2015-12-25 - One year on, Christmas present, healed!

A year ago, last Christmas was when I applied my last topical steroid in utter frustration and began researching. That's when I found about TSW and began my journey.

Thankfully, it only took me three months to get over the worst and a year on after a few flares, my skin is now better than it's ever been in memory. A niggling bit on my knuckle on my left hand has FINALLY healed (after two months of annoyance), in time for Christmas :-)

Annoying, it's been a full on season for hay fever here in NZ over past month and I've noticed that if I go running, I need my inhaler and I've been feeling hay fever effects, guess I'm not cured :-( 

2015-10-29 - Ahh, sweet, sweet relief!

Last month+ have been awesome! Skin is what I'd call normal. Better than I ever remember.
Just one annoying tiny patch on the first knuckle of the 4th finger on my right hand, just won't fix itself! I know it's nothing really, but because everything else is so perfect now, I have to point it out.
I've been keeping it covered with band-aid and some Vitamin A ointment which stops the itch and softens it.

Irritation is on first knuckle on 4th finger. So minor you can't see it in this pic, but does get damn itchy if not covered!

2015-09-14 - Skin finally come right, as such

Skin is much more supple and very calm. Hasn't been too bad over past month, just dry. You can still see that the palm of my left had is fairly dry. 

I use some Aveeno sparingly once a day on my hands, usually after shower. Can see a bit of shine on it in these pics when I put it on earlier.

2015-08-22 - still recovering

Rough, but not too nasty. Dry on right hand below thumb, always takes longest to come right.

2015/08/08 - Taken longer than I though to recover from that flare.

Taken a few weeks for my hands to recover from flare on 21st June (7 weeks) and get back to where they were. Still dry and rough on bottom of right palm below thumb, but quite tolerable. 

2015/07/02 - recovering from flare

Spent the last couple weeks with rough hands. Itchy as well.
Slowly getting better, quite tolerable, but have a small split on palm of left hand which indicates how dry the skin is.

Hands are still slightly red as well.

2015/06/21 - Not out of the woods yet

Last couple of days have been a reminder that I've still got a way to go.

After enjoying around three months of great skin, the palms of my hands have started to go a bit nuts, getting really itchy and "bubbling". Watching my hands under lots of water and not scratching them for 5 mins seems to make them die back down, bubbles receded and itchiness stops.

You can see from the pics below, how the redness has come back as well, although this fades away fairly quickly. I'm wondering if I've had some sort of reaction to something, although it's persisting.

Really hope this only lasts a few days... Either way, at the moment it's nothing to what I've gone through...

2015/05/15 - No news is good news!

My hands continue to remain in excellent condition.
Still a bit dry after showering, but I only really notice it because I'm quite conscious of my hands these days :-)
Over the past couple of weeks, the niggle of a slight patch of scaly skin on my right palm-heel and between my left hand thumb and finger has subsided significantly.
Haven't touched a drop of moisturizer since I began MW a month ago. Can't believe it's only been a month of MW so far and how bad my hands were just two months ago. The pain I went though with TSW is becoming a distant memory!

2015/04/30 - Getting better and better

Hands continue to recover nicely.
No moisturiser being used at all. Hands recover quickly after showering, providing their own natural oils.
Still not 100%, still get itchy sometimes, still drier and thicker skin than "normal" but wonderful skin in comparison. Best my skin has been in years, good all over my body.

2015/04/18 - no moisturiser at all for 4 days now

Hands doing well, stored all moisturiser on the 14th. Skin dry for several hours after showering, but eventually come OK.
Hands healing up well now.

2015/04/08 - still great, little dry.

Still going really well. A few minor splits and sight pink skin in past couple of weeks, rather good at moment.
Left hand palm has annoying dry patch, but nothing compared to what I've been through in first couple months.

2015/03/25 - still going great

Hands continue to be much better. Very little redness now compared to the past. Palms can still get itchy every do often, wearing cotton gloves helps a lot.
Skin a little dry, resisting use of moisturiser as much add possible, only after showering and maybe once more during day if itch gets bad.

2015/03/23 - no more asthma!

Went for a run today, didn't need my inhaler! No wheezing at all.

Looks like my asthma has gone!

Skin remaining in a good state as well.

2015/03/19 - doing well now.

Hands are doing really well now. Skin didn't start splitting open!
Hardly any redness. Skin is supple. Minor split on right hand palm but nothing compared to just a few weeks ago.
Confident that restricting moisturiser had been key to skin fixing itself.