Months of Red Skin Syndrome (TSW), missing work

- I have been stuffering with an extremely painful skin condition for months and unable to move without suffering.

We need your help just to get by.

We have gone through what little help 'uncle sam' has been able to send us, but I've been in bed for a little over a month, and while I am finally seeing signs of treatments beginning to work, I will likely have missed 2-3 months or more of normal work by the time I am able to function again with minimal pain and return to my digital artistry.

- Though I have suffered with eczema for 13 years, I haven't had a flare up this bad in a decade. The flare began at the end of 2019, and escalated to a nightmare around march. At that point, I was so bad, doctors proscribed oral and topical corticosteroids ... which I swore off years back, knowing they only provide temporary relief, and cause flares to worsen after each course ends but I was desperate. If I only realized just how much worse they would make things.... 

- After months of doctors, hospitals, 3 rounds of oral high potency steroids (Prednisone), and 6 weeks of using Clobatosol on my face/body (600x more powerful than otc cortosone cream)... The symptoms I can only discribe as "hell-within-a-hell" began. Doing research, I came to realize that I was repeating my past by taking the steroids, re-riggering TSW/RSS.

- Topical Steroid Withdrawal or Red Skin Syndrome happens in cases usually where someone is proscribed corticosteroids for a skin condition. After time, the body needs larger doses and potencies to get the needed effect, and the body begins to manifest worse symptoms than the original problem. This includes: red, dry, swelling, burning skin at the site of application AND all over the body in new locations, pungant smelling weeping/oozing lesions, itching/cracking/flaking/bleeding, and secondary infections from the open skin, sharp sudden nerve pain even after recovery, and others. I've been through it all.

- Recovering: I spent most of the year trying to fix myself, my weight, my fatty liver disease, my spleen, my G.i tract, etc. All to try and rid myself of this, only to make it worse. The good news is, because I have done so much, my liver and the other organs mentioned are actually back to normal size, my blood pressure is under control again, and I have gone from 325lbs to 240 in about 6 months and still improving. The doctor started me on 'no moisture therapy' to minimize the time the excruciating TSW will take. It took me about 5 weeks to stop screaming myself to sleep at night, and I am beginning to be able to get up from bed with less pain. Each day I choose to force myself to press onward is an act of will, and the only reason I haven't abandoned hope is the online community of fellow tsw survivors. Without their knowledge and tips, I would've never known how to expedite this, symptom management, or how long it might take. On top of that, I'm also taking additional supplements and diet to hopefully repair the original cause of my eczema flares and newly diagnosed food allergies. I am hoping to recover from the tsw within 3 months of having started therapy.

- My wife Violet and I live frugally, usually getting by on just over $1300 a month for rent, bills, food, meds, and expenses. I don't know if the goal I post here is accurate to what we need, and I know you are all dealing with the pandemic etc. But I hope you can help if you are able. I always say, "don't help me if it would hurt you".

Thanks for all your prayers and moral support.
I hope we all get through 2020 well and safe.
- Mikey