Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? Should I have seen bigger results by now?

I’m hoping I’m just flaring up right now as opposed to a full regression because my skin is getting flaky again. Lots of dryness and flakiness. Lots of vacuuming and sweeping up after myself again. Lots of waking up feeling like a stiff zombie.  Lots of reluctance over standing up or even walking because the movement causes my dry skin to stretch and bunch together and it hurts. And working out? Sigh… I really wish….

I’ve been following an ever-evolving, rather disciplined skin regimen for more than a year as well as taking the immunosupprent CellCept for the past seven months. As I mentioned in my past post (see here) I feel WAY better than I did one year ago. Way, way better. But looking at these pictures a second time I’m wondering… shouldn’t I be almost healed by now?

Wow, my skin looks horrible. It has many tiny, fresh wounds – obviously a result from my trying to relieve the itchiness. And what’s up with my shins? ARGH! Whoa seriously? For most of 2014 into 2015 my shins grew patches of an almost grayish, reptile scale print. These areas weren’t very itchy. Then towards the end of 2015 the patches began to turn 3D; now they look like clusters of flat, gray pimples protected with hard shells. They don’t hurt, but they’re starting to itch… so it this a result of my eczema?

I’m worried because a couple of those hard, gray pimples have appeared isolated on my arms and thighs.

The area behind my knees is itchy again. I hope that calms soon because I’m worried about the skin weeping. In the past nothing would calm that down except for a doctor’s prescription.

My neck and arms win the prize for ‘most likely to get itchy.’ Since I prefer to keep these areas exposed (I think the fresh air is better for healing) I also feel more self-conscious. Well… the world has seen those areas when they were much worse… I guess I can deal.

I have to get mentally prepared every time I step into the shower or bath… all that water touching my open wounds. Everywhere– my back, arms, legs– when the water rushes over them at first it’s like getting stabbed by needles. This is when I dislike myself the most. Why couldn’t I stop myself from scratching? I hope I can have a calm shower time again soon.

So… I’m back on this roller coaster of skin emotions again. I’m definitely better overall, it just sucks thinking I’m taking a couple steps back. I just wish I knew what was causing this.

Stay tuned… I have some good news from my equally-eczema affected sister. However she has drastically improved recently and I’m thinking of doing something similar.

I’m not a medical or health professional; just a young lady who’s had eczema since birthday uno. It was manageable until 1.5 years ago when my skin took a nose-dive. Since then I’ve immersed myself in finding a non-topical steroid way to manage it. Check out my EczeMAD page and videos for more.