7-year update: AR long-term

Blimey. Seven years, huh? SEVEN. YEARS. Well, my official 7-year mark was about 3 months ago, but eczema doesn’t really cross my mind anymore and I totally missed the milestone.

I haven’t been active in any eczema communities in a very long time, but doing some branding work for Aveeno recently which involved talking to several focus groups of dry-skinned consumers got me back to thinking about how much my life has changed since I found out about Dr Aron. 

Yesterday, my boyfriend - who didn’t know me when I had severe eczema - spontaneously said “your skin is so soft, you know”, and it made me flip on the inside as I realised I’ve achieved my once-dream of having not only normal, but BEAUTIFUL skin without even stopping to appreciate what I now have. Life has just been fast-paced and exciting like that.

So, what’s happened since I last updated this blog? I travelled across Latin America for 26 months, moved back to the UK just in time for covid, got a big moulty dog who slept in my bed practically every day for a year and coped with all the stresses of dealing with the deaths of loved ones, breakups, the unpredictabilities of freelance work, the physical and mental exhaustion of launching as a wedding photographer and the absolute rollercoaster of falling head over heels in love with someone and both of you being silly enough not to communicate your feelings for 1.5 years (it’s been a journey!).

But I know you’re not really here to read about the ups and downs of my little life. You’re here to find out, did Dr Aron really work long term? Did she get any side effects? Is she now hopelessly ‘addicted’ to topical steroids? Is she steroid-free?!

Well, though my path here was bumpy, I have considered myself in remission for about the last 3-4 years. By remission, I mean my skin doesn’t need any medication at all to stay clear for long periods of time, but I might get a mild flare once every 6-12 months, usually just on a small part of my arms or angular chelitis around my mouth. In fact, I’m pretty lazy with my skin and most days don’t even bother to moisturise with anything.

Here’s my coverage of eczema on Day 1 of the Aron Regimen vs my latest flare:

And here’s a picture of me during said “worst flare of 2022”:

As you can see, my sporadic flares nowadays look nothing like my old days. 7 years ago, they were raw, red, bleeding and seeping pus. Now, it’s like an isolated patch of heat rash or bumps that never break the skin. It goes away in 3/4 days if I use the Dr Aron cream once or twice a day. And that’s it! 

Seeing a flare never makes me panic anymore; I barely even think about it. AR takes the itch out in a day, and it doesn’t allow the eczema to spread. It’s just not a big deal.

And as for the amount of steroid I’m using… (dah dah daaaaaah)... the tube that used to last me less than a week now lasts around 2 years. I have no signs of long-term damage to the skin as a result of the diluted steroid usage. The biggest issue is actually getting new GPs to prescribe me anything at all because they don’t believe I’ve ever had eczema that bad when I’m sitting in their office with my current skin. I have to go in armed with photos and explain the maintenance side of the Aron Regimen 😂 The AR is not a cure, remember, but it's damn good at maintaining clear skin.

Oh, and most of my food and environmental sensitivities seem to have disappeared, too. I eat whatever, wear whatever and go wherever. I guess the only thing I am wary of is super salty sea as it can aggravate a bit, but it’s nothing major and won’t result in a flare, and retinol in anti-ageing skin products which really does cause a flare (sadly it looks like I'll have to accept growing old gracefully!).

So yeah, believe me when I say LIFE IS AMAZING. If I hadn’t found Dr Aron on a Facebook group and been desperate enough in my protopic-withdrawal to take a punt on his treatment even though I was wholeheartedly convinced he was a scammer, I really don’t think I’d be where I am now. 

I still tear up when I look at old photos or tell people about what I’ve gone through - in truth, no one really thinks I’m not exaggerating until I show photos, and I can’t really blame them as the true potential of this condition is little known so the phrase “I had really bad eczema” gets thrown around a lot by people who had a slight itch in their elbow one time - but it feels like something that forced me to be a better person and learn how to advocate for myself and others. Though I haven’t been an admin of the Dr Aron community for many years, I’m stupidly proud of the work I did back then and how many people we were able to help.

Do I believe the AR works for everyone? Of course not, but I feel it’s always worth a try, and a proper try, at that. Be prepared that it’s not always a smooth journey to sunshine and rainbows; I could have easily considered giving up in the first 9-ish months of treatment as for a long time it really didn’t look like it was going the right way for me. I persevered thankfully, and now look at me go!

