Please Read: VERY Important Article on Topical Steroid Addiction

Here it is folks! The document we've been waiting for! Get your printers at the ready, because you are going to want to print this one off for your doctors.

Many, many thanks to fellow blogger Tommy, who has always been ahead of the curve with TSW news, as she tells us the latest information from Japan, which is way ahead of the West in recognising and treating TSW. Japan is home to the Sato doctors and Dr Fukaya, who are renowned experts, having treated many thousands of patients with TSW. Tommy has helped bridge the gap by translating and linking to many important Japanese documents and websites about TSW and I consider her blog one of the most important TSW resources available.

Today, she provided a link to a brand new document about TSW which has been written by the Sato doctors and Dr Fukaya. It explains TSW simply and also has photos of healing, as well as guidelines for treatement. As the NEA is mentioned in the document, I am hoping that this is going to be utilised by the NEA task force on Topical Steroid Addiction. This gives me great hope as to the outcome of the task force, as the document provides definitive evidence that TSW is real. I also liked the fact that the document includes pictures of the "red sleeve", one of the defining signs of steroid addicted skin.

The article is fascinating, but also surprising. It challenged many of my perceptions about TSW and may not be without controversy in the TSW community. For example, the doctors suggest systemic (oral) steroids as a treatment for TSW. They also suggest that steroid addicted people may only make up 12% of the eczema community and they base this figure on verifiable studies. It is also interesting that the tone of the document is not anti-steroid in itself, as the doctors state that topical steroids can be a useful treatment for eczema when used properly and short-term in non-addicted patients. Lots of food for discussion and debate then!

In my view, the article has positives and negatives, but mostly positive. It shows that TSA is real and provides photographic evidence, so refutes the argument that the ITSAN people are a bunch of crazies. It also shows that skin can return to NORMAL after stopping steroids. Hurray! On the negative side, I think that naysayers might latch on to the 12% figure and argue that TSA is rare. We will have to wait and see.

I'd love to know what my blog readers think of the article, both the positives and negatives, so please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom.

West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue

And now...as they say...for something completely different!

Yeah, yeah, I know this blog is all about skin and eczema and TSW, but I want to share my hedgehog story with everyone and this blog (with its almost 500,000 hits) would seem the logical place to do so.

So...my story started yesterday, on a wet, dull Autumn day. I was in the house, homeschooling my little one, when I saw my neighbour dash past the front window and then crouch next to my lawn with her phone, taking photos of something in the grass. On closer inspection, I could see it was a tiny hedgehog.

I went out to take a look and my neighbour said that she ran out because some magpies were attacking the hedgehog. The hedgehog looked really small and sick and was covered in big grey ticks. I went inside to get a box to put it in and popped it inside my shed.

I phoned the local hedgehog rescue, WMHR, and the lady, Joan, was very helpful. She told me to feed the hedgehog and give it something warm to lie on, which was critical in keeping it alive. I used an empty plastic pop bottle, which I filled with hot water and wrapped in a towel. The hedgehog loved the warmth and snuggled up to the hot bottle. I later found a microwaveable wheat bag, which was even better. I also gave her some cat food, which she gobbled up; an encouraging sign.

I spent the rest of the day nursing the sick hog until my husband got home and we drove it to the rescue centre. Joan was lovely and clearly cares very much for these little creatures, sometimes getting up every 2 hours in the night to bottle feed the babies. She said our hedgehog was very sick and underweight and would have died without intervention. At this time of year, they should weigh 600g to get them through the winter, but ours weighed a mere 260g. She said she would keep our hedgehog warm in her house and pull off all the ticks (very brave!) and also give her antibiotics to help her get well.

I was so worried about our little hedgehog, I was actually scared to phone Joan the next day because I thought it may have died in the night and I would have broken my heart over it. Luckily, she'd survived the night thanks to Joan's love and attention and had also had most of her ticks removed. She was eating well, so her prospects looked good.

I'm so grateful to Joan and people like her who sacrifice their time to help little creatures, so I thought I'd give something back by letting people know about WMHR on this blog! Please visit the WMHR website, where you can find links to Joan's Amazon wish list and also their paypal info (friendsofwmhr@btopenworld.com) It would be great if my blog readers could donate a few pounds or dollars to their cause, or maybe buy some much-needed items off the Amazon list.

PLEASE- if my blog has helped you in any way, please donate a few pounds to the hedgehogs and help save my baby hog and others in the same situation. Help the hogs!

*Also, if you want to help WMHR for FREE, you can vote on the ARK website where they are giving away free food to hedgehog charities and you just have to vote for your favourite. So vote for West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue and the site will send them some packs of free food. Cool huh?

Man in Canada Has Bad Reaction to Steroid Cream

I know this news item is doing the rounds on some of the TSW blogs right now, but I thought I'd add a link for anyone who hasn't seen it.

The story is about a man who had an allergy to an ingredient called propylene glycol, which is a common ingredient found in many cosmetic products and a known irritant. He developed a rash and was prescribed steroid creams. He used them for two years and developed a worsening rash on his face when he tried to stop using the creams; classic rebound.

The sad outcome of the story is that the man is now on an ORAL steroid to treat the symptoms of his TSW.

I hope he manages to find Itsan.

Flare Over and Feeling Optimistic!

Apologies to all of my lovely readers.

I've been getting a lot of sympathy messages following the last lot of pictures I posted of my late flare. I hadn't got round to updating the blog and the pictures were up there for too long! That flare was short, sharp and nasty, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. Thankfully, it only lasted a few days, although my lazy blogging has made it seem like longer.

So let's put things right with some new photos...

I just took these 5 minutes ago.

 

...so if you compare the picture of my face with the last ones, you can see the flare has gone right down. My cheeks are still a bit pink, but hey, I'm not moaning. I'm happy, even if I'm not smiling in the photo!

 

Hand is normal. Nothing to see here!

Leg is normal. I tried to twist it a bit so you can see the inside calf is completely white. When my TSW was bad, it was bright red before, with scabs that wouldn't heal. It looks great now. Normal skin.


So the only place without normal skin at this point is my face and to a lesser extent, my neck. The rest of my body is normal skin, so happy days!

Let's remember that this is OCTOBER and I usually flare like mad in October. Take a look at my previous October photos to see what I mean: October 2013 and October 2012. Yukky.

Those previous Octobers were really dark days for me. It makes me feel a bit sick to look at those old photos now. I have come a LONG way.

Here in the UK we are having a very mild Autumn thus far and I haven't had to put the central heating on. I think this has made a big difference, as well as the fact that it is still quite sunny and I can get outside and soak up some rays. I've also been taking Wynter's advice and dosing up on the vitamin D3. I have no idea whether it is responsible for my good skin right now, but I'd like to think so. Judge for yourselves.


...so yeah, it's all good right now, but obviously we have a long winter ahead of us, so I'm hoping my skin stays happy and that I'm on the final stretch now.

TSW is a blooming long process.