelling was bad enough that I even landed in the ER on a couple of occasions when the swelling got so bad I could not bend my fingers. Again, this has been going on, with nothing seeming to help for years. I didn't really buy the stress explanation for quite some time, but during one of the worse times I had been told my wisdom teeth had to be extracted and was freaking out about it. Much to my surprise the day after the procedure, during which my hands had been horrible, I woke up to find symptoms virtually gone. They came back a week or so later, but it really made me wonder if stress may be the cause. The problem was that I usually had no idea what I was even stressed about, so had no simple means of facing or otherwise dealing with it.

Last night my son was pointing out that I haven't had any problems with my hands for almost a year. It is common for them to get better during winter as the cold air seems to help, but in summer they are always terrible. Here we are sitting in 100 degree temps and I am still having no trouble whatsoever. I agreed with him that it was really interesting and that it had been much better this year. Jokingly I told him that maybe Shesha (my pastel boy who I have had for about 10 months) had cured me. We laughed it off, but later that night I started thinking about it. It really does seem that getting him lines up with the time that things started improving. I have noticed since he came home that I seem to feel instantly calm when I am handling him. It isn't like I am just distracted from the things that usually bother me, it is more like I sit and relax enough to realize they aren't worth worrying about. I really can't remember ever having felt as calm as he makes me. I guess the best way to say it is that he seems to transport me away from all the trivial daily stress and I am able to just let things go. Given the link between stress and this condition I am really becoming more and more convinced that he may be the reason I seem to have miraculously recovered.

So what do you all think? Could it be possible that he really made such a huge difference in my health? Has anyone else noticed any unusual benefits, even just developing a calmer or more positive overall state of mind, since taking up the hobby?