Since my lovely improvement photos on day 148, my skin decided to rebel and go into a slight flare. The flare has mild compared to previous ones, but was still enough to put me on a downer, as I really wanted to believe I had seen the worst of it and that things were on the "up" for me.
Arms that had been white a few days before became red and blotchy once more and my face, which had been clearer than ever suddenly developed sore patches, which oozed a watery substance. This hit me quite hard emotionally.
Luckily, the flare has been quite short lived, and I felt well enough to go out last night. Ironically, despite the fact that I had been bemoaning the state of my skin earlier that same day, a friend of mine passed comment on how good my skin was looking.
"Your face looks great" she said. "So much better."
I was quite taken aback because I thought I looked grotty!
Then came the best line, which really made me smile....
"Have you gone back to using the steroid creams then?"
No! I blinkin' haven't!
It was good to know that people are noticing an improvement in my skin, even during what I would consider a bad phase. It just goes to prove that we don't need steroids to have good skin.
Changing the subject, the blog list on the right hand side of my page has grown massively over the last few days. More and more people are waking up to the idea that steroid creams are bad medicine, and are getting themselves, or their children off the creams. Please, if you haven't read any of my featured blogs, take time to look at the new ones.
"Itchy little world" is a great resource for all things allergy related. The mom who writes the site tried using steroids on her child years ago and found, like I did, that they cause terrible rebound symptoms.
Parents are really getting on board and challenging the idea that potent steroids are safe to use on kids for extended periods. Some of the blogs that I feature, such as kelou's blog and the new blog by Kline's mom are by parents who decided to stop using steroids on their kids after many years of daily use. The future is bright for these kids, as studies have shown that kids heal a lot quicker than adults from steroid addiction as they have less accumulated steroid in their bodies. My heart goes out to these amazing parents. Please read their stories.
Other blogs that I feature are International. Spela and Fay's blogs are designed to reach the International community and educate the world about the dangers of steroid cream overuse. In many countries, steroids are used as skin lighteners and addiction is common.
If anyone has a steroid withdrawal blog that they would like me to add to the list, please let me know. Please note that I am specifically interested in blogs about personal experiences of people coming off steroid creams.
1 comment:
Louise, I am so sorry you are flaring again, J flared very quickly on Saturday but was already much improved by Sunday, I think the cycles speed up a bit too? Hopefully more will be known about this soon, love the itchy little world blog!
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