How it begins...Topical Steroid Cordisone Withdraw

I have been using topical steroids my whole life. From hydrocortisone to some of the more potent creams. For the past 7 years or so I have been using Triamcinolone Acetonide 0.1% all over my body.  That is a moderate to strong steroid.

Recently, back before Thanksgiving 2013 my eczema was not getting better, even with the creams. It was all over my body and driving me crazy. I try to avoid the doctor, but I went anyways. I haven't had oral prednisone in a couple years but I knew it would make me feel better, so I asked the doctor to give me some. I also asked for a refill on the triamcinolone. As I was at the pharmacy picking up the meds the pharmacist said "whoo, thats a big jar of cream, I hope it takes you a long time to go through that". She said "don't use that cream for more then 2 weeks as it can cause the HPA Axis to dysfunction."  It my mind I was like ha, I've used this cream for I don't know how long... And then it dawned on me. Perhaps my body is screwed up because of this cream. So when I got home I google the symptoms of long term steroid use, that's when I started coming across some of the blogs and people who have gone through cortisone withdraw. Everything kind of made sense now, the medicine is not making me better, its making me more sick. This is when I decided to stop using the cream.

Ironically I did decide to take the prednisone though, because my body was all torn up. I figured, If I am going to quit steroids lets clear my body up first, then start the withdraw. So I started. For 3 days I took 3 15mg Pills of Predisone, and my skin cleared! I lived this opportunity up as I new this was the last time my skin was going to be better for a long time. Then 3 more days of 2 pills. The eczema slowly started to pop up. then 3 days of 1 pill. The eczema returned, AND then no more pills!  I stopped 12/5/2013

I knew all hell would break loose now. And it did....

Starting the tortures of withdraw.
I was panicking because of what I knew what was to come. I showed my mom and a friend of the video on Itsan.org (very good video by the way) and told them I am going to try it. They gave me positive reinforcement and told me to try it. And so I began. The first 2 days actually weren't to bad probably because the predisone was still in my system. But the 3rd day I was starting to feel it. My body was swelling up, my skin was turning violent red. I felt cold, especially my hands and feet. My skin hurt, like a sundburn almost but deeper inside. I started shaking... By day 4 my glands were swollen as well as my face. Its weird though, my skin didn't have much eczema on it but it was red and on fire. Day 5 was the worse I felt. I didn't go to work. It was painful to wake up and take a shower. I felt sick, my body was begging for the Triamcinolone cream. I almost considered saying screw it and put it on, but I didn't. Then before going to bed I decided to take Nyquil (the cold medicine) because I knew I wouldn't sleep. But damnn that stuff made me sleep. Didn't wake up at all that night. When I did wake up my skin felt gross, it felt matted, felt dead, it was soo dry and painful. At least I felt rested though and my glands didn't feel swollen. I took a shower and put lotion on. The lotion I have been using is Curel Itch Defense, which is amazing stuff. It doesn't leave your skin greasy or too dry, and takes the redness away as well. This brings me to my current day, day 9. My skin has been shedding and falling off now...Severe shedding I would call it. My mattress looked like it had gone through a snowstorm. The good thing is there seems to be new skin underneath, that isn't as red (Although my skin is still pretty red...). My skin is also oozzing in places which is not comfortable at all... My skin feels very tight and dry. Especially waking up in the mornings. I don't like to turn or stretch too much because it feels very uncomfortable. My face is also still a little swollen and red. Luckly it doesn't look that bad yet. The good thing is I feel like I have more energy, it feels like my body has returned to producing its own cortisone or wherever the medication was blocking. Also my skin feels thicker, more natural. I am not bleeding anywhere. Before it was so easy to scratch and start bleeding because the steroids thin the skin. Overall I feel like crap, but feel like I have gone through the worst part. Although, according to others there will eventually be worse times then this. I hoping in a couple months I will be much better but I know some take up to 3 to 4 years to heal.

Here is a pic of my current state (Note I have a cast on because I have a broken wrist from snowboarding):