Geez, I'm awful at this updating blog thing. But here I am with a photo update post. I'm on month 14.
Honestly, I'm just slowly getting better and it really feels great. Besides a tiny set back with some eczema herpeticum on my cheek, everything seems to be getting better.
Ok, I have snuck moisturizer on my legs (cerave) and face (serum) once, but to be honest, it just made my legs feel greasy and did nothing to benefit my face so I stopped.
Besides that, I'm still sticking to this routine of dead sea salt baths, moisturizer withdrawal, using surgical paper tape to close cuts, and using masking tape to remove extraneous flakes. Yes, you read that right.
Here are the updates --
Sleep and itch are non issues. Seriously.
Face:
Still splotches of flakes, especially around jaw line and flakes/cracking above lip (below). Lips quite chapped but no chapstick/vaseline/moisturizer allowed! That thing you see on the left (your right) cheek is a spot of pesky eczema herpeticum that I'm slaying with large doses of antiviral and lysine.
Hands:
Right hand still good besides some tiny spots on my index finger knuckles. Left hand all knuckles are still quite swollen, dry, flaky and cracked. On bad days, I swear by micropore tape (the Nexcare stuff) to hold my skin together.
Feet:
In the following pics, Top is left foot Bottom is right foot. Holy crap is my left ankle better. As you can see, the elephant skin is still worse on my left ankle than my right but compared to THIS nightmare, uhm. YEAH.
And, can we again say SKIN IS ON MY FEET. What the crap. Celebration parade time.
Limbs:
They are really doing fantastic. Arms look great. A little discoloration on back of knees from a few patches of dryness. Creases are reminiscent of elephant skin, more so in legs. My knees are a little itchy because I'm sweating so damn much back there so I am probably keeping that little hole on my right knee open. But how can I complain (besides the slight weight gain from emotional eating)?
