2 Years, 24 Months, 733 Days off Protopic

2 Years! Wow. When you are in the beginning stages, you feel like this marker is so far away. Its finally and here and so worth all those tears and pain. I am doing so much better than those early stages. I hope I will never take for granted having nice skin again.

So how are things today? Well I have some slight skin issues, just a bit of normal eczema on my palms, neck/chest, inside of my lower arms, thighs, and lower legs. These spots are a bit eczematous but it hardly bothers me. I don’t really think much about it. I am still seeing a homoeopathic doctor and he believes that these spots are due to hormones. I am due to get my period this week, so we will see if these spots clear up in the next week or two.

I even started going to the gym again and working out with a personal trainer and can sweat like crazy with hardly any problems.

I sleep great. My itching is about a 1-2 out of 10 depending on the day. Even when I do scratch, it is a normal scratch. It is itchy, I scratch it, and then that’s it. I no longer have the hour long scratching sessions. No flaking, no oozing, no pain. My life is 100% back to normal. It feels great! I thank the Lord everyday for bringing me so far and healing me so much. It is truly a blessing from Him.

Do I think my TSW is over? I am not sure. You really never know with this beast. So for now I think I will just say lets wait and see how things play out over the next few months. But for those in the early stages take heart, you will not always be suffering.

If you have any questions, please ask. 🙂 Take care.

23 Months Withdrawal

Just a quick update, I am 23 months TSW, Protopic withdrawal.

My last flare lasted only a week or two. I went on vacation for three weeks and had an amazing time with hardly any skin troubles. In fact, I have a beautiful tan! My first tan in quite a few year! Currently I am really having no skin issues. My legs have finally almost healed with just a few tiny spots, but unfortunately I now have to wait for the scars to fade. Oh well, I wont complain about that.

See you next month!

22 Months Protopic Withdrawal

Okay, so 22 months. Well I am flaring up again a bit. It started a couple weeks ago. I noticed I was getting some occasional hives, which I haven’t had in a long time. I also had a couple of sleepless nights, but thankfully I have been sleeping great in the last week. In fact I have been rather tired the last week. Last weekend I noticed my neck staring to get the small flares on the sides of it again, which had been clear for a while. Then I started to get some eczema on the backs of my hands last week, just a few small spots, which today are almost gone already. My palms started flaring up again. No cracks, but some of the little blisters. My left inner arm started flaring a bit last week too. It’s a bit rashy and a bit itchy. Nothing too bad. The picture below makes it look better than it is.

My neck was red and angry looking yesterday. You can see the picture below. I only seem to scratch it through the night while I am sleeping, but it has been VERY hot here. It was 32 Celsius yesterday. I put some zinc on it last night and it’s a bit less red today, which you can see in the second picture (with the purple shirt on).

  

Oddly I have still been getting pimples and my forehead is a bit oily. My face has been relatively unaffected so far, except my eyes which have been dryer and a bit more leaky than normal.

Legs are still their same scabby selves. Nothing has changed there.

I leave on Saturday to go on a three week vacation in another province. It will be my first vacation since I started TSW. I have been planning this since January. I was doing so well, I am bummed that I am flaring, although I do realize that it’s not too bad. I just worry about if it will get worse. I will be staying with family who don’t even know I have gone through TSW, and I don’t want to have to answer questions about my skin.

I am just going to trust God, that He is in control, and pray it won’t get worse and this flare will be short lived.

19 Months

So 19 months off Protopic. I am happy to report that last flare only lasted maybe 3 weeks. It never got too bad. Below are some pictures from today.

Neck is still a little pink but the rash and itch are gone again.

Arms have a couple little spots that I have been scratching a bit but they are better too.

Palms, as you can see they are doing really well, but still a couple little tiny spots that are itchy. That circled area is where I am still getting a bit of the tiny blisters so it gets a bit itchy sometimes.

Overall though things are still chugging along. Legs are still the same. I am not sure why they take so long to heal.

