CHART YOUR PROGRESS

I was convinced during my last flare (3 weeks and counting) that my skin was not getting better. Other than my hands I didn't realize the progress my skin was making, until I wrote a month to month play by play of my symptoms and then I had a "Eureka" Moment.

So I thought I would write it out for you  kind folks

Month 1-TSW over majority of body, back of knees, thighs, lower back, upper back, mid back, arms, hands(MAJORLY),neck, arms, chest and face.  I had much redness, bumps, hives, redness and discomfort. Burning all day/all night long-living in bathtub.  Sleeping for no more than and hour without waking

Month 2-TSW continued back of knees, lower back, upped back, neck, arms, chest and face.  Redness had died down, still very itchy/dry, hands got unbelievable better. Severe itch and dryness.  Sleeping for about 3 hours a night.

Month3-TSW localized to, upper back-just under neck, arms, upper lip, eyelids and forehead and neck.  Redness down to minimum.  Itch only at night, dryness. Sleeping a bit more, on and off

Month 4-TSW localized to arms, neck and eyelids and upper lip.  Itch continues at night-but able to get atleast 5 hours . Hands much much better

Is anyone else noticing the pattern?  I am healing much more than I even realized! While my arms , eyes , upper lip are still suffering it's much better.  SOmetimes we get so fixed on the negative that we miss the tiny miracles happening day to day.  And considering I had TSW from my knees to my head and now only have it on my arms, eye lids, upper lips, and neck (and mildly hands) thats a HUGE improvement

Ignore the photo-I am taking a photo of my hair growth, but  as you can see my hands were  all bandaged up because they were soo bad. I couldn't even wash my hair-my dear hubby had too!



Anyhow, I guess the moral of the story here is that you need to track your progress because chances are you are healing but you don't even know it.  Also we have a tendency to forget how bad things were to begin with, so when we get a flare a couple months in its seems like we are back at square one!  But we really aren't.