TL;DR at the bottom :)

Hey guys, I remember coming here during my worst days to try and find the light at the end of the tunnel. Seeing success stories gave me hope, and also fear sometimes. Fear that it would take me upwards of 2 years to escape this hell; fear that I might experience some of the worst symptoms, and fear that even when I’m healed, I mat be scarred for a long time. I’m glad to report that this was not the case.

A little backstory; at the end of 2020 I began to notice that the creams I were using (hydrocortisone 1%) were ending up on more and more of my body. What had started as just some pretty mild childhood eczema confined to my arms and legs had somehow spread to my face and neck. I would have terrible itchiness and flakiness on my eyelids and eyebrows and I had no idea why. I started losing my eyebrow hair and whenever I stopped using the creams, my eczema would flare up in atypical ways compared to my prior history. Redness, slight oozing on spots I scratched before, you all know the drill.

I had seen horror stories about TSW before but I had somehow convinced myself it was just something that happened to a small minority of people. One day, however, things got so bad that I figured “why not, quit for a week and see what happens.” Hell ensued.

The first week was not terrible, but I was restless and constantly itchy at night. Week two came around and I began to see the first signs forming. Red sleeves and flaking on my face came first. The red sleeves would turn to flakes and the flakes would disappear and give me one good day of skin a week. I was still working and going to uni at this time, but it wasn’t that apparent. This went on for a month until the end of April. Month two was a worsening of the symptoms, but I still hadn’t experienced any oozing or pure agony that was to come.

Month 3-5 were my lowest points. Everything was getting so much worse. I had started to get oozing on my neck. Not as bad as many on here, who I have so much respect for, but enough to make me cry almost every night and muffle my screams into a pillow when I wouldn’t be able to sleep until 10am in the morning. I kept a journal during these months, so here’s an excerpt: “Spent the last hour fucking scratching my arms to death. I’m in so much pain. This upstairs room isnt helping. 2 months in but this is the most helpless Ive felt in a long time :(“

I couldn’t and wouldn’t leave the house because my face was so unbelievably fucked up from all the flakes, and my neck was like a warzone. My arms were all splotchy with red spots and bits of ooze, but I count myself incredibly fortunate to have never had the crust that some experience. I was so sad and helpless. This was a really hard time and I started to lose faith in everything.

Months 6-7 was where the light at the end of the tunnel began to shine. It wasn’t great, and I had some bad flares, but my face had begun to flake less and itch less. An important thing to note here is that I live in Sydney, so we were in lockdown for a few months; very conveniently as I was in no state to work (I bartend) or attend uni.

By the middle of the 7th month, I had a breakthrough. Twenty whole days of near perfect skin. I went for a coffee with my friend and felt amazing. No skin issues, and I finally felt comfortable enough opening up to someone about what I went through. Those twenty days were short lived, because after that I flared again, and again. However, the flares were easier to manage now, and my face had stopped flaking completely.

From that point on, things got better, quickly. My arms were still looking pretty rough up til the end of November, but come the middle of December and they had all but cleared up. They still flare, and occasionally get a tiny bit flaky, but I’m talking almost normal eczema. I still do get red splotches around the top of my chest because of the blood flow I’m assuming, but that barely bothers me nowadays.

That brings us to now. At the start of writing this I was scratching my neck a bit, but only for a couple seconds. I still flare, but the flares are shorter and shorter and I get a long time between them. The flares I do get don’t even look bad now. They’re like little pissweak flares. Within flares there are the cycles of itching and flaking and renewed skin, but these cycles are getting to be literally 2, 3 days maximum compared to the week and a half long cycles I’d have at my worst. I’d say I’m about 80% healed by now, the 9th month. Over the last 3 months I have had two bad flares that lasted about a week each, and those were all earlier in the said 3 months.

For the record, I didn’t change anything about my lifestyle. I didn’t stop working aside from those lockdown months, which is lucky, and I never stopped attending uni. I don’t even need to use moisturiser anymore. At my worst I would moisturise several times a day to keep the flakes hidden, but now I sometimes just forget to moisturise for days and I’m fine. I tried MW for 3 days at my worst and I couldn’t handle it as it only worsened my itch (not bashing it, just didn’t work for me). Diet stayed the same, although I did stop drinking alcohol for some months as it was a surefire trigger for me. Nowadays I can drink to my hearts content.

Things aren’t perfect in my life and I struggle a lot in various different areas, but this is no longer one of them. No one would ever suspect that I would have anything more than mild eczema by looking at me now. Also, there was no victory lap or sudden realisation that I was through with it. It just slowly went away. I have blocked out those horrible months in my mind and don’t even really remember the worst nights I had. I got lucky, though. 9 months is relatively quick compared to some stories you hear on here, and I am eternally grateful for that, as I am grateful for everyone on here fighting and surviving through this. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy and it has got to be one of the worst, most painful things I have ever endured.

TL;DR: Months 1-2 were relatively mild. Red sleeves, flakiness, etc. Months 3-5 were hell. Oozing, insomnia, severe pain just by moving. Months 6-7 start to see improvement. By month 9 (now) I am 80% healed and look no worse than a mild eczema diagnosis.

If anyone has any questions they might want answered please do ask; I’m happy to answer anything :)