Month 7!!

So, I am 5 days into month 7 and feeling great! Still very itchy at night, but my affected areas are waaay less red than before. My arms are actually almost white! The problem areas on my face have indeed localized to around my mouth and between the eyes, the only places I actually applied the steroids. Also, my neck is still a bit rough because I applied hydrocortisone there too. But overall, way more good days and way less bad days. I hope this upward trend continues!

And the cycle continues...

Good news, my flare burned out in 4 days! Now, I am just really dry but not red and burning anymore. I'd take dryness over redness any day. Here's a picture of my face 4 days ago:

Though you can't really tell in the picture, the red blotchy areas were slightly raised and bumpy. My nose was the only clear area! Now, here's today's picture, compared to my unaffected hand.

Still a bit pink compared to my hand, but my hand is REALLY pale. Anyway, it is miles better compared to 4 days ago. There's no swelling, no patches, smooth, but just a bit flaky. I hope all of my flares will continue to be this short!

It's that time again...

Yup, it's time for that monthly flare! The one that signals my time of the month, is worse than all others, undoes all progress of the entire month, puts me in a pit of depression, and reminds me that my TSW is far from over. My face was doing so, so well and was almost perfectly clear for 3 blissful weeks. Then, it just exploded into a red, blotchy, raised rash, itchy mess, completely different from all of the flare ups I've had before. It could've been a real allergic reaction, but it's hard to say because now I am oozing from my chest and shoulders again. And, my period is due soon so that could explain it. I'm just praying that the oozing doesn't get worse and the flare won't last long. Sigh. It completely sucks when you see so much progress and you're just getting back into normality when everything just reverses itself.

Hope you're all hanging in there, let's see what happens!

Great...

Kind of indulged and had a hamburger, fries, and a soda. Now, the whole area around my mouth is red and my face is splotchy. Sigh....what a bad idea....

Burning red

My chest and arms are quite dry, red and burning today. Not to mention painful! It feels as if every time I move my arms I can just feel all the rough, dry skin shifting and it stings :( Hopefully this flare dies down in the next couple of days. Sigh. My face is doing well though!

Mini-flare

I believe I'm flaring now, the one that usually comes before my time of the month as usual. I'm finding it to be quite tolerable, just a bit redder and drier than usual. There is a tiny wet patch on my shoulder but my time-of-the-month flares are usually WAY worse. My face is the least affected out of all the areas, no swelling and only a bit pink.

Here, you can kind of see the pink patchy area that stops below my neck and continues to my normal back skin:

Arms:

Right wrist:

The patches on my arms and back of neck/shoulders are slowly merging and spreading to form solid red...D: But, my face is getting better and better and no longer having major flares! That's fine with me, for now, because the other areas can simply be covered up with a long sleeve tee. Hope you're all doing well!

Half way through month 6!

So far, things are going pretty well! My face has gotten WAY better. I think I might be mini-flaring today because my face is a bit pinker than usual, but it is NOTHING compared to a month ago. They really are correct when they say flares get less and less intense! My skin is still super dry and flaky, but my Aveeno usually does the trick. The itch is still crazy at night, and my sleeping schedule is still messed up, but I am just so relieved that my face is getting better. Time to show people that I can actually look normal after 6 months of red skin, swollen face, and crazy triple eyelids. Ugh.

I have noticed that I get the most itchy around certain nerves and veins, such as my inner arms, back of the knees, neck, armpit area. If I'm correct, this is where some major arteries and veins lie. Perhaps it has something to do with cortisol levels? Or maybe the histamine flowing through my blood? I would really love to study this in college in hopes of someday finding more clear answers to our predicament, but I'm daunted by the amount of studying I'd have to do to enter the medical field. Plus, independent research is hard to do. I'm planning to major in some sort of science, so hopefully I can figure out my path from there. I think that enough people have suffered this hard that something HAS to be done. No one on earth should have to go through this....it's really comparable to a devised torture method. The only thing that kept me sane was knowing that it would be over in 1-2 years. If healing time would be, say, 5 years, I honestly don't know if I would be able to do it.

I hope you all see progress soon! It is truly the best feeling.