My Skin does better when it's cold

How about you guys? I can't stand the heat and neither does my skin. At the same time, sudden weather changes messes with my allergies, which is not good for my skin...

 I have no idea why I included this....Kawaii!

I have about 5 ingrown nails right now, this one is the worst at the moment...

My study appointment is on the 26th! I can't wait! But I'm scared at the same time....

Hives and Life

All the time! Everwhere! And they are not small. The only way I can get them to go down is by putting a bit of the steroid lotion and leaving it there until it goes away. Not my preferred method but these things itch!

On a completely unrelated note I started going back to school again. It's online so I don't have to worry about missing class because of my skin. It's for film at an art school and it's out of state, so it's pretty expensive. I'm trying to learn Japanese on the side but school and work takes a lot out of me. I'm working on grammar and just started learning Kanji and man is it tough! Baby steps...
I also just downloaded Miitomo and I love it. If you don't have it already you should check it out, who doesn't love a mini version of themselves?  So I'll leave you with some fun photos. :D

"You don't have severe pain" and Dupilumab Study

I went to go renew my medical Marianna license this week and that's what the "Doctor" said to me. He wouldn't look at my photos that I brought in and barley looked at me. I had to fight back tears. He had no problem taking my money and not refunding me though. I have had no problem receiving my card for eczema for the last 2 years, but this year I was denied. I was really upset until I received an important phone call that same day.

A representative from Regeneron called me and asked to set up an appointment for the Dupilumab study. I do have to have a clean system from THC so it actually worked out well. Just wish I was scammed $50 bucks for someone to belittle my condition. Hopefully I'll be able to update with some more study information as it comes through. This could be our Holy Gail for eczema...

Ingrown nails and Hairloss

As I lowered my steroid doses or when I was going though Topical Steroid Withdrawal I would lose my hair and get bad ingrown nails.At one point almost all my toes had ingrown nails. On each side, that's like 18ish... So even now, as I get ingrown nails I take it as a warning.

I mentioned this to my dermatologist and she took some blood to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with my thyroid. Surprise! There wasn't, I was however extremely deficient in vitamin D, so I'll be taking some high doses of Vitamin D for a few weeks, I'll try to get out into the sun more and increase my food intake that has that vitamin. I'm not a big fan of fish but I'm trying to eat more.

Oh by the way! That boil that popped up, (no pun intend) it was in fact MRSA again. So I'm on antibiotics to hopefully squish that before it becomes a problem. Here I am after 2 weeks of 50,000mg of vitamin D and a week or so of the antibiotics, I swear they're magic.

At least some days are better than others

Here I am on the 11th...

And here I am on the 13th. Still bad, but I'm grateful for days like this. I don't look like a monster. I'm still using the lotion mix that I was prescribed by Dr. Aron to keep my skin at bay but I feel like it's working less and less. That's steroids for ya...

Well I didn't expect it to get better....

But I certainly didn't expect for a boil thing to pop up. Looks like it's time to call for another Dermatology appointment....

And I'm back to using band-aid on my fingers. They just get so itchy!

Owie! I see you Spreading!

I woke up this morning like this. I see you spreading! Knock it off!

Update

Sorry for my absence, this was a busy month. We just moved and we're set to move again sometime in the next few months or so, so I'm living out of boxes at the moment. Not fun, and I didn't even have my desk or computer set up for a while. Still dealing with flares but nothing unmanageable.

Here's a picture I took after hearing of the death of Alan Rickman. I really loved his work and he was an amazing actor, I'm sad for his loss and all my fellow Slytherins will morn our house and headmaster.

My biggest issues have been my eyes. They're constantly swollen and or cracked. I try to take Zyrtec everyday but I don't think it helps much. I woke up the other day with an extremely swollen face. My living situation at the moment isn't the best so I think that along with other environmental allergies my skin is going crazy.

Sometimes My Eyes Hate Me...

So...I woke up like this the other day.

12/16/15

And then it got worse.

12/19/15

And then I got better.

12/22/15

Weaning of Lotion-Flares

 I found Dr. Aaron to be rather flaky. He stopped emailing me after I "seemed" clear, instead of sticking with me and monitoring my progress. Part of his program has you fill out a progress report after a certain amount of time in order to show your progress. He was rather pushy in reminding me to fill those out, but I had to ask him 3 times in one conversation on what my new dosing would be before I got an answer along the lines as "what ever feels best for your skin." He never emailed back. Now, this could be my # of consults were up? Or maybe because he had a HUGE wait list and had a lot of people he was trying to help. Either way, I left Dr. Aarons care with the same faith that I have in all dermatologists. 

While his regimen works, it's steroids. Of course it's going to work, but unlike other dermatologists he had a very low dosing, with an antibiotic and a lotion vs. the ointment smear that we are all regularly used to. I don't regret getting his magic formula, that didn't cure me but is a better option in the long run. I wouldn't, however, recommend him to others... per se...

But as for an update on my flares. I'm trying to wean myself off the lotion and add an extra day in between every application but since I've lowered my dose there's been some changes.

I've started getting ingrown nails again. Like four nails, all at the same time and couple of toes as well.

I've notices my hair falling out more then normal. I think this is because I've been lowering my lotion/steroid doses.

I ran out of zyrtec (20mg a day,) so my eyes have been giving me some trouble.