Flaring at Nearly 34 Months Off Steroids (photos)

No words....TSW is cruel.

Skin Update 33 Months

Hi Everyone!

I've been meaning to do a skin update for a while, but I just haven't had the time to take any photos whilst the kids have been off school. Plus my teenage son hogs the PC to play Minecraft and Football Manager, so I have to grab it when I can.

So...here goes...

As you will know, throughout the summer, my skin was in a healed state. No flares, no cycles, no shedding, no redness. Just nice, smooth, supple, NORMAL skin. This has been the case for the last few months.

However, you may also know, if you are a long-term reader of this blog, that I have had a flare in October every year since quitting steroids. I am obviously concerned that this may happen again this year, especially now the darker nights are drawing in and there is less sunlight. Also, at this time of year, there are a lot of allergens in the air and my asthma always gets really bad in September.

So for the first time in months, I noticed my skin going through a mild flare cycle at the beginning of last week. The signs of a flare for me at this stage are:

Problems getting to sleep
Slight wetness behind my ear
Pink blotches on my cheeks and chin.
Generally feeling more itchy and reactive.
I also have an annoying crack on my left eyelid that appears when I'm in a flare!

I repeat, this flare was very mild and certainly not the full-body oozing and redness I have experienced previously. Symptoms were also limited to my facial area, with none of the rest of my body affected. I think this may mean that my body is fully healed, but my face still has to go through some mild flares before it is completely healed.

Anyway, pictures say it better than I can, so here are my photos:

 

So you can see my face is a little bit pinker than it was on my "summer healed" photos and I've also got some dry skin round my mouth area. Nothing too bad though, and certainly nowhere near as bad it has been in the past. My biggest concern is that this pink tone is going to be a prelude for a bigger flare in October, but maybe I'm being paranoid.

My arm is normal and even managing to hold onto a bit of a tan. No flaking, no redness. Just normal skin here.

 

Legs are normal and have been for about 2 years now. I don't think they will flare again. They are healed for good, I hope.

 

You can see that the neck area is mainly clear but there is a little bit of blotching near the top. It's only very mild, but again, I worry it may get worse as I get less sunshine.

 

 

So you can see that my skin is still generally good and it certainly isn't stopping me from doing my daily activities. I'm just a bit upset because my skin was perfect up until a week ago and this mild flare could be a sign that I'm about to go downhill again.

 

I don't mean to discourage people by posting this, but I want to be 100% honest about the recovery process and how long it takes. it would have been easy for me to stop writing the blog after the last set of pictures and nobody would have been any the wiser, but there is no value deceiving people that way. The fact is, that people DO flare late into TSW and we really have no idea how long the healing process takes.

 

Stay positive. My skin has been perfect these last few months and will be again. I have had a glimpse of life beyond TSW and it is good. Even 3 months of good skin is better than the years and years of steroid application. I won't go back to that.

 

You readers can trust me to be honest and transparent about TSW. I will always tell the truth, even if it seems inconvenient to do so.

 

I have "prescribed" myself plenty of sunshine in order to stem the flow of the oncoming storm.

 

...and believe me..I think my storm IS coming. I think the big October flare is inevitable. Let's hope I am wrong.