6 MONTHS!! I made it :)

To be exact 6 months and 4 days or 186 days. Any way slacker over here hasn't been updating as I usually have been just because the last 6 weeks have been SO busy. We've moved house, had our engagement party, I finally brought a car after being carless for the last 6 months, my little business is really starting to take off and life in general is starting to seem a little more normal than it was at the beginning of all this.

Heres a wee (long) recap of whats been going on skin wise over the last 6 weeks...

Days 130 - 138  After getting the Clofibrate Ointment and Repair lotion my skin was relatively calmish for a week or so then I looked like this...

Day 138

I think day 138 was the start of my next flare up. The night sweats came back again after being gone for a couple of weeks. I was more itchy. More red. Had a couple of zingers. My skin was generally more dry, flakey and sensitive. I also got a wee bit of ooze behind my left ear.

Day142

I had a few days around here when I started feeling really down and unsure of everything. 

Day 147

TOP day 150 - BOTTOM day 105

Hand comparison pics after using the repair lotion on my hands every day after my shower. They are definitely not this good every day but still a lot better than they were

5 Month anniversary on day 152.  I also managed my first full day out of the house without feeling absolutely 100% shattered afterwards. 

Day 157

Day 164

Day 165

Day 166 - Our engagement party! (with a bit of make-up!)

I managed to cope really well on the day of our engagement party. I'd had a pretty stressful week leading up to it as we moved house the weekend before so I was still trying to unpack boxes as well as cook and make a couple of decorations. I'm very glad that my part-time contract had finished the week before so I had plenty of spare time. 

Unfortunately I think the stress may have finally gotten to me and pushed me into another flare (luckily it was the week AFTER the party :) ). I had a super painful neck, sore, dry, zingers, itchy as heck. Was on the painkillers every day for about a week.

I didn't get any pics of this flare but these next pics are the tail end when its getting a bit calmer again.. note the super dry stretched skin from turning my neck?!

Day 178

Two day after this I had the most amazing skin day I've had this whole journey!! My face was literally perfect except for one red patch on my left cheek! I was absolutely amazed!! No swelling! When I did the pinch test my skin felt thin and normal (not inflamed and thick/swollen).... and then of course I had to totally go and ruin it by eating absolute CRAP.. I think for lunch I ate a whole bag of salt and vinegar chips all to myself and a whole lot of this sickly sweet chocolate slice thing that my mum made (I've got no self control when it comes to sweet stuff - so I usually don't have any in the house!) PLUS takeaways for dinner.... oh my heck.

So that brought on my next flare which thankfully has only lasted for the week... worst on my face but it also affected my hands neck and inner elbows, plus a split on my ear that had been healed up for a month or so also broke open again.

One thing I have noticed which I've found a bit strange is that I'm on the tail end of this flare up but the last 2 nights I've had night sweats again which I haven't had for about 3 weeks. Don't know whats going on there.

In between all these little flares I've also managed to cut back on my sleeping meds. I think I went about a week without taking any before the engagement party and then just the last three nights I haven't had any either. I think I'll take one tonight as my sleeping has been getting a bit crappier again. Last night I went to bed 9.30pm. Woke up at 11.30pm, 2.30am, 3.30am, 5.30am with the sweats, then back to sleep until 8am. I'm SO lucky that I'm able to sleep in a bit in the morning after nights like those.

Today - Day 186

So in 6 months I've managed to go from this .................................... to this. Yippee :) heres hoping the next 6 months are as positive.

Here are also a couple of my updated infographics......