Friday 7 March 2014

8 Days no Topical Steroids



So yesterday was a bit of mile stone for me… I actually can't remember the last time that I went for longer than a week with no TS. I'd say probably at least 5 or 6 years ago! So I can say that right now I am pretty proud of myself :)

I think theres a couple of reasons I can contribute to this… firstly is not having used moisturiser since end of November last year. Funnily enough, I still use moisturiser on my face and thats where I get the most rashy these days. Coincidence much? I think not! … secondly, its still really nice and warm here in Perth, I've been getting a bit of sun over the weekends and my skins loving the warm weather … and thirdly… well there actually isn't a thirdly!!

The condition of my skin yesterday was red. Haha really RED, not swollen, I started to get a few tiny cracks on my hands and a little rashy behind my knees (no real rashes anywhere else), no energy, not sleeping to great and just felt a little bit 'sore' everywhere, kind of a hard feeling to describe. These symptoms had really only popped up in the last couple of days. I also applied TS last night after my shower as I've got stuff on this weekend so Im back to normal again this morning and maybe I'll make it to 9 days next week…

Its quite strange how I decided on my quit date and gave myself permission to keep using the roids whenever I needed to and to not feel guilty about it, but since quitting the moisturisers I have unwittingly been slowly tapering my usage. I really hope this doesn't affect the length of time it takes me to fully flare after quitting completely.

I've put a lot of plans in place for this recovery. I'm actually flying back to New Zealand at the end of this month to take my 6 month sabbatical living back home with either my mum or my sister… who ever can put up with me the best!! haha. Which is when I will either end up deep in TSW hell… or I'll be able to function enough to get my own business up and running.

Some days I feel positive about what this experience is going to bring.. other days I feel full of dread… mainly of the unknown. But I'm 100% sure that I'll come out on the other side as a better person one way or another :)


On a side note: Still haven't received my MTHFR gene tests back yet. Fingers crossed for next week!