Month 14

Things are back to stagnant ok-ness. However, my face is doing worse than usual which is always a bummer.

Sigh. I hope things start clearing up soon.

Feeling Down

Sorry for sounding so depressing lately but things have been going downhill for me. Apparently I'm back to flaring once a week with the whole package: oozing, raised bumps, redness, deep itching and all. I think I also had insomnia tonight as well, something that I haven't had for 6 months now. Plus, I have a ballet recital that I have been working on for months coming up in a few days and God knows if I'll be able to do it..I'm especially discouraged this time because I have desperately tried not to let tsw interfere with one of the only things that make me happy, dance. All this time I have worked so hard to be able to perform in this show, trucking on despite how horrible my skin was making me feel. And today, waking up to oozing and painful skin, having a 5 hour rehearsal to go to, I just couldn't do it. If tsw is supposed to teach me some sort of lesson or turn me into a better person, I'm not seeing how. It is ruining my senior year and the last times I will probably ever perform on stage...things I will never be able to relive. Please pray for me as I will be for all of us suffering.

Month 13

...is not looking good so far. I've just started flaring up today, which makes twice in one month already. I knew I was flaring because I could feel the raised, red, bumpy skin form around my neck that oozed a bit. Also, all of the tsw affected areas on me just seemed to get redder and radiate heat. I am really disheartened that I'm still flaring like this because I thought I would be healed at this point...it just makes me wonder when I will ever heal. Will I be walking for graduation with a red face? Will I start my first day of college still itching and flaking? I pray not, but it seems like this is what the future holds for me.

Not again...

 I guess this flare was not so mild after all...

The redness around my shoulders is slowly creeping back toward the center of my chest which I thought had cleared up...

Arms/wrists are bad as usual...

Hopefully this is just a phase and everything will return to normal. I so wish that I could simply do a system restore on my skin and revert it to how it was 2 years ago.

1 Year TSW Anniversary!

I have officially made it to one year!! Honestly I thought I would be healed by now, but that's ok. I have made a lot of progress and have recently had a flare, but it was way milder than my previous ones. Overall my condition isn't too good, but there are many good things as well. My entire front chest, which used to be covered in rough, red skin has returned completely to normal! It is so smooth and soft that I can't even believe it used to be affected. This has given me hope that some day my entire body will return to such great skin. Also, I don't flare often. Most of the time I have a period of calm skin that is still a bit pink, but manageable. One year down, and hopefully a very short time more to go. Keep on going everyone!

Update

Long time no talk! I hope everyone had a great holiday and new years and are ready to make some more progress! My condition has been pretty stagnant for the past 2 months, and while things are bearable there is still a lot of room for improvement. My armpits have begun to flare, and my neck has been quite bad lately. No ooze (THANK GOD) but my skin is still extremely dry and flaky. Also, my scalp has been flaking quite often like it has been 2 years ago.  I somehow got rid of that by using Neutrogena's T-Sal shampoo, so I'm going to try that again. The areas between my eyes and above my lip have been constantly red and flaky, and I haven't seen any "breaks" in this flare. Hoping that my TSW year anniversary will bring more change for the better.

Starting Month 11!

Time for a quick update! I'm just a few days into month 11, which means the end of next month is my 1 year TSW anniversary! I seriously cannot believe I have come this far and made it through those horrors of the early months. As for my condition right now, I feel like things are gradually returning to normal. I no longer return home from school bone dry, having to hurry and apply moisturizer, throw on a tank top, and put my hair in a bun all day. Sometimes I can just come home and stay in my clothes and be fine! Also, showers are way less of a pain now. I can actually enjoy the hot water instead of having to rush because everything stings. Main problem areas now are arms, wrists, shoulders, armpits, back of armpits, and back of knees. My neck has also been flaring up recently, but now I have the cold weather as an excuse to wear a scarf! Instead of slathering vaseline on everything, I can now get away with just applying some Aveeno daily moisturizer and some grape seed oil. Kind of on  the fence about the oil because I want my skin to learn how to produce oils again. Face is doing pretty well, just some redness between the eyes and above the lip. These areas are where I applied the steroids most recently so it's no surprise. Anyway, things are looking good and life is becoming livable again. I know that I probably won't be completely healed by next month, but maybe within next year! Stay strong everyone.