3 days ago I hit my 17th month of TSW. Nothing new to report. Life is good. I still remain 90% or so clear. I have had no mini flares in the past week or so. But dealing with dry skin on arms and small patches on face and back. Then there are my fingers. When I returned to work last October, within a month my hands broke out severely. I chalked it up to the harsh soaps I have to use at work. I worked for about 3 months then had to stop working as my hands were only getting worse. I went back to work about 2 months ago with nearly all clear hands and fingers. Well now my fingers are all broken out. Good news is the back of my hands remain all clear. I wrap my fingers with waterproof tape each day I work. But they continue to get worse. So now I am at an impasse. I can't afford to quit work again yet I don't know if my fingers will clear up while working. I'm happy that it is only my fingers this time - and it took an additional month to start breaking open compared to last time. To me that means a lot of healing has taken place. I am contracted until October. I am praying I can make it 3 more months and then take a month break.
As for other things - my energy levels have remained mediocre...not bad but not steadily improving like I had initially seen when I switched brands of glutathione. My energy went up and then stopped. Thankfully I have not had a drop in energy. However I feel stagnant. Stagnant in energy levels and in healing. By no means am I complaining - it is a joy to be in this place. I have my life back. But now I really want to focus on getting well all around - not just my skin.
I had mentioned before something called TBA (total body analysis). It is an alternative health thing that many people see as bizarre or pseudoscience. We are all entitled to our opinions. For me as a nurse I see modern medicine as doing more harm than good these days. I disagree with a lot of common practices. And as someone who has been severely damaged health wise by modern medicine, I choose to seek alternatives. I tried acupuncture and found it to be so-so. I have tried all sorts of things. But I found TBA to be something reliable even though I do not understand completely how it works. I have been to a few independent TBA practitioners in the past and they were always spot on. But since I was on the steroids at the time I think my immune system had a hard time with the remedies even though I saw amazing improvements in my overall health. So this time I went to the top person - the doctor who discovered this himself. I sent in my information a few weeks ago and received a call from the office 2 or 3 days ago - he said he was not going to waste my money as when he started the scan he immediately saw that my immune system was severely out of whack and needed re-building before I could take any remedies. So he didn't complete the full scan - he said it would be a waste. He said I needed at least 2 months of re-building my immune system before he felt I should try again. I was both discouraged by this news and happy all at the same time. Here I thought with all the diet changes and supplements that my immune system was getting better. But it reminded me of just how severe the damage is internally from 30 years of steroids. I guess I was expecting too much at 17 months. But I was happy he was honest with me and didn't rip me off. He recommended pure wheat grass juice along with minerals daily for the next 2 months and then we will try again.
So now I wait for the wheat grass juice I ordered to come in and started up on echinacea and goldenseal. I'm already taking all sorts of vitamins. So I thought while I'm at it I will eat nothing but fruits and veggies for the next 4 weeks and give my body a rest from any heavy digestion. I'll see how it goes.
As for other news: I made it to the dentist for the first time in 9 years - yes NINE years. I had a horrible experience years ago when I had my wisdom teeth out - they knew they were impacted but though they could do it under local. Well 25+ shots later they finally drilled out all 4 of them. And not all the shots worked well so I ended up feeling more pain than I should have. I have a high tolerance for pain but that was pretty bad. So since then I went to the dentist less and less - each time I went my anxiety just got worse. And with having kids and traveling, well the dentist fell off my priority list for myself. 3 years ago I got a really bad toothache - had someone at work look at it and they said I had a big cavity in my molar. I researched alternatives ways to fix toothaches and found that cod liver oil can actually reverse cavities. I knew my cavity was probably too big at that point to fix naturally but I gave it a go. Within a few days my toothache went away and I carried on with life. Had no sensitivities in my mouth and pretty much forgot about it - but all along taking the cod liver oil (with butter oil) on a daily basis. Then a few weeks ago that back molar broke - had about 1/4 of it come out - now I really had a hole in my tooth! UGH! So I sucked it up and called the dentist (mind you I've always had dental insurance so that was never a factor - just my fear). Went in today and here is what they found:
NO CAVITIES!!! I had a ton of plaque and moderate gingivitis. In fact the hygienist asked when I had the molar next to the broken one filled. I said I never had a filling except once on a baby tooth but that came out as a kid. She insisted this molar either had a filling or a sealant. I said I had sealants put on as a kid - but they were the yearly fluoride ones - nothing permanent. She looked confused and said my tooth was like a rock and it felt like a porcelain filling. Nope. Then she looked at the broken tooth and said she saw no decay at all so I must have fractured my tooth somehow - nope - have had no facial trauma or injuries at all. All I can think is the cod liver oil and butter oil did what it claims to do - rebuilds the teeth. There is no other logical explanation. So that was the good news! The bad news is I had so much plaque that my cleaning had to be divided into 2 visits - so I have to return next week! UGH! But they are really good at this office - she was nice enough to use the extra strength topical lidocaine to numb my gums during the cleaning as they were pretty sensitive. Hoping I have the will to return next week. I know I will end up going as my kids will pretty much make me go. They were really bothered when my tooth broke - so much that they got into brushing their teeth multiple times a day instead of just before bed. Now they are making sure hubby and I are brushing our teeth as well. :)
Well off to bed here soon. Hope everyone is having a good skin day! If not, hang in there - there is a light at the end of that very dark tunnel! Trust me - I was there once and I never could imagine ever seeing the light again! But I did! And you will too!
