Going through the recovery, it's very normal that your skin hurts,
remember it is completely broken, so the pain is a mixture of
inflammation and dry skin.
Inflammation: The redness in
your skin is inflammation that the body is creating because of the
damage caused by the steroids. This is what is making you both really
tired and really uncomfortable. This takes a long time to heal, but it
will go down and you can minimise the impact by using cold packs and
drinking lots of water + using: cod liver oil + primerose oil +
moisturiser.
Dry Skin: Your body is creating
new skin cells as fast as it can because all of the ones on your body
are damaged. This should create a top layer of very dry, damaged skin
on top, and very new fragile skin below. This is uncomfortable and it
takes time to fix itself.
Painkillers and sleeping pills are your friends. I took quite a lot of
them for the first 4 or 5 months of recovery. I also minimised my
activity to really just watch movies and take very small walks around my
house. I also showered and bathed, but only for very short periods of
time.
Warning: Do not take long baths, you will be way too tender afterwards. No more than a few minutes.
Finally, this is a game of mental toughness. If you can focus on the
end goal and not worry about the current, then it becomes a million
times easier. Imagine a marathon runner pounding the pavement... do you
think he likes running, the gut wrenching pain, of course not, but he
focuses on his goal and pushes through it for the ultimate victory. In
our case, we just have to get to the end goal (set yourself a timeline
to focus on). What you will see is that the days tick by and soon you
are 6 months in and feeling great, then a year, then two years and you
can't remember being sick
My friend Michelle is now about 6 or 8 months into recovery and she
looks so good. You wouldn't know anything was wrong with her, and she
is back to exercising and loving life. She had all the same questions
that I get emailed daily, but she focused on the goal (with a little ass
kicking from me), and now she is happy as ever. You can do this to.
You go girl!!