I have now gone three days without needing my sleeping pill to sleep! Yipee. I have been slowly weaning off since December. It feels great to not need it. I started taking it about one month into my withdrawal and have not gone a night without it since so this feels amazing!

I have been trying to get sun. I sat outside a couple weeks ago when it was about +12 celcius for about 30 minutes and I got sun burned! That was not a fun night haha but it felt great to be in the sun and I really feel like it helped me out in the long run. It got snowy and cold again after that so I could not get outside much, but last week started to warm up again. +16 on Friday so I sat outside for 15 minutes and it felt so good. I am going to keep trying to get in the sun as much as possible.

I was worried that I was out of the blue getting eczema on the bottoms of my feet, which I have not had any of my entire withdrawal, but I am happy to say I think I was wrong. I am pretty sure my feet were really itchy one day because it had snowed and I stupidly wore holy shoes, and so my feet were wet for quite a while. Not my brightest moment. So my feet have been good since.

Well, not much else to report right now. I hope you are all doing well.

560 Days / 18.5 Months Protopic Withdrawal

Well I guess it was too good to be true? Lol I am flaring a bit. And I mean a bit. I hate to even post this cause really it is nothing compared to what I have experienced in the past but I want to keep everyone updated on what’s going on.

I kept hoping it would go away but it has been a week or so now. It is only my chest, lower arms, and a teensy bit my hands.

My hands are barley flaring. Only a couple tiny blisters, compared to the fact that I had none the last few months, but no cracks or anything.

Below are pictures of my neck and arm.

No ooze, very little pain on my chest. I can still turn my head good. It was burning a teensy bit this morning on my drive to work but it was very mild. I think some nerve pain, but again very mild, almost not noticeable. It is only a bit itchy at night, but I scratch for maybe 10 minutes and it is not the deep itch from before. I think I scratch it through the night while I am sleeping more though. It is hard to control that. Pretty sure it is because I get too hot.

Other than that though I feel great. Still sleeping great, a ton of energy. My skin still holds moisture completely fine. Plus I am also getting pimples. lol

I really hope it does not get worse. I am trying not to stress about it and just trust God. 🙂

18 Months Update

Technically I will not be 18 months until the 29th, but there is no February 29. Lol So I am updating today.

This is just a quick note to say that I am doing amazing. My last post I said I was worried that I was starting to flare because my eyes were goopy again, but that cleared up quickly after I got better from being sick with a cold. No issues since! 🙂 My eyes are back to normal. I really do not have much to say. Everything is still pretty much the same everywhere else. My legs continue to slooooowly heal. I hope I can wear shorts this summer!

One thing I have also noticed in the last couple months is how much energy I have again. I knew my energy was lacking during my first year or so of TSW but now that I am feeling great I really realize it. The first year of TSW, I never wanted to cook or clean or do anything. Basically I just wanted to sit on my couch and that was it. Now I am cooking again and I have a ton of energy to get my house cleaned. I can go go go. It feels great. I just feel normal despite having a few lingering issues, and I am hopeful that those will clear in time. 🙂

16 Months Protopic Withdrawal

Things have been going really well for months 15 and now 16. My skin continues to heal. My skin can hold moisture. I apply moisturizer in the morning and then can get through all day without need to apply anymore. I hardly have any flaky skin. So no need to vacuum my bed out anymore. No oozing in the last two months. My legs are probably the worst, still scabby but way less than they were. They are healing slowly. I was getting hives on my arms in the mornings but even that in the last week or two has seemed to have gotten better. I sleep great. I have hardly any itching. Nothing like the hour long sessions I used to have. I do still scratch when I get too warm or sweaty, but my skin is strong. My skin is not red anymore. My neck is still a bit splotchy, which you can see below, but nothing like before. To those that do not know what I have been through I look normal! The skin still feels a little tight at night when turning my neck, but I can still do it easily, and I believe that will continue to heal. The splits on my hands have closed up. They do still get some bump or hives, I think its food related, but they are waaaaaay better than they were.

My arms still has some bumps, but this picture looks worse than my skin does in person.

