It's a brand new week and I have another fabulous warrior for you to meet. I have absolutely loved working on these posts and I hope you have enjoyed them too. What I adore about our community is how varied our journeys are and even though we may be on different paths, we all arrive at the same destination.
This week I am talking to Maleeha from the Instagram account Pretty Flakey and I know you're going to find her story inspirational, so without further ado, I'll hand it over to Maleeha:
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your skin journey.
Eczema runs in my family, my mum has minor cases of it, my brother suffers severely from it and throughout most of my 21 years of life, I experienced mild patches of eczema on the backs of my legs and the inside of my arm. Nothing extremely drastic though. This changed when I had eczema on my eyelids, I went to my doctor about my usual small patch on my leg to get another steroid cream and he suggested 'applying a bit on my eyelid'. As a 14 year old kid, I had no clue what he meant by 'a bit' and I just lathered it on. This is where it all started for me. I continued to do this for a long time, a year or two, my patches began to spread around my eyes and then I found out about TSW and stopped steroids completely. A few days later my rashes spread all over my face and my symptoms began, insomnia, burning, itching, irregular body temperature etc. For 2.5 years, I was experimenting with creams, 'cures', alternative treatments such as Chinese soups to detox my body and all sorts. Nothing seemed to work for me but with time, eventually my face healed. I still seem to get the odd small rash around my mouth when I am stressed, or around September-October time. I have no idea why and this is something I am still figuring out, but most of the time I am 100% healed. Throughout my skin journey I had no support from any doctor or dermatologist, they thought I was completely crazy.
2) How did you find out about TSW?At college, I was applying steroid cream to my face and one of my friends, who wanted to be a doctor, said to me 'is that a steroid? You don't put that on everyday do you?' To which I replied, 'Yes I do, why?' He replied 'It's really bad for you, you know that right?' That day I went home and researched on google about side effects of steroids and came across ITSAN which informed me of TSW.
3) Did you find that anything aided your healing?
4) Sum up TSW in five words.
Stressful, Painful, Rollercoaster, Frustrating, Humbling.
5) What positives, if any, have you found from going through TSW?
My younger brother suffers extremely from eczema, his medications have affected his eyesight as well as his ability to study, and socialise. The main positive of TSW for me is that I gained knowledge, which aids me in supporting my brother with his condition. Also, I am a lot more appreciative of my skin than I ever was before TSW. I am also a lot more understanding of people with any conditions at all because I understand how it affects your life and how it changes you. I have also lost a lot of trust with doctors and our medical system. I question everything and conduct my own research when I am recommended any medication from a doctor. This is a useful skill I will carry with myself forever.
Her Instagram account can be found here.
Thank you so much for taking part Maleeha xxx
Links to my previous 5 QUESTIONS WITH:
Henni @rawsomesoul (here)
Alice @healthy_healer (here)
Big hugs and lots of love to you all <3
Cara xxxx
No comments
Post a Comment