Day 54 (photos)

I thought it would be agood idea to post some photos of my progress. I am now nearly 8 weeks into withdrawal.





 

This is a picture I took shortly after starting steroid withdrawal a few weeks ago. The whole belly area is covered in a fine, red, itchy rash.



Compare the previous picture with the one I took today on day 54. Apart from some redness around my bellybutton, the rest of the area is returning to normal skin colour. The skin feels very smooth and soft to the touch, with no dryness at all. I have not used any products on this area of skin apart from the epsom salt baths. I am amazed with the improvement to the skin in such a short period of time.

Yesterday I mentioned the problems I have been having with the skin on my neck. It is very red and itchy, made worse at night when my neck sweats. I have been wrapping a cotton pillowslip around my neck to mop up the swat and oozing. The skin feels too tight and it is hard to twist my neck. The neck crease looks as though my throat has been cut with a knife! It is actually feeling better today, despite the fact that it looks horrible. I have also done a lot of damage to my chin by scratching in the night.

I made a big mistake of not tying anything around my harnds to stop myself scratching in the night. As a result, I have an area on my arm which has been damaged my my nails. On the positive side, my arm in general is returning to white skin, and certainly does not have the red burning appearance of a few weeks ago.

It may appear from the pictures that progress is very slow, and indeed, it does sometimes seem that my skin looks worse rather than better in some areas, but I would like to point out that despite the way it looks, my skin  feels so much better than it did. It is a lot smoother, with more elasticity and less dryness and flaking. My overall energy levels are up and I am able to get out of the house and lead a relatively normal life.

I am quite happy with the improvements in my skin now, as I know that recovery may take a year, so to see so much improvement in only two months of withdrawal has made me very positive indeed about the future. My biggest obstacle at the moment is scratch damage (I am actually scratching as I type this!), as scratching seems to undo all the good work and healing that my skin has experienced, so I will be tying the pillowcases round my hands tonight when I go to bed!