00:00I've had eczema since I was like six years old, so I've been prescribed steroids since then.
00:04After 20 years or so, it has probably touched every part of my body, but only two years ago
00:10was there a specific allergic reaction that I had where I was prescribed multiple different
00:15kinds of steroids, some higher potency, some lower potency, and the dermatologist just told me,
00:21slather this all over your body until it gets the reaction under control. As soon as I would ever
00:25stop doing that, the full-body rash would come back. After researching online,
00:30she realized there may be a better way to heal her skin. Healing takes a lot of time,
00:37and what I'm choosing to do right now to heal has been working. So I'm going to keep doing that.
00:44I'm going to keep doing those things. And trusting her gut will pay off.
00:48Her transformation is incredible. I'm not looking for a miracle drug or a miracle cream
00:55to heal this. I'm looking for my body to build up the strength to heal on its own.
01:02She gives us an update a few weeks later with how she's progressing.
01:05I still do no moisture therapy. It's uncomfortable to sweat. I haven't tried to go to the gym. I haven't
01:11tried to run and just like sweat to kind of get used to it again. Still shower infrequently. I've
01:17noticed a lot of my hair is growing back where I didn't really think that I was like losing any hair,
01:22hair, but I must have lost a lot of my hairline that I now just have all of these baby hairs
01:29growing back. My eye area has definitely cleared up a lot. Really the worst is just,
01:34I must say I'm pretty proud of myself. I haven't caved into doing any immunosuppressants or any drugs
01:43that would probably clear this up. Staying natural.
01:49But the journey isn't all smooth sailing.
01:51Skin update. It's doing bad. Look at all this dry, scabby, flared skin. At this point now, a year and two months, a year and three months, I'm just tired. Like I'm tired of healing. It takes so much mental effort to continue this journey.
02:11Continue this journey, not turning to medications or just kind of getting depressed over it all.
02:19I'm 20 months into my topical steroid withdrawal journey. And although I look a lot better, I'm not 100% healed. My skin still lacks a lot of elasticity. You can see when I kind of like move my skin around. It has the same elasticity as like an 80 year old. I still deal with everything making me itchy.
02:38So one of the best things for me at this stage was to get blunt acrylic nails. They make it so that even when I'm scratching, it's not breaking the skin.
02:47I also have started to slowly reintroduce moisture back into my routine. I used to not put any moisture on my skin. As long as I'm not actively flaring, a little bit of moisture will keep my skin from cracking and flaking.
02:59I'm honestly just so grateful that I look relatively normal again and feel confident again. It gets better. Happy healing.
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