Improvements

I'm approaching month 6 and my face actually looks pretty normal. There is still slight redness and flaking in some parts but overall I see a lot of white and baby smooth skin! Plus, no swollen eyelids, and I think my eyebrows are slowly growing back. I'm actually starting to look like myself again, ha. I don't know if this is simply a quiet period or if my face is finally returning to normal (I pray that it's the latter). My face has been feeling normal for about 5 days now, so I really hope it'll stay like this! Senior portrait coming up in a week....

My collarbone/chest area has been the worst at the moment. It's constantly itching, especially at night which gives me zero sleep until around 8 AM. It's like a bone-deep itch that tingles if I don't itch yet gets itchier the more I scratch it...I'm sure we've all experienced it.  It's gotten less red though, and hopefully this intense itch is a healing itch.

My left arm is slowly normalizing, but it's weird because the previously red patches have turned a light pink color which is lighter than my actual skin tone...I guess it's better than red though!

Right arm is still pretty bad, very dry with a lot of scabs. However, I used to get a lot of pimples on this arm which have went away.

Overall, I think I have made progress. The itch continues to be horrible, but my skin is smoothing out. Hope all of you see progress soon, it gives me hope that I will heal.

Shedding

I've been shedding A LOT today. Perhaps that's a good sign, as I think I'm ending a flare. My neck, chest, and arms look a lot less red today! My neck, for the first time since I started TSW, feels smooth and completely rid of cuts and lesions. I'm praying that some day my face and chest will be this smooth. I find it very hard to be optimistic during this, but little moments like these give me hope. Hope you're all doing well!

Flare

I'm feeling very flare-y today. I'm not even sure if this is a flare because I've had the same symptoms for around 2 consecutive weeks already, but today my skin feels hotter and redder.. Usually, my flares last only a week and start dying down. Yesterday was weird because my eyelids randomly started swelling up in the middle of the day. I'm thinking it could have been the chocolate I ate earlier, or perhaps I had too much salt. Throughout withdrawal I haven't really been careful with my diet (I mean, I AM a highschooler) but now I will start controlling my sugar intake and watching out for that salt also.

Progress Pictures So Far!

Month 1: I had very mild symptoms in month 1, just redness/rash between my eyebrows and around my mouth. These were the most recent areas that I had applied the steroids before quitting.

Month 2: The rashes began to spread out. One formed on my neck, which is also an area where I had applied a bit of steroid. I also began feeling the intense itch in my neck and disrupted sleep. The corners of my lips would crack and ooze, leaving a crust in the morning. (I think these pictures make it look less red because of the bright lighting : /)

Month 3: Again, more spreading, itching, and OOZING! My neck began to ooze profusely throughout the night, making sleep impossible for a while.

Month 4: Mouth area seems to stop cracking and oozing, but my face and neck have gone completely red and burning. My arms begin to show splotchy rashes and my ears begin to flake and ooze.

 Huge improvement:

 Flare when my cheeks began to crack and ooze:

Neck and chest:

Today, month 5: Face is getting....slightly better? Nothing too dramatic but sometimes my face is lighter than my neck and chest. It still burns constantly, though. Another plus, my neck has stopped oozing for now! However, my arms are starting to worsen and I'm afraid I'll have the red sleeve soon. My chest/shoulder area has been in a cycle of crack, ooze, flake, repeat.

Shoulder/Collarbone area:

Good news is, I end school for the summer in 3 days! No more crawling out of bed at 6:30 AM! Here's to a summer of relaxation and healing. 

Introductions

Hello my red skin friends! My name is M and I am sixteen years old living in Southern California. I began withdrawal February 2013 and am currently around 5.5 months off of topical steroids! I have lurked for quite some time on the  ITSAN forum and facebook group, but have not had the guts to make a discussion or blog until now :). I hope to find solace in the blogging community and somehow help others going through this by sharing my journey. Here's a little history on my life with eczema and steroid usage:

I had eczema ever since I was a young child, the usual arm crease, back of the knees, and around my mouth.   I remember my arm creases were especially bad, as I had to wear bandages around them a lot. My sisters also tell me that they would hear me scratching my arms intensely at night because we shared a room. I also had childhood asthma, but that went away when I was still very young. My mother applied hydrocortisone and another topical steroid that was prescribed by my pediatrician (sorry we can't remember the name) on these areas, but she was wary with them because she heard about stunted growth from steroid use. As I grew older I had pretty clear skin except for a few minor areas. These included a bit of flakiness on my neck and mouth area, splits on the underside of my earlobe where it connects to my neck, and the rash on my arm crease would return from time to time. However, none of these problems would even compare to what I have now!

Around my middle school years (ages 12-13) I began noticing the flaking and rash on my neck. My mother gave me a Japanese cream to use, as my grandmother advised her that it healed her rashes. Little did we know, it was actually a topical steroid! At the time I was pretty much unaware of the dangers of steroids, so I applied the cream whenever my rash was particularly bad. I didn't notice dramatic healing, but it seemed to keep the rash at bay so I continued to use it on my neck and arms. Then, last year, I began noticing that the corners of my lips would split and crack. I always had dry, flaky lips, but this alarmed me. I researched online and thought it could be angular cheilitis, which is a bacterial/fungal problem. Also, as I am a dancer, I began discovering that I would get heart palpitations after dancing that would cause dizziness and fatigue. I thought I was anemic, but I was tested and my iron levels were fine. Around April 2012 I went to my GP and she gave me Clotrimazole, an antifungal topical steroid. I read the label and it said only those 17 or older should use the cream, so I was very apprehensive and used it only about 3 times on the corners of my lips. It worked fantastically, but soon the splits were back. I also developed dandruff and flaking on my scalp, but that went away after I used a shampoo called T-Sal recommended by my dermatologist.

Then, around January 2013 after having applied the Japanese steroid to the corners of my lips for quite some time, I developed a cracked, raised rash around my mouth. I was horrified as this had never happened before and rushed to a dermatologist, who prescribed me Triamcinolone Acetonide and told me to use it twice a day for a week. I asked her if there were any alternatives, because I was still worried about steroids and the risk of them affecting my growth. She told me to use a few samples of Protopic, but I found that it did nothing for me. I rushed home and applied the Triamcinolone around my mouth, and lo and behold it cleared up beautifully within a day! I was ecstatic; any traces of flakiness or redness was GONE. It was almost unnatural looking, the skin was too flawless I must say. It kind of scared me! After following her directions and applying diligently, I stopped after the one week was up. And sure enough, the rash returned full force in the exact same manner as before. This is when I knew something was wrong and began researching online. I discovered ITSAN and topical steroid withdrawal, and that is where my journey began!

I hope that this history wasn't too long...I'll update my photo progress so far very soon! Thanks for reading, I hope you have an itch free day guys!