More Pictures of Healed and Healing People

Thanks my boy Isaiah for keepin' it real and showing us all that we CAN heal from TSW!!!

Isaiah and superheroes 1: Scratchy Monster 0.

Click to see topical steroid recovery photos.

Skin Update at 44 Months: Feeling Despondent (photos)

Hi people. I like to blog my progress regularly so that people can see how the TSW process affects the skin. I'm now 44 months into TSW and sadly, have to report than instead of my usual summer healing, my skin has been pretty miserable. I was meant to go to a lovely summer family event today, but have had to send my husband, with my apologies, while I stagnate in the house trying to maintain some level of comfort.

What really get to me is that if you look back through this blog to last year's posts, you will see that this time last year my skin was completely clear and normal, so to go backwards like this is heartbreaking. I spent a good chunk of yesterday crying and debating whether to just make a Faustian pact with the steroids and be done with this, even temporarily. And yes, I know that everyone will be telling me to hang in there because I've been off them so long and I don't want to undo my progress, but seriously, I have no quality of life right now.

I wonder if I will completely heal. I think that I have done too much damage. It seems very unlikely that my skin will ever completely return to normal. I read about people 7 and 8 years into withdrawals still suffering. Wow, just wow.

So here are my photos:

So here is the red face. Very red, very inflamed, burning and sore.

                                        Neck is weepy and scabby, with very dry skin.

 Hands are worst areas right now, with baggy, elephant skin. skin too big for my hand that feels like thick plastic.

 Skin at the back of my legs was previously clear but is starting to crack and scab again.

                                              Behind my ears is wet and weeping.


So sorry everyone for being such a let-down. Wish I could be posting healed photos instead of this, but those are the breaks.

I probably won't be posting any pictures in August, because the kids are off school, so I'll try and post in September. I hope it will be something more positive.

Sorry again. I feel like I've let all my blog readers down.

Shocking Statistic About the Likelihood of Steroid Cream Side Effects

There have been many lively debates about the prevalence of steroid addiction and chance of the skin becoming reliant on steroid creams. We know that not everyone gets addicted to the creams, and a lack of available scientific studies means that estimates can vary wildly. The general consensus in the forums at this present time is that at least 15% of steroid cream users become reliant on the creams and end up developing red skin syndrome.

HOWEVER, I just found an article that was published in the New York Times back in 1997. It quotes a Japanese dermatologist called Dr Masami Uehara. He states:

"Some side effects will occur in 60 percent to 80 percent of patients who use steroids for six months without proper care being taken."

Clearly, then, there is much to discover about the prevalence of topical steroid addiction. If, as this doctor suggests, 60-80% of  long term steroid cream users have side effects, then the amount of TSA cases as a proportion of eczema sufferers may possibly be higher than first estimated.

Either way, this underscores the need to use steroid creams sensibly and only for short periods of time.