I am doing really well right now. I am just trying to live my normal life and enjoy it. I do always have in the back of my mind a worry about flaring up again. I worry what the summer will bring next year, but I have to try not to worry.  I hope you take out of this that we all will heal. Be positive and keep your faith. Don’t give in no matter how hard it gets. If you have any questions, please ask. All the best for you all in 2015!

14 Months Off Protopic

Not a whole lot of changes to report this month. Everything has been pretty much status quo. The flaking is very minimal. Last week my neck was feeling rough for a few days and then one morning I woke up to it being a bit flaky. I rubbed it off in the shower and it has been smooth since. Still dry, but barely flaky. Itching is minimal as well. I have maybe three or four episodes a day, but they are very short lasting, and I sometimes wonder if it just starts out of me habitually scratching my neck (still my itchiest spot). I will have to try to keep a closer eye on it. I used to scratch sooo much before bed, but now I go quite a few nights a week with barely any scratching in bed. It is sooo nice. I am still a bit red. It varies day to day, but I do think it is getting better. More pinky in color rather than bright red. My legs are still scabby. They seem to take forever to heal, but could be cause I have trouble not picking it. UGH. Bad habits I tell ya. Sleep has been decent. My hair has been falling out again a bit. I am not too worried about it yet, but hopefully it won’t last long.

One positive to report is that just this morning actually, I noticed on my right hand, that the skin splits, which had been open, split, and oozy for MONTHS, are closed up!!!!! The last two days I have been doing a strict no dairy diet, so I wonder if it is related to that? My last allergy test did show I was allergic to dairy and I have been eating basically whatever I wanted to for months, so I guess we will see. J It could just be a fluke though. So hard to tell.

It has been cooling down here now and the air is getting drier. I hope it won’t affect my skin too much.

Hope you are all doing okay. On to month 15!

9 Months Protopic Withdrawal

Tomorrow is my 9 month anniversary.

Last night my neck flared up. No burning or anything. Just really itchy for about 15 minutes before bed. But I scratched really bad and even made my neck ooze. I then went to sleep but must have done more scratching in my sleep because my neck was really sore this morning and when I jumped in the shower, oh my sweet goodness that hurt! I have attached a picture. Basically its my neck, top of my chest, to the top and in between my breasts. The outsides of my breasts are weirdly not affected at all and have not been at all throughout this process. They are baby smooth. Cannot wait for the day my neck is baby smooth! You can see some of my normal skin colour creeping in there though! Exciting. 🙂

It is about 1:30 pm here now and my neck feels okay. Just a little tender to the touch and red. No oozing. It is shiny in the picture because there is cream on it. You can see my chin is a bit red too. It was also itchy.

The other thing is that we have finally had a few warm days here. I noticed while the rest of my body was okay, my neck hurt more when I was in the sun. I sooo badly want to get sun, as its supposed to be really good for us in the later stages, but I am so worried about making my neck worse. Anyone have any experience with this? I don’t have any burning or nerve pain. My neck is just red and itchy, but not nearly as itchy as it used to be. I guess I will just have to take it slowly.

Also attached is a picture of my leg. Still a bit scabby. I have some purple spots on my legs, where the scabs used to be and is still healing. I have a hard time not picking at my legs. Such a bad habit. I think that’s why they are taking so long to heal.

My ankles and feet are a bit red. They are a bit itchy sometimes too. I was putting Cetaphil cream on them and then Aquaphor on top of them to keep them moisturized. Well I am slowly starting to do moisturizer withdrawal to them. I just started this week no longer putting the Aquaphor on them, just the Cetaphil still. The skin there feels stronger already just doing that. I am trying this because I want to wear flip flops this year (I couldn’t last summer)! Anytime I try to not wear socks my feet get itchy. So I figure if I can toughen up the skin maybe I will be able to go without socks. So that is my current goal. I am easing into it.  🙂

Otherwise the rest of my body is still doing good and still the same as my last post. Hope you are all doing well!