9 months today, Pictures, and Study!

Today officially marks 9 months off topical steroids!  What a ride!!! Mostly bad, but there were some good times in there!

My life has been pretty hectic the last month with hubby getting in a car accident, buying a new vehicle, going back to work, and making plans to move to another state with my parents in tow!  As a traveling nurse, I get all of 2-3 days of orientation and then have to hit the floor running.  I started at a new hospital last week and my first day on my own was yesterday.  Typically it doesn't stress me out too much but during my week of orientation there were some glitches that caused me not to have access to everything I needed to do my job. So Tuesday night I was completely and utterly STRESSED about going into work.  It all went smoothly and all glitches were fixed by the time I started at 11 am, but boy did I get my self worked up!  The biggest thing nurses worry about is making mistakes....as a mistake can kill a person.  I get stressed if I am trying to learn something new while at the same time be responsible for someone's life.  So I stressed out thinking I would not have all I needed to do my job.  So that put my skin into even more of a flare yesterday.  BUT I still did not ooze nor did I have any swelling at all! I did have more redness in my neck and I did scratch myself silly last night when I got home.  But even with all the scratching, I still did not need to vacuum or change my sheets.  Hubby put new sheets on the bed during the day and this morning I just brushed a few flakes off.  Even though I am in a (semi) flare, I am shocked at how much less I am shedding. HUGE difference than before.  With all the stress I have gone through this month, I would have expected things to be so much worse.  So I started thinking maybe the supplements ARE doing something....if only to reduce some of the harsher symptoms.  I have started a new study page for anyone interested:  http://stoppingtopicalsteroids.blogspot.com/p/tsw-study-page.html

As for how my skin looks now....these are from this afternoon:

Right lower leg - the worst spot during the end of my 7-8 month long flare.  Still can't shave but swelling is gone and redness is localized.

\

Right foot healing - just dry and itchy

Back of right knee where I had extensive oozing and pain for many months - now all localized redness and no pain.  No swelling- just fat from lack of serious exercise.

Left arm a bit chewed up - but no swelling or oozing - just dry and itchy - also no pain

Close up of right wrist - I have a link at the bottom to previous pictures where the thickness of the TSW can be seen on my hands and wrists.  This is a thin layer of dryness now....no more redness or lumpy thick areas.

The right side of my face where I had a lot of oozing and problems.  Just a few scabby areas exacerbated by my picking (probably increased from stress).

Currently my  worst area and only place I have significantly redness and some pain - nothing like before as I can turn my head freely without extra pain. All pain is surface burning.

Left inner arm where I just scratched this morning. Very dry - but all scabs and "eczema" like areas all feel surface deep.  Nothing feels like that bone deep stuff I felt the first 7-8 months of TSW 

My almost clear face - a few sores on my mouth were  exacerbated this week with running a fever from that viral thing.  

Close up of L hand shows again that the thickness I had is now gone.  

You can view some older pictures to compare here (During June):  http://stoppingtopicalsteroids.blogspot.com/2013/06/flare-pics.html

And here (During July when I was having what I then considered a "break"):

http://stoppingtopicalsteroids.blogspot.com/2013/07/beginning-my-3-5-day-break.html