13.5 Month Photos

Please ignore the toilet and general bathroom stuff in the background. I can't be bothered to retake the photos.

Face with a little bit of Purepotions on. Yay for eyebrows though.

My lovely Deirdre Barlow neck :(

Chest

Right hand side really seems to be going at it in terms of flaring.

Right leg

Left leg

Left thigh

Poor wrinkly tummy

Mass shedding on left arm (right is the same but too hard to photograph!)

Hard to see but wrists have a bit of a sleeve thing going on

Right arm - you can just about make out the open sores

Armpit. Infection has disappeared thankfully but it's dry and slightly red.

Back of knees are appalling and I'm finding it hard to walk.

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.

Topical Steroid Withdrawal Insanity

Today I had the morning from hell. I can't even begin to exemplify how much pain I was in. I ended up going rather crazy, enduring moments of actual psychosis because I couldn't stop scratching, I couldn't stop hurting, and I couldn't get any hot water to relieve my torment.

Somehow during the moment of sheer insanity I managed to snap some photos. The camera has made them look quite tame in comparison to how I actually was. My skin was yellow from dry ooze yet weeping near-constantly over skin that had gone rock solid like botox. It was a pretty grim sight.

The rest of my body is covered in softer red blotchy skin, bar my arms which are like leather and show the typical bright white palms versus the red arm, shedding like crazy. I think the reason I'm not bright red all over is down to the antibiotics.

My wrists have swollen today. My Mum instantly drew to the conclusion of cellulitis but it's not edema based, they've just lost their definition. Suppose it's from over scratching and wearing tubegrips. The weeping on my face is slightly odd in that I look as though I'm completely covered in grazes but that's where the skin has been weeping. I haven't scratched these areas so the graze is a bit scary.

Luckily I now have 3 days to recover til I'm next needed at work so I hope to God I start seeing some improvements somewhere soon. I know it's gonna take a while seeing as I'm only just over a month into withdrawal but I really need to work.

I'm just a little flakey

Just thought I'd show you all what I've been contending with for these past few mornings. Delicious flakes. Mmmm!


 
And a beautiful close-up...

 
"Oooh that's a keeper!" I think Gold Member from Austin Powers would be having a field day.

The Ability To Get Dressed & Eczema

Does anyone else's eczema prevent them from getting dressed?

My skin is so, so sore and weepy that putting clothing on will just exacerbate the situation and make it worse. I need to make sure my moisturiser has sunk into my ever-thirsty skin before I can even contemplate the idea of clothing because the sticky heat that it brings just sets off my heat urticaria, not to mention ruins my clothes! But even when it has been absorbed I still have to put up with the weeping skin sticking to my clothing and thus taking in fibres/ dust whatever the hell foreign body that shouldn't go any where near my wounds and for these reasons I cannot get dressed. I am a sticky, sore, weeping mess.

Today is a catch 22 situation. I need to go to see the doctor to get some antibiotics because my skin is so inflamed, burning and weeping that moisturising alone just isn't going to help and I suspect it is infected... but I can't get dressed.

I've rang my derm nurse at the hospital to let her know but there will be little that anyone can do for me because at the end of the day I need to be examined by a doctor, and I sure as hell won't be inviting them in for a home visit to see my nakedness in all its glory. It's a sad time when this happens because I know I need to go get help, but my body is cruel and won't allow me to go get these resources to make it better.

Stuck in a rut :(

Documenting My Skin 14/3

So I can't be bothered to keep doing single installments of my days throughout the month so I'll let you wait until the end to show you the full montage of images displaying my skin. Though I have to put my hands up and admit there have been a couple of days where I've simply forgotten to snap an image because the camera hasn't been in reach/ been too tired and what not.

I thought I'd include a few pictures of how my skin was this morning though. It doesn't really show close-ups of the entirety of my face, which admittedly was rather grim, but it does give you an idea.





Since having showered and moisturised my face is now lovely and blotchy. Sometimes I'm not sure which stage I prefer... the incredibly dry, tight and cracked stage that peels off and weeps with huge discomfort, or the moisturised blotchy stage where the skin feels red, inflamed, itchy and just as uncomfortable/ intolerable. There's no happy medium. When my skin is bad, it's bad.

Unfortunately I'm working today and doing a food shop straight after so no doubt I'll be a bit of a mess tonight, as I inevitably am after a day of work. Those who say they're "allergic to work" say hello to me, I actually am!