3 weeks, and a great improvement.

So, 3 weeks Of no steroids, and finally, the tightness has lifted. I have stopped washing my face at night and just using hot water and a flannel, occasionally with Epsom salts in the morning the romve the flaky skin. After that its more sweet almond oil. The spots are still there, but not really sore, occasionally itchy though. Here is a pic

This is easily covered up with makeup thankfully, although I've sucked it up ad gone makeup free to work for the last week to give my skin a break. 

It was my intention to do the same today until a tactless colleague I haven't seen for a while ran up to me and told me I looked awful and should I home and proceeded to tell other people how awful I looked. Thanks. Quietly saying "it's a skin condition" did nothing either, so I had to jun to the toilets and apply makeup or risk being touted as the next elephant man. My skin is finally feeling normally I the touch, if only a little rough around my nose and mouth. I'm really feeling good at this point, and even stupid comments from thoughtless people can't stop me!!

2 weeks and counting!

2 weeks today! I don't wan to tempt fate but it's going well. The spots have almost stopped appearing, and I haven't been wearing makeup so I've been able to apply sweet almond oil as soon as I feel any tightening. Today is the best day so far, my skin is not as red, nearly no spots and the strange purple/red patches around my eyes have nearly disappeared. Here are a couple of pics from today

The flakyness has nearly stopped also, I think this is due to my approach. No chemicals/soap/scratching and only sweet almond oil on my skin. I appreciate I sound a bit smug, (I feel a bit smug!) But other people suffer much, much worse than this so I tip my hat to them. Here is a picture of me before, just for comparison

That's me bottom left in the red, nice calm skin. I'm still getting swelling in the mornings, but I does go down much faster. 

More photos and progress!!!

So as I said in the last post, 1 week and 4. Days in.

Feeling much better throughout the day, however when I wake up my eyes are really swollen, this has happened or about the last three days, so my routine has become as follows;

Get up and straight into Epsom salts bath, and using a flannel gently wipe the flaky skin away and press the hot flannel against my face, this seems to take a bit of the swelling down and loosen the tight skin.

Immediately after that slather my face in sweet almond oil, which requires reapplying 10 minutes later. 

Take ibuprofen to ease the swelling and use a dozen bag of peas against my face for 10 minutes to take the swelling down further. 

After that its more oil and massage throughout the day, foundation is a no no unless I am going to work, then it's just to cover any dark circles under my eyes.

Here are some pictures from a week in

Big difference! Spots are less angry and there is less general redness, but you can see my eyes are swollen. My nose is very red at the end, and swollen when I first wake up. The tightness is my skin is easing off, this might be due to me forcing myself to smile and make facial expressions as I normally would.  I have resisted the urge to itch, I really don't want an infection or scarring from this. 

My partner has been brilliant, so supportive and boosts my confidence, even though I was in a terrible mood a couple of days ago and spent the day moaning and snapping at him, I felt awful and he realised why I was so down in the dumps, but it really dominates your thoughts. He deserves a medal!

 So here's some pictures from today

The swelling is easing off, I think this may be to do with the Epsom salts and ice packs. 

The skin around my eyes is a bit red, almost like the cartoon deadpool! But on the whole I can't believe how well I'm doing, all you have to do is google "topical steroid withdrawal" and see how bad some people suffer.

When I'm in a warm room my face gets all hot and red so I'm trying to stay cool most of the time. People at work have commented that it looks sore and asked questions but have been pretty supportive, so my positive mental attitude is a bit easier to maintain.

More posts and pics to follow, ill try not to bore people to death. 

The beggining of the end.

Hello everyone,
I am a 25 year old woman with an addiction to steroids, but not the bodybuilding, muscle rippling kind.  No, it's worse than that. As a sufferer of eczema from infancy, affecting my joints and face, quite severely, I was prescribed a number of topical steroids by a number of uninterested doctors. Steroids do not treat eczema, they prohibit your skin from becoming inflamed, suppressing your body's ability to produce its own cortisol, a stress hormone, and regulate inflammation itself. And as time goes on, your body becomes reliant and addicted to the steroids, causing redness, swelling and unbelievable itching when you stop using them. So why stop using them? Well, steroids thin your skin, something called steroid atrophy, leaving broken veins, see through skin, stretch marks and sagging and glaucoma, an eye condition leading to blindness. Trust me I'm a doctor????? Well thanks doc, now it's up to me to fix it .  I work in a male dominate environment and any aspects o your personality and appearance are fair game for slaughter, but being just as bad myself  (it's Kill or be killed, but we kid because we love), I have not a leg to stand on with my colleagues, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
The main reason I have the courage to go through withdrawal is because of the support of my partner. He has done nothing but tell me I look great and I'm doing great all the time. I couldn't do this without him.
I am already 1 week and 4 days into my withdrawal, and celebrating getting through everyday like christmas!
Withdrawal is the only way to rid your body of the toxic steroids, and can take weeks, months or years, with periods of calm and flares.
It really wasn't my intention to start a blog, and I'm not a writer so apologies for any unintelligible ramblings, but reading other people's stories made me think I owe it to people thinking of going cold turkey to share my experience as well.

The following two pictures are 4 days in, an it was horrible, my skin was tight, I speaking a laughing like a ventriloquists dummy as it was sore to stretch my skin enough to emote or smile. The spots you can see are itchy as hell! Also I was getting flaking around my chin and around my eyes.
So far I have been using nothing but sweet almond oil on my skin, and keeping a bottle everywhere as I need to reapply it about 3 times an hour, I'm guarding it with my life!
My sleep hasn't been affected but I have slept through a fire alarm before so that's not really an issue for me.
I've found I am very sensitive to sunlight and keep looking at the ground as squinting hurts too much.