Topical Steroid Withdrawal Medical Treatment
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Rebecca some of you may or may not be aware, but I am a lifelong Eczema Sufferer. This condition severely effects both my physical and mental health and has done all my life limiting what I can and can’t do in all aspects. More recently though for the last 3 years, I have been going through something called 'Topical Steroid Withdrawal'.
If you are unfamiliar with this term, I encourage you to google it. Its a severely debilitating condition where due to long term Topical Steroid use as prescribed by my GP as a treatment for eczema my skin the biggest organ on the body became addicted to the drug and I had to go through withdrawing from this drug.
The withdrawal process is life changing, Ive lost 2 stone, my skin sheds daily, I experience an intense burning/stinging sensation daily, intense itching, oozing and open sores my hair and eyebrows are falling out. If i shower the water feels like acid. All my glands and lymph nodes are swollen, I have severely disrupted sleep, I struggle to work or even get out of bed most days. Ive spent extended periods of time in hospital. I cant leave the house or do many things for myself. Im in constant pain. My mental health has deteriorated to the lowest place I have ever been in all my life. You wouldn't wish this on your worst enemy. Before this i was a very outgoing happy go lucky girly girl and i don't recongise the person i see in the mirror anymore.
The craziest thing about all of this is that Topical Steroid Withdrawal is not recognised commonly by medical professionals, even the top Dermatologists in the country and each time I have tried to seek help I was forcefully told the only thing that would help me was Steroids! (which was the reason I was in this mess!) nor can i claim any compensation or financial support from the government during this time as its not recognised by the NHS. More research and awareness is needed before we can get to that point.
The only way for me to get over this severely debilitating condition is time, i need to allow my body time to recover from the absolute havoc the steroids' have caused not only on my skin but my hormones, glands, organs etc. everyone's time to recover is different it could be 3 years it could be 7 years.
However there is a treatment that can help me to recover from this process ALOT quicker and regain my life and my Mental health back. Its called CAP Therapy - Its stands for Cold Atmospheric Plasma therapy. This is a tried and tested treatment for TSW regaining hundreds of people there life back. However there are only 3 places in the world that offer it. One is in Thailand, One is in Singapore and one is in Hampshire UK. Its is ALSO not cheap. AT £180 a session to which i would need a session a week for at least a year.
Here is a link to the clinic - https://www.skinsolaceclinic.co.uk/
Therefore I am asking people if they could spare anything to help me in my healing journey towards regaining my life and contributing towards the treatment. I just want to be my Happy Go Lucky Bubbly self again.
Thank you for taking time to read my journey and I hope that this helps to also spread as much awareness about the condition as possible.
Some helpful links below - https://www.itsan.org/what-is-tsw-syndrome/
Organizer
rebecca ebbage
Organizer