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.

Great break!

HALLELUJAH! Finally a nice break! I am really beginning to see the healing going on and the red areas slowly receding.

Face is looking super good! Just a bit flaky.

Chest redness is starting to recede, now localized to the shoulders.

Neck still has room for improvement, but it's getting there!

My elbow was super cut up a few days ago, and now the cracks are disappearing.

The camera kind of washed out the redness on my wrist, but it's less red than usual!

Probably the worst area for me right now. Again, the camera makes it look less red.

Red sleeve is lightening up!

Overall, things are looking good. I still itch a lot, but I think it's more out of habit now. It's also more of a surface itch than deep down. I'm still SUPER dry, but I think that may be because of a dependence on moisturizer. I'm going to start weaning of moisturizer and oils, limiting myself to three applications a day, or more if I'm seeing people. Hopefully as I finish up my 10th month I'll be a step closer to healed. Hope you're all doing well, and know that this journey will end!

Starting month 10...

...not quite so well. Face flaring up again, but it's not too bad! It's mainly the eyelids giving me trouble. On the other hand, I think the rest of my body is in a break. Here are some long awaited pictures!

Here's my left arm, mainly white except for that stubborn inner elbow (where I applied the most steroids when I was younger, so it makes sense) I admit that the wounds are mostly caused by scratching...gah.

Right arm is better than left, but again that inner elbow:

Right wrist (so much elephant skin when I flex my palm!)

Left wrist:

Chest is pretty good right now!

I  think that I'm slowly coming out of that huge flare during month 8 and making more progress. Let's hope that month 10 will bring more healing!!

Ending month 9

Sorry for not updating in a while! I've been really busy with school and dance, and I should be doing college apps right now but I wanted to update you guys. I think that things are finally starting to calm down! Had my usual end of the month flare but it wasn't bad at all! Barely any oozing and things didn't get too red. Now, I'm just shedding off a bunch of skin, hopefully to reveal new and healed skin underneath. Dance show is coming up in 2 weeks so I hope my skin will behave for that! Also, my face has been doing really well, and I'm hoping that it's closed to healed. I don't get red, burning skin all over my face anymore, but I do get some minor pink patches around my eyelids and cheeks. In addition, my sleep is completely normal!! I never knew that this would happen, but it's great to be sleeping again. I think that going back to school really helped because I have to get up at 7:30 on the dot each day. I'll hopefully post up some pictures later when I have time!

What I Look Forward to After TSW

1. Waking up comfortably and just rolling out of bed, ready to start a new day, instead of being bone dry and unable to move)
2. Not scratching for hours
3. Being able to take long, hot showers
4. Wearing tanktops, short sleeves, and shorts
5. Not having to sweep flakes off of every surface I touch
6. Not having to bring a tub of vaseline with me everywhere
7. Wearing perfume
8. Wearing jewelry
9. Not having to constantly spread vaseline over my painful, flaky, rough skin
10. Having soft, smooth, white skin
11. Not having to worry about flares and when they will occur
12. Not having to remove dead skin from under my nails
13. Feeling human

I'll probably add more to this when I think of some...

Starting Month 9

Started month 9 about 5 days ago, and I must say things are still pretty rough. Today, I woke up with ok skin, super flaky and dry but not too red, and by the end of the night I started oozing around my neck. Also, my eyelids, mouth, and forehead are red and flaky. Arms are the worst at the moment, constantly red, flaky, and covered in scabs. Assuming that what happened last month was the start of the second wave, I'm praying that things will start to get better from now on. I'm so tired of wearing long sleeve shirts every second of my life and having to shake flakes off of everything I own. Sigh, hopefully I'm close to the end.

The Itch!

UGH! The itch is especially horrible with this flare, and scratching makes everything really painful. I pray that this is the healing itch and that it's a step closer to the end.