Day 141 - Day 149 Showering, Allergic Reactions, Faster Healing, Moisturizer Withdrawal, Less Intense Heat Flares! (Topical Steroid Withdrawal, Red Skin Syndrome, Topical Steroid Addiction)

SHOWERING
I can now shower without it hurting!  In fact, they feel good!  The ONLY problem?  My skin seems to  need a few days to recover from one.  After shower it will be horribly red and inflamed.  Then I'll put on moisturizer and my skin will react to that (SEE MOISTURIZER WITHDRAWAL BELOW).  My biggest problem is knowing what to do... should I shower?  Should I not??  So I just wait until I'm itchy enough to need one and then go from there.  I haven't quite worked the back into my daily routine.


ALLERGIC REACTIONS:

So, month 5 has brought about a LOOOOT of food flares.  Now, I'm not sure if it's just where I'm at in healing as a lot of people have said they too have had the massive hive reaction to foods at this stage and then never again, but there's no way to tell.  All I know is month 5 has been me testing the water with food and eventually just going back to distilled water and my quinoa, kale, chicken, avocado diet.  (I am aware of the long term effects of drinking distilled... but right now, it's what I need.)   So far, the last 4 days, I have had great reduction in inflammation and have had NO flares or reactions since going back to the strict diet.

FASTER HEALING

I flared up REALLY badly the other night and broke out in SERIOUS hives ALL over my body.  I also had swollen hands and ears.  I was pretty devastated and figured it would be a huge setback, but it actually wasn't so bad.  I woke up after benedryl and the hives and swelling were gone.  I've discovered that my recovery from flares has been much quicker!  Before I would be out for a minimum of a week plus... now, it's a day or two before I feel better.  Hopefully this is a new trend!!

MOISTURIZER WITHDRAWAL

I've discovered a few things about moisturizer.

1. It feels good... AT FIRST.  Then itches like CRAZY.  
2. It leaves the flakey skin fragile and irritating.  It makes me want to scratch rub scratch rub until all of the flakes are gone.  I feel like it peels the skin too soon and then leaves my skin exposed to irritants.  
3. It usually gives me bumps of irritation for several hours.
4. My skin feels raw for a few days until the moisturizer wears off and then It feels good.  The more flakes I have, the better my skin feels.  SO weird.

So, for now, I'm ditching the moisturizer.

LESS INTENSE HEAT FLARES

This has been HUGE!!   Before, when exposed to heat or when my body temp would rise (anything that would cause me to sweat), i would have a heat flare.  These were MADDENING.  The itch was at a full blown 10 and made me want to crawl out of my skin!!  Lately, the last several days, the heat flare intensity has been a 2-3 tops!!  I sat in the sun for 15 minutes (that's a lot in 100 degree texas heat!) and didn't itch at all!  I came in and was a TINY bit itchy, but nothing I couldn't ignore.  This is AMAZING.  It's allowed me to sit in the sun a lot this week which has been wonderful.  I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY hoping the sweaty heat flares are out of the way.....

Day 141

Flaring... Itchy before shower

After shower... VERY RED

2 hours after shower

Day 142

Day 143

Day 144

VERY shortly after this I had a MAJOR allergic reaction.  Hives all over my entire body and swollen hands and ears.  I was too upset and freaked out to take pics.

Day 145

I was really dry, but SUPER happy that it didn't set me back too far.  All the hives were gone and there wasn't a lot of damage from the scratching.

Except I scratched my side right here and it BLED a LOT.

Day 146

Felt REALLY good fro having a flare 2 days before!  From a distance I looked somewhat normal.  No eyebrows and now coloring, but NOT a monster.

Day 147

I sat outside for 15 minutes in the blistering heat.  This is what I looked like when i came back in.

Day 149

Had good energy and felt really good today.  

My neck is so dry it looks like leather when I turn my neck...

Skin is VERY dry, but doesn't feel too dry.  It actually feels really good, so I'm not going to put anything on it.  I'll just look like leather.