 

Happy healing to all of you xx

 

 

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ONE YEAR ON THE ARON REGIMEN!

I cannot believe it’s been a year since I started treatment. More importantly, that’s one whole year of sleeping through the night (the other day I overheard some new mums complaining about how bad they felt on 5 hours’ sleep and couldn’t help but chuckle – 5 hours?! 5 hours used to seem like bliss!). I feel frickin’ fantastic. It feels like an achievement but it’s not, really; I’ve just been living life as I always should have.

Exciting news this week – I FINALLY managed to get an allergy test done! I tried to this time last year and the GP told me there was no link in the literature between allergies and eczema so he wouldn’t refer me to an allergist, and if he tried they’d probably say no anyway. So this time round, after a lengthy call with someone at the clinic and a GP appointment to discuss referral, I went in armed with a list of things that I suspect trigger my skin and other reactions (such as when a milky coffee made my lip swell and one side of my face go numb a few weeks ago). He was totally on board with me getting a test, made a note on my file and told me to walk straight into the hospital Pathology department and request a RAST test… wait, what?! So an allergist doesn’t need to approve me getting referred after all?! I just went up to the Pathology desk, asked for the blood test, they checked my file and took my blood 5 minutes later. Whaaaaat. Should get my results in a week or two, will update you!

A few parts of my treatment have changed since my last update. Firstly, my forehead is now using protopic for a while. I’m contacting Dr Aron in a week when we will discuss whether or not to start tapering off it. Basically, I was concerned about the fact that my forehead was always either red or on the brink of becoming red, and obviously being on the face I didn’t want to use a high frequency of even such a diluted steroid for a long time, but on the other hand I didn’t want to undertreat, which can be just as silly. Luckily, I still had protopic on tap with the NHS so saved a bit of dolla there (crazy how willy-nilly they’ll hand out immunosuppressants by the way – I hadn’t asked for it in a year, walked in relatively clear-skinned and yet they dished it out no questions asked). Immunos aren’t ideal, but my forehead is so clear right now that it doesn’t feel like a step back. It used to burn and sting for a few days when I first used it, but this time I couldn’t even feel it go on. Those 4 years of twice daily must have completely desensitised my skin.

If you have read previous blog posts, you’ll know that my neck and forehead have almost always been the first, if not only, areas to react when I flare. When I saw that protopic was clearing up my forehead so well, I tried to use it on my neck too but it did notttttttt like that! Angry, red and itchy! So after a few days of it getting worse rather than calming I switched back to the compound, and it’s been great ever since!

I was also getting annoyed that my seborrhoeic areas (if anyone needs a reminder, that’s scalp ‘n’ pubes) and also the corners of my mouth weren’t responding that well to the compound, so I mentioned that when I contacted Dr Aron. Seborrhoeic dermatitis can quite often have a fungal element, so he prescribed me trimovate, an anti-fungal, for my groin and mouth (not to be applied with the same hand…) and betnovate for my scalp. Well, hasn’t that just gone swimmingly! I’ve tapered from 4x a day trimovate to 2x a day, and from twice a day betnovate to once every other day. No more flakes!

What I’m finding funny (well, sort of) is that as my usual go-to picking areas heal up and there’s nothing fun to have a peel at anymore, I’ve gone back to my old teenage habit of picking and biting at the skin around my nails. I don’t bite the nails themselves, just the skin. I’m a compulsive picker, so for me it’s not only therapeutic but also sort of necessary that I have an outlet for my compulsions. My fingers are a bit of a mess, but I’d much much much rather that than eczema! Maybe I just need to channel my OCD…

The rest of my body is doing great. Legs and eyes are on the compound once every other day. Chest and upper back are using the compound once a day. I was using 223223 on my arms when one day an unexpected client visit meant I had to put on a long, wool cardigan over bare arms to attempt to dress up a bit, and within 10 minutes I had raised, hive-like rash on my arms that were soooo itchy and left lots of little scabs.

