8 Months Into Topical Steroid Withdrawal

This Wednesday will mark my 8 months of topical steroid withdrawal. The flare that came about last weekend is still prominent and I can't seem to quite shake it off. Alongside this I have also developed another sodding cold sore. Just what I need!

The flare has traveled down my neck, onto my chest, breasts and spreading down my torso much to my annoyance. My arms are still a bit of a state and my legs still bear the wounds from last summer, however it is mostly just scarred and pigmented skin now, though round my knees I still have active "eczema".

I haven't let my skin stop me from doing anything though. I've been going to work as normal and not felt too uncomfortable. I've also made a point of going out and doing stuff when I'm not necessarily required to as well. I was trying to explain it to my friends but it kind of feels like more of an annoyance than anything because mentally I feel able to face the world and cope, but my body has just decided to let me down a bit... whereas before when I was like this, everything seemed entirely hopeless and my body was so bad that I was unable to do anything even mentally if that makes any grain of sense? I think it could be that I've come out of a state of depression and as with the progression of the withdrawal some of my energies have returned so I am able to fight it off more readily.

I've started to take Vitamin D supplements so hopefully these will help me out soon.

Hope everyone is doing ok?

Stupid cold sores and reddish face >:(

Check that white leg out! *proud*

Scarring

Chest is a bit of a mess and you can see the contrasting skin tones

The Great Ooze - My Skin Is Crying

This is getting on my nerves now.

The constant ooze is driving me insane. It's been this way since Sunday and shows no signs of relenting any time soon. Once again the camera isn't picking up the grazes to their full extent but I can assure you that I am really red and sore.

I've never had ooze quite like this before. Usually it comes on after a mega scratch fest, it'll last a day or 2, dry out and I'll have never ending flakes but this is something of another sort. I'm not even touching it and my skin is just cracking open, weeping incessantly throughout the day and night, never quite drying up.

I'm physically and mentally exhausted from it.

Ciclosporin During Topical Steroid Withdrawal

I am truly overwhelmed with just how well received my blog is. Everyone I've spoken to or has commented has thanked me for making it... but thank you for reading it! Just overnight alone I've had 200 views! My blog views are growing by thousands week by week and it's just incredibly mind-blowing to see that people from all over the world are gaining some form of solace from my little piece of the internet. I feel like a proud parent :)

You're probably wondering how I've been faring this week? Well since starting the Ciclosporin for the 3rd time last Saturday I can confirm that it is indeed working! Hurrah!!! I still have some rashy and scabby areas but they are no where near as prominent as they were this time last week. I also had a really bad dehydration headache yesterday evening so that has probably contributed to the rash I have today that wasn't there yesterday but I have faith that it will disappear again just as quickly as it came.

It's also nice having that feeling where you can just physically feel your skin is improving. It's hard to put into words but you just know that it's getting better. Yay for Ciclosporin! Without it I doubt I'd be able to face the hard journey of withdrawal on my own.

I took a picture of my arm yesterday whilst waiting to start work to show a comparison of my arm from the week before. It's startling really, but shows with perseverance and the correct level of medication it can get better without steroid usage.

Last week

   

This Week

Hope everyone is having a good week xx

An Eczema Update

My blog is in dire need of an overhaul. I don't much like how it looks but hopefully we can rectify this soon... I've also added the Google Followers widget which I use over on my other blog yet for some reason it completely slipped my mind to add it on here, so you can now follow me that way if you wish.

So yesterday I went to see my dermatologist, bringing with me an article from the ITSAN website. He seemed to be fairly open-minded about it though obviously in the short time I had to see him I couldn't exactly divulge the entire longs and shorts of what is to be expected through withdrawal and so on, and so I can only hope he uses the resources I gave him to do a bit of background research. I also gave him access to this blog, so if you're reading - hello!

In the mean time I've been given antibiotics to rid the infection/ inflammation and another stepped up course of Aciclovir as despite taking the medication, most irritatingly a cold sore has decided to crop up on my lip. Think I've caught it just in the nick of time though. He did suggest I cease all steroid usage now and I have a follow-up appointment next week but as I tried to explain to him in the first instance it will be hard to keep up with my job. I will seriously cut down on my use though and only stick to milder ones such as Hydrocortisone, if I do feel I need to use them. We'll see anyway.

I've not been sleeping well for the last few nights because I've been unable to sleep on my side due to both my ears overheating, resulting in weeping and just general discomfort. Not nice. My skin is also being super crazy generally. As most people find it goes through it's red, angry, rashy stage; does it's oozing etc. and then finally sheds. Right now my skin is doing all of that at once. I hate the oozing so much. It actually smells as though the skin is rotting. Grim.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I wish all those who are going through withdrawal right now the best of luck as I hope to be doing what you're doing some time soon in the hope of regaining a better quality of life.