EczeMAD: Lots of medications

Do I need all these medications?

I’m on a few medications for my severe eczema. CellCept (mycophenolate) is an immunosuppresent oral steroid I’ve been on for six months. My allergist prescribed me a low dosage (250 milligrams) with the intention of slooooowly chipping away at the severity of my eczema without shocking my skin. I’m also on Xyxol (levocetirizine) which I’ve heard is just another type of antihistamine designed to lessen the itchiness. I take one pill of each every single day.

Do I need these medications?

SS 01
I can’t even pronounce this darn thing.

I want to be cured of my Eczema through natural means but medicine is difficult to avoid. I’ve already declined Topical Steroids—I’m pretty sure I’ve reached my current, horrible skin status from my being on that stuff for almost 20 years. My skin grew dependent on it.

In that past year I’ve quit, my eczema did a nose dive. Weeping sores. Turning red. Infection. I’ve had to be on several medications to reduce the infections. CellCept isn’t like Topical Steroids or Prednisone (what awesome meds!); my skin didn’t clear up within a day. My skin sank even lower for a whole month when I began CellCept. I was ready to ‘WTH’ it and give up. But now eight months in my skin has been its best since I gave up the steroid creams.

SS 02
Ugh – my neck is still effed up. And my upper lip and eyelids too.

But like I said—I was hoping to clear up naturally.

Honestly I don’t know whether my skin is better because in addition to CellCept I’m STILL performing my long list of constantly evolving skin care (read about some of it here). But I’m too scared to quit my meds cold turkey. And of course I worry whether all these meds will have some sort of long-term negative effect. I already know I can’t get pregnant for a few months AFTER I eventually quit CellCept.

To make things worse, for the past three months my skin has been weeping in a… certain location. I won’t tell you the specifics yet but when I finally brought it up to my allergist, he had it tested… and… surprise! Staph infection! (Unfortunately—I’m no stranger to that) So now for ten days I have to take Bactrim twice a day to clear that up.

That’s three meds for my eczema. Seriously?

And hey… my nose is very clogged up… probably from my plant allergies. I don’t want to add Zyrtec or Claritin to the list. Aren’t those also antihistemines? Shouldn’t my Xyxol be taking care of this clogged nose then?

So that’s my life right now. Getting better but slowly.

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