It's time for another 5 QUESTIONS WITH featuring Stephanie who runs the fantastic Instagram account TheItchyConundrum (here). Stephanie is someone I have gotten to know via our amazing skin community on Instagram and while she may not have gone through withdrawal per se, she has battled severe eczema and has also had some experience with topical steroids and immunosuppressants too. I have wanted to feature her story ever since I met her this year at our (FABULOUS) TSW meetup in late September as I couldn't believe how lovely her skin was. Her Instagram is packed with healthy, skin-friendly meals (that have definitely given me many moments of food-induced envy) and also offers really helpful advice on beauty products that are kind to sensitive skin. I've leant a lot from her page and I'd highly recommend checking it out so without further ado, I'll hand it over to Stephanie:
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your skin journey.
Hi Cara! Thanks so much for having me on your blog! I have had eczema my whole life, starting from 6 months old. Mum tried a lot of alternatives to steroids: homeopathy, natural creams, etc. Back in the early 90’s there wasn’t as much choice as we have nowadays in alternative medicine. Nothing really worked and I was a very ill child – chronic ear infections, croup, constant nose bleeds, bad allergies - basically a ‘sickly’ child. Mum ended up using very mild hydrocortisone for my eczema and we coped but I think it was really tough for my parents.
When I was 7 my parents and I moved to Florida in the states for 5 years. I had absolutely NO eczema when we lived there. My lifestyle was very outdoors – we went to the beach often, I swam a lot, played softball and the humid weather just worked wonders for me.
When I was 13 we had to move back to the UK. I ended up going to a very traditional all girl’s boarding school; a complete shock to my then very ‘American’ child’s mind. The boarding school was typical - old buildings, dusty carpets, bitterly cold weather, strict rules and I struggled to settle in. My eczema came back with a VENGEANCE! I again had to use steroids on my hands and face and was nicknamed “cream girl” because of all the tubes of moisturiser I carried. When I was 15 I started getting bouts of impetigo (skin infections) around my mouth and in my nose. This was the start of the never-ending skin infections to come.
2) Tell us about your experience with topical steroids and immunosuppressants.So I have already mentioned I only used weak hydrocortisone, which lasted until I was about 22. I never used potent creams, like Betnovate, despite doctors always trying to prescribe them. I am so thankful I made this choice as I think it was a big help in coming off steroids. Since age 22 I have been prescribed immunosuppressant creams (Protopic, which I used for about 2 weeks), a course of oral steroid tablets which I took for one week, antifungal creams like Fucidin and many, many, many courses of antibiotics for skin infections. It was getting worse and worse and my dependency on this cocktail of creams and pills was becoming a major issue. When I was 24 I couldn’t cope anymore. My face skin was weak and thin, my health was absolutely awful and I was becoming very unhappy and teetering on the edge of depression. I could get the face eczema to sort of die down through use of vaious creams but the skin was so incredibly weak that I always got infections and painful blisters and swelling of my eyes and lips. I also have developed a lot of new allergies over the past 5 years, which I really attribute to the dependency to all of these creams and pills.
3) When did you decide to heal yourself naturally through food and how long did it take to notice a difference?When I was 24 I moved back from a gap year in Australia with my boyfriend. I had hoped the sunshine and outdoor lifestyle would help but I was really ill throughout that year and came home worse than before. Recently inspired by reading a book called ‘The Eczema Diet’, by Karen Fischer, I decided to change my diet to see if this helped. I lessened my use of steroid creams but didn’t cut them out completely. Living in London I tried to help myself heal with diets like the ‘Autoimmune Paleo Protocol’ or the GAPS introduction diet. I never stuck to anything fully and was still getting chronic skin infections and missing a lot of time off work. It felt too much to do it all alone and I was really spiralling by this point.
In April 2015 I found a nutritionist who specialised in GAPS and we came up with a “tailor-made” diet that I followed for almost a year. I also came off steroids almost completely (I have only used hydrocortisone 1% twice since then). My diet was: no nuts, no dairy, no grains, no eggs, no gluten, low sugar, low fodmap, no nightshades. It was mental.
My skin did calm slightly but it was still VERY up and down and I still went through painful flare up moments. The nutritionist always seemed perplexed when she saw me. In my year seeing her I lost 2 stone in weight (a lot for a petite person who wasn’t overweight to start with) and although my skin was calming I struggled with nearly developing an eating disorder because I was so paranoid that any food might make my skin flare. I had chronic panic attacks from the stress. In March 2016 I ended up not getting out of bed for a month with a flare all over my face, neck and back after taking a course of strong antibiotics. My nutritionist told me that I was a “very difficult case” and she basically distanced herself from me at that point and I was left feeling alone again and back at square one.
I found a new holistic specialist quite quickly through word of mouth recommendation and am still seeing her today. She is a medical herbalist (and a magician in my mind). I have seen more of a change in my skin, digestion, energy and overall wellbeing in these past 7 months than ever before. I take a herbal mixture twice daily along with some specific supplements and she also gives me dietary recommendations. I stick to a paleo diet with the occasional gin and tonic when I can manage it! I stick to a low sugar diet but am nowhere near as restricted as before. Blood tests have shown me that my main allergies are dust, dust mites, pollens, cat hair and skin and animal dander… NOT FOOD. Hallelujah! My skin isn’t perfect. Right now as I type this I have a mini flare on my hands and acne around my jaw and cheek but oh my god is it a million times better than before, I am so thankful I could change things around while I am still fairly young.
4) Sum up your skin journey in 5 words.A lifelong yet uphill battle.
5) What positives have you found from your whole skin journey?
There are many positives I think. I think I am a fairly empathetic and non-judgemental person (not to toot my own horn!). By this I mean that I will never, ever, judge anybody from their appearance. I know from experience how emotionally painful it can be to look someone in the eyes when yours are so swollen and itchy that you can barely keep them open. I always try to consider what a person’s story is before resorting to judgement or mockery. We are all really struggling at times whether it is evident on our surface or hidden underneath.
I have also had the absolute pleasure and joy of meeting the wonderful people in the TSW community on Instagram both online and in real life. Everyone is kind and loving and caring towards each other and I think it is proof that these hard times do mould us into good people, even though the hardest of times are undeserved.
To follow her her fabulous Instagram, click (here).
Thank you so much Stephanie for sharing your story with me <3
Links to my previous 5 QUESTIONS WITH:
Henni @rawsomesoul (here)
Alice @healthy_healer (here)
Maleeha @TSWHealed (here)
Nina Sloan (here)
Nick @Eczemacism (here)
Stephanie & Isaiah Quinn (here)
Love & hugs <3
Cara xxxx
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