5 Years On Living An Incredible Life

An update video 5 years after I started this channel, and removed cortisone steroids from my life. I'm now 100% healed, happy and living an incredible life.  I wanted to take this opportunity to send out a message of support to all those who are going through the process.  Well done, keep going!

Cronic eczema can be solved, and getting off medication is how I achieved it.  If this is new to you, I recommend you read the rest of the blog, and google all the other survivors.  

Thanks to Dr Rapaport who's research led me to find this answer.  I strongly recommend you read all his information and papers.  They are truely mind opening and totally scientific.  You can read more about him here, the man who can cure eczema simply by offering support and knowledge.

Please share this with anyone going through this issue.  It cost me nothing in medical bills, or crazy tests.  Just simply my time and perseverance to find a solution.

Live the life you can.  My love to you all.

Why alcohol causes red skin | TSW | Steroid recover

This very quick video explains the science behind why drinking alcohol causes inflammation and red skin.  For those suffering from topical steroid withdrawal, or cortisone induced eczema, whilst there is conflicting information out there, what I'm tell you is beyond dispute. 

18 months on from TSW

I'm 18 months into my recovery and looking and feeling great.  This is an update for everyone at home who has been wondering where I went and what's going on.  The long story short is that life is brilliant, my skin is brilliant and all is great.

A letter to a fellow TSW recovery friend

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!!

Looking nomal again after TSW

After 14 months of recovery I'm looking good and feeling great.  I'm back to normal with every part of my life and have done thinks I haven't done in years like swimming in the ocean, playing sport and leaving the house without moisturiser across my entire body.

I wanted to share a quick picture that was taken of me the other day and I hope this motivates everyone else going through the recovery from cortisone induced eczema. 

Best of luck to you all

A Christmas Message to help TSW recovery

This is a Christmas shoutout to all those recovering from topical steroid withdrawal (TWS).  Sometimes you just need a little confidence that it's all going to get better and my friends I promise it will.

See you all in the new year.  Merry Christmas.

Surviving a music festival - Recovery month 14.5

A quick pre-christmas update on month 14 of my recovery from cortisone induced eczema and red skin syndrome.  In this addition I talk about going to a music festival with my friends and being able to handle the highly stressful (on the body) situation of drinking, late nights and general dehydration.



Here's the video of my mates and I enjoying the festival.  You can see a little redness in my face, but I think the bay watch outfits were making it look worse than it was, certainly nobody said I was in anyway red.  #winning.

TSW Cortisone Recovery v Sex Drive

Before I begin, very sorry about the way I filmed this video. I used the iPad for the first time and learned a valuable lesson about how I need to hold it :(

 

 The upside is that I feel incredible, look brilliant and have the best life I've had in many years. What do I chalk all of this up to? Simply getting off those dirty nasty steroids the doctors kept giving me. Power on!

14 month recovery update - Red Skin Syndrome

Red Skin Syndrome Update month 13.5

A letter to Dr Rapaport

I sent this email today, and wanted to share it with you all.  If it were not for Dr Rapaport I don't know where I would be.  Whilst i never actually met or spoke to him, by using the resources he made available, I was able to mentally commit to my recovery and stay off steroids permanently.



Dear Dr Rapaport,

My name is Josh Strawczynski from Australia and I was a sufferer of Red Skin Syndrome.  Thanks to finding information that you published and the many other people suffering from this alfiction, I have been off steroids for 13 months and am now 95% back to normal.  Whilst there is still a little dry skin and occasional rash on my chest, my life is back to normal and nobody except me is any the wiser.

I can't thank you enough for providing your research to the global community.  If it were not for you I would still be searching for a miracle cure to something that my doctors and dermatologists were inadvertently doing to me.  I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found you and your work and will remain indebted to you for all my days.

In my recovery I have kept a blog, mapping the progress with images and videos and through this have made contact with many many other sufferers, and helped to diagnose a few people also in the same boat.  It's only a drop in the ocean, but I'm glad to be sharing your work to help others and will continue to support as best I can.  My blog is http://redskinrecoverydiary.blogspot.com and as I said, there is excellent footage and imagery there.  I'm also a public speaker and insanely positive about life and the whole recovery process, so if there is anything in there that can help you, by all means you have permission to share it.

I just wanted to drop you a line to say thank you and if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.

Josh

12 month before and after - Cortisone induced eczema

Cortisone Addiction Recovery - Month 11.5 update

Recovery from cortisone addiction which sent my skin very red and very dry for years and years is near the end!! For so long I was told I had terrible eczema, when in fact all I had to do was stop taking cortisone. Now 11.5 months off the steroids and I'm looking and feeling fabulous!!

Coming to a beach this summer

A friend sent me this and I couldn't help but share it. I think I'm about 6 months away from being fully healed, and this summer (approx 6 months away) I am going to be brown as a berry!! Throughout this recovery I have continually given myself things to look forward to, to work towards. This is one of those thing!

Cortisone Addiction & Red Skin Syndrome Recovery - Month #10

Looking and feeling great after 10ish months

I'm thrilled to post this latest video, my skin looking absolutely brilliant after ten months of recovery from red skin syndrome caused by cortisone cream usage.  For the first time in a long while there is much more white than red and the full range of movement is coming back into my body.

I'm ever so thankful for those many people who have helped me through and am delighted to be helping everyone else also going through this.

There are still ongoing symptoms including:

• Tiredness
• Small dry skin flakes
• Dry scalp
• Light itching
• Runny nose
• Ridiculous good looks

All of these are very manageable, even if you do get sick of vacuuming constantly.  Overall I'm extremely happy to be back and gearing up for my USA trip in September!

Mainly white skin after 10.5 months of recovery

I cut cortisone out of my system on the 6th of September 2012 and now 10.5 months later I look basically normal.  In that time of course readers and fellow followers will know about the horrible symptoms I went through, but now, a mere 11 months in and I'm basically healed.


Across my journey I've been meeting lots of other sufferers, Aussie's, Americans, Asians and Europeans.  My friend from work introduced me to his girlfriend and immediately we diagnosed her as also being a sufferer.  It is just so common, you wouldn't even believe!

What I take a lot of heart from, is that the cure is all so easy.  All you need do is stop using the cortisone.  Sure there are a lot of symptoms along the way and it's not a pleasant next stage of your life, but recovering from red dry skin is an amazing feeling.

Good luck to everyone

Josh

Back into sport - Cortisone recovery month 9.5

I've been getting back into sport of recent, playing a bit of ultimate frisbee and touch rugby at Albert Park (where the grand prix is held).  Whilst it has been a bit hard on the body to start with, I realised that once the sweat glands started to work, they cleared the dry skin and it all felt great.  In fact, the body is the best it has been since I started.

Good diet and only minimal booze has really helped and I feel like I'm almost at the end of this journey.  To be clear, what I mean by this is that I'm through the bad stuff, now I just wait a few more months for the skin to strengthen and the moisture to come back fully.

To everyone following my progress, please encourage others to do the same.  I've been given a new lease on life and it really wasn't that hard.  I say that in a relative context, meaning of course it was hard, but compared to losing a leg or getting cancer, a year of dry red skin really isn't that bad.

All the best and keep messaging in.

Josh

TSW recovery update, doing it in style after 9.5 months

It has been a rocky journey with some ups and downs, but the TSW recovery is going really well as we pass the 9.5 month mark.  I'm confident that in the next 6 months I will be back to normal, as I am already living a very normal life and no longer get comments about being red.