Early October Update

I had planned to put an update with pics of the month of September, but if anyone is interested, they can check out my pics in the PHOTOS section where I have the progress documented by each month.  So I guess I’ll just go into how I’m currently doing, physically and emotionally as I’m now in my 32nd month of topical steroid withdrawal…

Physical state:

My feet are healing nicely , I’ve been experiencing…

• Little to no swelling, but staying on them for more than an hour causes aching and slight swelling.
• Oozing in only a few spots, instead of covering most of the feet.
• The crusting that comes after the oozing seems to be the same thick, hard shell, but I’m also experiencing what I will call “crumbly” type dry skin where the dry skin tends to sloth off just by touching it with my finger.  These areas also have an almost sandy type feel to them.
• The clear liquid filled blisters that I had on the bottom of my feet and in between my toes have dried up and the thickened skin in its place is peeling off.
• Near the ankles and top of the foot I’m feeling that thickened, lichenification type skin again, but no oozing thankfully.  I’m sure that thick skin will take some time to smooth out.
• The itching is down to a minimum, and putting the coconut oil around the oozy areas of “normal” skin doesn’t seem to be bothersome or make it itchy.
• I’ve been working on doing very light exercise to not bother my feet too much; a few leg lifts here and there and some crunches.  My feet were feeling so good that I was even able to do a lil dancing today!  I really look forward to fully working out again.

The rest of my body…

• Itching has reduced, but I am feeling a bit drier these days probably because the weather is a lot cooler.  I’ve been drinking even more water and putting more of my coco oil and shea butter mix on the drier areas to keep in some moisture.
• Sometimes from my knees down I will go into an itch fit, usually in the middle of night, but that seems to be happening less and less these days.
• The itchiness on my hand that I was experiencing last month has reduced.
• My face is doing great except for around my mouth.  I have this irritating dryness, and somewhat redness that I have to continually put coco oil on.  I have even stopped using soap around my mouth when I wash my face, just because the soap tends to burn it because it is irritated.  I need to start doing the oil pulling regime with coco oil probably everyday instead of every other day (this regime helps whenever my face breaks out, which has been seldom).
• Although my skin tone is taking it’s time to even out, I still have seen some progress on it, especially when I look at photos of myself from years past.
• The thickening on my arms seems to be smoothing out a lot more from what I remember it being months ago.

Mental state:

• I’ve slowly been sleeping more comfortably, most likely because of the cooler weather.  I just love to have my room at a really cool temperature and cover myself up with my duvet.  I’ve been having less itch fits in the middle of the night, but when I do it’s usually around the same time 4 am – 6am.  In the past it would last longer and it would take me forever to get back to sleep. Waking up at a somewhat decent hour these days helps me feel like a normal human being.
• When I’m having a good day and the weather is nice I’ll force myself to sit outside on the steps and get some sunlight on my skin for 20-30 min.  I need to make this more of a habit because I always feel so much better after drinking up the suns energy.
• Being homebound since mid Aug was definitely taking a toll on me, and I had a breaking point this past week.  I think a lot of it was just not physically being able to put on proper shoes, go walk about outside and live a normal life like everyone else.  Just going through the monotony of what my life is right now was stressing me out, and gave me a bit of a panic attack.  I kinda just felt stuck in the moment, frustrated that i’m STILL in this state and that I don’t have an actual end date to all of this written on the calendar to look forward to.  Seeing others continue on with their lives, having fun etc. just got to me, and I just had a mini break down.  I’ve been wanting to leave my apartment for the longest and just that stuck feeling was gnawing at me.  I talked it out though with my mom, who has been my rock through this whole ordeal, and got it all off my chest and put things back into perspective… I’m not in a full body flare, it’s only my feet left to repair, I will be out and about soon… just be patient, you’ve been going through this for a LONG time now… but that just means you’re at the tail end of this, and once this is all said and done make sure to really take advantage of being out and about and living life to it’s fullest!
• Keeping myself inspired, listening to really good music, watching funny shows, listening to sermons and reading motivational and spirtiual books have kept me sane when I start to have a break down.
• Working on this blog, chatting on the forums and doing more health related research has kept me busy and I’ve found that I’m becoming more and more passionate about holistic healing.  I would love to make this into a career somehow, and just this ambition and purpose gives me some energy to face every day.

Some pictures from October 3 -10