It’s been maybe two weeks now and although it’s not itchy anymore the scabs are only just about to fully disappear. So although my arms don’t look that clear, they feel fine. I went back up to 4x to control that flare and am now happily back at 3, along with my neck. Once the scabs clear completely I will attempt to go to 2 again!

My stomach, sides and lower back have been grouchy for about 2 months now, but they’ve finally fallen back into place. I have some dark patches from the inflammation that’s a bit annoying but it feels totally smooth. A few scabs on where my trousers sit but nothing too bad. Stomach is on 1x a day and I’m doing 2x on my lower back and sides to be safe.

I had a breakthrough with my eyes, which are now on once every other day. For ages, I thought my eczema was just going through a bad stage on them. I’ve had stringy mucus-y stuff build up in both of my eyes (especially after wearing makeup or using diprobase) for about 3 years now, but the optician said he saw nothing wrong with my eyes so I kind of just accepted it as a thing that happened because they’re extra sensitive (they start to cry as soon as I’m outside, as well). Then one day it got really bad and one eye properly swelled up with the stringy stuff, so I mentioned it to my pharmacist and he told me it sounded like conjunctivitis so to use antibiotic eye drops for 7 days, then move onto allergy drops.

‘Pah!’ I thought, ‘I’ve had conjunctivitis before and it made my eyes red and my sight blurred and the eyeballs themselves itched and it was constant rather than reoccurring, plus I’d probably be blind by now so it couldn’t possibly be that!’ Regardless, I’d already bought the stuff so thought I may as well give it a whirl, et voilà, within a few days the gunk stopped coming and I stopped needing to itch around my eyes, and it’s held off when I switched to the allergy eye drops. Plus, surprise surprise, not needing to itch my eyes has meant that the eczema has healed and been able to taper wonderfully too. Why did I not make the link before?!

Ooh, and I’ve started wearing makeup more regularly. Not quite every day, but I was taught a new trick which now means that my eyes no longer dry out when using foundation so I don’t have to go 2 days without makeup between every one day with – all I do is mix the foundation 1:1 with diprobase on the back of my hand before applying, then I remove the makeup at the end of the day using diprobase on a wet cotton bud instead of a facial wipe. I feel like me again!

I decided I wanted to start using it again not because I necessarily wanted to feel pretty; I just wanted to look as though I gave a shit about my appearance. It doesn’t matter how perfect your skin is, as a young woman working in client-facing business, it seems fairly out of the question not to wear at least a little bit of makeup, just to show that you can be bothered to make an effort. If I stood up in front of a client without makeup I’d probably lose business pretty quickly – why should a business invest in our services if we can’t even invest in a little time to make ourselves look presentable? Not the way I’d like the world to be, but unfortunately it’s not something that’s going to be changing very quickly.

Aaaaand I’ve started exercising again. I don’t react well to sweat so decided to start off ‘gently’ with Pilates… Turns out, I was pretty wrong on that one. It’s way more intense than I remembered! I love feeling the muscle burn again though and walking out all refreshed. About time I stopped using my doctor’s note as an excuse!

I still can’t believe it’s already been a year since I got my life back. Facebook’s ‘On This Day’ feature has been throwing out some memories of some pretty tough times recently, but little did I know back then how much my life was about to change. Here are some highlights of the last year:

This isn’t even the half of it, and it doesn’t show all the normal, everyday life moments that don’t ever get snapped. What a year!

THANK YOU DR ARON!

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10 MONTHS - MEETING DR ARON!

All is good! My legs are still doing well on one application every other day, though I’ve had to start moisturising them once with Diprobase on the off-day as they get a little dry.

I’ve still got rough patches on my sides so I’m keeping those at 2x a day (it’s nothing major but I may go up to 3 if it’s still like this in a week) and my back and stomach have been able to return to 1x a day.

I’m tapering my arms down to 2x a day! Eep, finally! My neck and forehead are also stable (a tiny bit bumpy in places but nothing that annoys me) at 3x. I feel like something has just clicked and my skin has started to join the fight rather than just relying on the compound to do all the work. Basically, life is good, and although I obviously keep tabs on it, I never worry about my skin. I can handle it.

I’m not sure why my boobs look so big in that photo, but I’m not too unhappy about it.

