Month 75 // Time

Friday 6 September 2019

This was completely unplanned but yesterday I realised that today marks 75 months since I began my journey with topical steroid withdrawal, and not one for missing any kind of milestone, I just had to document it in a small way at least.

Left - Monday 29th July 2013 (nearly 2 months into TSW).
Right - yesterday! Give it time.

I genuinely can't believe so much time has passed, and yet at the same time, it feels like a lifetime ago. Another person ago. Now, I'm so glad I wrote a book about it all because, as predicted, I can't remember what happened. When you are in pain, time seems to stand still and those precious moments of bliss pass by too fast. That is just the way it is. Like me during secondary school. I was desperately unhappy and at the time, I felt like I would be stuck as a teenager forever, but now as an adult, time seems to speed up when I want to hold onto every single moment.

Time. Time. Time. That is all it boils down to. Not enough of it - too much of it. Never just right.

I go on about time because topical steroid withdrawal is the ultimate waiting game, although you end up winning more than you ever thought was possible: skin freedom.

Give it time.
Cara x

2 comments

Nico23 January 2020 at 22:37
Cara, thank you so much for making this website. I come here every so often when I want to cheer myself up. I am two and a half years into TSW. My symptoms had improved enough that I was able to go about my life like normal. In fact, last year I applied for and was accepted into the JET program, a program where you teach english in Japan. It has always been my dream to come here and do this, and honestly the whole journey over here has been amazing until recently when, guess what, I got a massive TSW flare out of the blue. It has been difficult to have to return to wrapping my arms in gauze, while suffering burning, oozing skin... especially now that I am alone and oceans away from my entire support system. While reading your blog over and doing some more research about what might have caused this sudden flare when I was doing so much better, I found information on NMT/MW. I started MW about a week ago. So far it seems to be helping me, so I`m going to stick with it. But I am curious, about how long after you started MW for the second time was it before you healed completely? I am hopeful that the reason I haven`t fully healed up until now has just been that I`ve still been using moisturizers. I know that only time will heal this, but what do you think Cara? Do you think MW will help me get to semi normal state again? Thank you so much!