TSW: 1 YEAR / Successful New Dupilumab Treatment

11 MONTHS TSW

hi everyone,

a bit of bad news since my last update not so long ago. i've started to flare a couple days ago and oh boy, these rashes spread like wildfire. it's pretty bad, if not worse than my early days in some places. i've got these enormous red raised rashes all over my body except for my legs. every rash seems to ooze and weep, as well. my hands and arms are probably the worst. yesterday i started getting some pretty crazy facial edema and i couldn't open my eyes this morning cos they were so swollen. face is very red and rashy.

i've had a nice break for the past couple of months so i expected to flare but not like this. it took me by surprise and everything happened so fast. it's weird to ooze all over when you haven't had that happen in a long time. i do not miss that feeling.

last year i flared pretty bad in september which caused a chain reaction of  steroid shots, creams and pills. so i'm wondering... is it pollen? is it the weather? i don't know. all i know is that the day my fiance came back from being out of town for 2 months, i started to immediately flare. "i'm allergic to you!" i say jokingly. and than i realize. anytime he comes back from traveling for long periods of time, i start to flare. i sound so ridiculous lol and i'm mostly being facetious.

but still. this sucks real bad. hope this subsides soon.

TSW: 10 MONTHS UPDATE

here's my 10 month update! i'm doing really well!

8 MONTHS INTO TSW

Hi everyone,

Sorry, it’s been awhile.

I’m sure some of you are wondering how I’m doing. I am just past the 8 month mark. My neck and chest are pretty much %99.9 completely healed. My face, for the most part is healed as well. However, I do have some bad days on my face. What I mean by bad is some open sores here and there (usually from scratching in my sleep) and sometimes my face gets a little red / flushed. Even on my “bad” days, it’s such an incredible improvement compared to months 1-5. But this only happens 2-5 days out of the month and for the rest of the time my face looks pretty darn clear! When I’m in the clear, my skin looks even better than when I was on steroids. The area above my lip sometimes oozes a little but you can’t really notice it’s there unless I touch it to feel the hard crusty micro-ooze. It doesn’t happen all the time but enough for it to be kind of annoying. Just recently, my elbow creases have been healing really nicely as well. Skin is much stronger now and not as many sores or redness.

As parts of my body that were originally affected are healing quite nicely, I can’t really say the same for my hands and forearms. My hands started to experience withdrawal symptoms quite later in my withdrawal (month 4/5). About a month and a half ago, I had a very angry red sleeve complete with open sores everywhere and thickened skin. It seemed to have calmed down a bit as my arms have started to re-gain their texture but they are still red, but not as red as before. Also, I have rashy skin on my stomach which has been an issue for the past 2 months or so as well as some eczema behind my knees. I’m hoping in a couple months everything will heal just like how my face, chest, and neck have.

Hair loss has been in an issue lately. My hair is falling out at a rapid rate. I’m sure it’s just Telogen Effluvium triggered by the TSW so I know it will grow back once my body normalizes. I’ve experienced Telogen Effluvium before when I lost too much weight in a short period of time and the hair loss lasted 3-4 months. The hair on my arms are gone too but just recently I’ve noticed some stubs peeking through my skin.

Anyways, here are some pics of my face that I took this past Sunday. Hope you all are doing well. Please let me know how you’re doing!

UPDATE: 5 MONTHS OF TSW!

here's a pic of myself that i took today on my way home from work. i'm wearing some foundation but you can definitely see the improvement.

it's been awhile since my last post. here's an update so far:

GOOD NEWS

-face is much better now. still slightly pink but i'm not as fiery red anymore. i still have a day here and there when my face is redder than usual but for the most part it has subsided dramatically.

-neck and chest are improving quite a bit as well (finally!). less red but still splotchy. my skin definitely feels stronger here.

-no more oozing

-for the most part, the burning is gone as well.

-shedding decreased

NOT SO GOOD NEWS

-my elbows are still bad if not worse. skin is super thin so the slightest scratch will tear my skin apart.

-it has now spread to my wrists, on top of my hands, and forearms. very red, raw, and thick.

-still have insomnia. i haven't had a good night's sleep in forever.

-itch is still pretty intense but seems to be a lot better than before.



overall, i think i am doing much better! besides the fact that my hands and wrists are relatively new rashes, everything else seems to be doing better. i'm still in those flare cycles though but i feel that they're getting shorter each time. right after a mini flare i got into massive shedding for a day or 2 but after i'll have nicer skin for a couple of days.

hope all of you are doing well!

TSW UPDATE: 4 MONTHS!!!

UPDATE 3+ MONTHS

OOZE, PLEASE BE DONE ALREADY

last night i was scared i had an infection because after i applied some neosporin, i started to run a fever along with more facial swelling and weird body chills. in the middle of the night i woke up to myself scratching the hell out of my neck. my neck was dripping with yellow ooze. i wrapped some gauze and tried to go back to sleep. woke up in the morning and the gauze was stuck to my neck. i had to slowly rip it off. it was drenched. ugh, so not only is the ooze affecting my face but now it's my neck. there's this white, filmy, sticky, residue that lays on top of my skin. i'm assuming it's the clear kind of ooze that has dried right after it seeps out of your pores. i went to the doctor earlier to get it checked out. doc says there are no signs of serious infection. the swelling and fever was probably because of the neosporin (i have a sulfa allergy). he could prescribe me antibiotics if i really wanted them but it wasn't necessary. i agreed. i also asked for some ambien to help me sleep. i haven't had a good nights rest since starting this damn thing. i take over 7 pills of 25mg of hydroxyzine at night and i still can't sleep nor does it help the itching anymore.

i have to go back to work on monday. not sure if i want to go back like this….

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

2014 is starting off really…horrible. after xmas, i had a couple days of alright skin but now i am entering into another flare. i've had this weeping sore underneath my left eye for the past couple of weeks. it healed up for a couple days but then it came back and also spread to the rest of my face. i am now experiencing my first full-facial oozing fest. yay. the sore under my eye has grown to become really big. kind of scared since it's so close to my eye. when i was younger, i was hospitalized with eczema herpeticum and my eyes were sealed shut for a week.  i'm going to watch it carefully. tomorrow, if it feels worse, off to the doctor i go to get some antibiotics. as for the rest of my face, my eyebrows, whole right cheek, and jawlines are raw and oozing. at first, i thought it was dry skin so i peeled/rubbed it off. 1 minute later the "skin" started to grow back. i was like WTF i just peeled you! so i peeled it off again. a couple minutes later the crusty layers came back. then this is when i realized i shouldn't touch it anymore because it's an ooze fest and it needs to dry up. today will be the first time i use domeboro -- the hallmark trade of TSW :(