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 :(

FOR MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY

i've recently decided to tell my family and close friends what i've been going through lately. in the first 2 months of my TSW, i was scared for people to know. i thought everyone would write it off as one of the many crazy things i've self-diagnosed myself with in the past, which i am totally guilty of. but this is real and i can not wait to heal and have a normal life again.

here are a couple blogs of people that have gone through TSW and inspired me to do the same:

http://antisteroid.wordpress.com - Juliana

http://www.curingredskinsyndrome.blogspot.com - Rochelle

http://misskittydefeatseczema.blogspot.co.uk - Miss Kitty

http://redskinsyndrome.squarespace.com - Joey

http://topicalsteroidwithdrawal.blogspot.com - Louise


here's a video that best explains what is going on with me:

MERRY XMAS!

so here is my skin right now. what a difference a couple days make! i was pretty bad in that video i posted earlier. anyways, the redness on my face has subsided tremendously. my neck and chest are still the same, however. i believe my skin improving is due to the fact that i finally got my period after 3 months. the 2nd day of my period is when the redness started to go down right away. hopefully my cycle continues to stay normal at 1x a month.