My Topical Steroid Withdrawal update – Month 36

Tomorrow is a pretty huge landmark for me as it will mark 3 years since I started Topical Steroid Withdrawal. I will save all the words about that for a special post tomorrow so for now, here are a few things I wanted to mention about the last month:

• On 13th & 14th May 2016 I had sore lips - they didn't look sore, just felt that way. I was also dealing with a slight cold so I am wondering if there was a correlation between to two...? Who knows!
• From Friday 20th May 2016 I had lumpy, irritated skin around my chest and neck area and a small faint rash on my neck (was impossible to take a photo of it as it was so light!). Rash went after a while though.
• On Friday 27th May 2016 I got a small rash on my left hand but it was gone by the 30th.
• On 28th & 29th May 2016 I started getting rough, dry skin on my face. Nothing showed really, just how it felt. By 1st June it was pretty much back to normal.
• On 3rd June 2016 my face felt a little tight but nothing really showed apart from the odd patch of dry skin that my camera couldn't pick up on. The rash on my left hand came back up too. I attribute both issues to a very long work day the day before, cleaning and washing my hands too much and not looking after myself. The anti-TSW beauty routine basically. Today (5th June) they have nearly gone again.

Until tomorrow,

Cara xxx

The following two photos are my attempt at capturing the small rash on my neck - the photo on the right taken a few days later when the skin calmed down and was only a little dry and wrinkly before it quickly returned to normal.

The next two photos were taken yesterday on Saturday 4th June 2016 which was the day me and my mum chose to celebrate my 3 year TSW anniversary. We had a wonderful day, starting with a special lunch at The Ivy Kensington Brasserie where my mum gave me this wonderful necklace to symbolise, in part, the incredible journey we've been on. I say we, as she was my carer and looked after me every single day of my withdrawal and I definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without her. Now that I am better we treasure every day we spend together.