A Day in The Life...

I noticed that the TSW rash changes over the course of the day. I suppose this is in response to things like the weather, environment and also my natural body rhythms. I thought I would give a brief overview of how my skin progresses on a typical day:

Early Morning: This is the worst time for me. I find mornings incredibly hard. When I wake up, I tend to sit up in bed and run my fingers over my face and neck to check for damage inflicted by fingernails in the night! I have a tube of moisturiser by the bed and dab some on my neck so I can move it. I go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. The skin is not particularly red in the morning, but it is very dry. The second my skin hits the air, it is as though crackle-glaze has been applied all round my mouth. The skin puckers and scales over. I will apply a greasy ointment or oil round the mouth area to smooth out the chapped skin.

Then I'm busy feeding and dressing everyone, so the skin has to wait. Just before I have to leave for the school run, I check in the mirror. The skin is usually chapping up again and starting to redden. I whack on more moisturiser and a bit of lip balm and head out.

Depending on the weather, my skin reacts on contact with the outside air. Today it was cold and cloudy and rainy. My skin felt burning hot on contact with the cold air. By the time I get back home though, my skin is usually acclimatising, ready for what I call the "Big Calm."

Mid Morning: Mid morning to early afternoon is a good time for my skin. It calms down during this phase of the day. I check the mirror every so often and dab on cream where needed, as it is easy to dry out. If I am out, I take a tube of cream with me. I often find that this is a good time of day to have a bath, as it gives the skin chance to recover and it is also a good time to relax with everyone out of the house.

Afternoon: The skin is pretty calm in the afternoon, despite most afternoons being busy and hectic. Afternoons are a premium time to get jobs done because I am feeling at my best. I feel a lot better doing the afternoon school run than the morning one. once the kids are home, there is no time to think about my skin. I will be busy for the next few hours.

Evening: Dryness and calm phases over with, the evening is the time when the redness kicks in. It is also the time that my asthma starts to play up. I usually take an antihistamine in the evening to relieve the worst symptoms, but my skin gets increasingly red. I think my histamine levels peak in the evening, because patches of rashes turn red and get hives in them, making the skin very itchy. This is also the time of day when the skin starts to ooze.

Night: By the time I go to bed, the skin is at its reddest. It is not usually that dry, but it is starting to get oozy and wet at this point, especially on my neck. Getting comfortable in bed is tricky, made worse by the fact that my face and neck ooze on contact with the pillow. I usually lie awake for hours, followed by a fitful sleep between midnight and 3 and then a deep sleep till 7:30.

So in conclusion, on a average day, I am dry, then calm, then red.