More exciting than that even, a few weeks ago I actually got to meet – yes, MEET! – Dr Aron! He was working at the BMI in Hendon for a few weeks invited all the UK admins/campaigners to lunch just as a thank you for all the hard work us volunteers put into supporting people across various social media platforms all around the world.

The man is incredible. He is teeny-tiny but he has one hell of a presence (maybe because we were all hanging onto his every word!) and he makes you feel so at ease. Bit of a joker, too! We made him a collage to put up in his London office of some of the patients he’s helped, and he did wipe away a tear or two when opening it.

You can tell how much this means to him, but also how frustrated he is that many of his own peers refuse to listen and take notice of a treatment with such unbelievably high success rates. We will get there one day 

Besides meeting the doctor himself, it was absolutely incredible to finally meet all the other admins/campaigners who have become like a little family within a big family – these women constantly have me in fits of giggles over Facebook chat (much to my boyfriend’s annoyance) so it was amazing to be able to laugh together in person. The day was amazingly fun, yet at times overwhelmingly emotional. Everyone there (apart from Dr Aron’s daughter) was a patient or parent of a patient who had been saved by Dr Aron. We didn’t just talk about skin, but when we did it was cool not to have to hold back from talking about my favourite doctor too much! 

Here are yet more photos because, let’s be real, this was probably one of the highlights of my life so far.

Hayley (an adult patient) with Debra and Anjali (Aron Mom OG):

The instagram crew!

I’m now also an admin of the big Facebook group (Dr Aron Eczema Treatment Discussion Group), so I can continue to spend hours of my week giving support without feeling like a massive keeno with no other hobbies  (For the record, I do have other hobbies…. Helping people just comes first!). The group has nearly 9000 members and our Instagram page now has over 450 followers with new ones every day; everything’s just quite exciting at the moment.

So back to my skin, the only thing I’d really like to improve is my scalp; I’ve run out of Salcura shampoo and conditioner and kept forgetting to buy more (I’ve just placed a £51 order for just 800ml of each). It’s so expensive but it soothes my head so much. I’ve been using Pantene at my boyfriend’s house and whatever I can find at home, and it’s taken a big toll on my scalp – it’s real flaky and a little sore in places.

One thing I’ve noticed as all my apps taper down and my skin remains mostly clear: I just like to pick. I like to pick my skin, and I do it when I’m bored, when I’m stressed, when I’m concentrating; the only time I’m not doing it is when I’m asleep or completely lost in a moment of fun. It kinda fascinates me, this skin stuff. I’m not sure I even want to give it up. I think if I didn’t constantly pick at myself, my neck would be totally clear and tapering with the rest of my body (note how the rough patches are only on the right of my neck as I’m right-handed!), and maybe my arms would be too. My scalp would certainly be much improved. All the bits that have tapered very successfully over the course of this treatment so far have been the ones that are typically under clothing, hidden away from my beady eyes and eager fingernails. I just can’t help myself!

  

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9 MONTHS

Confession. I’ve been locked out of my godaddy account since before Christmas and I simply haven’t had the motivation to do a quick email search to find my login details and write a new blog. Apologies. I’ve been out having fun and stuff without really thinking too much about my skin.

A lot has happened in the last two months! Firstly, my legs are now on….….. ONCE EVERY OTHER DAY! No issues at all! I’ve had two minor flares during the last 2 months, both mostly on my neck. My forehead has also been a little disappointing for most of it due to the number of holiday-season (look how Americanised I am! [still refuse to use a z though.]) make-up-required occasions and the cold weather. Also, I really like wearing woolly hats and they invariably make it worse, but hey ho, compromises.

In December, I mixed my first batch of compound on my own  It was kind of nerve-wracking at first and I worried it might all go terribly wrong, but I had videos with pharmacists’ methods to follow and lots of advice from other patients, so all turned out alright! Slightly messy though…

So the first flare happened mid-December. I went to Ascot Races and came back to a family party at my friends’ house. His mum had hired a huge buffet meal with caterers, but by the time we go there the only things left were French sticks and an 18” slab of brie. I avoided the brie, but was hungry enough to eat a piece of French stick… lol, JK, I ate in excess of 12 pieces of French stick. Oops. I shall refer to this as The Great Bread Binge of ’15. On the night, I was fine, which encouraged me to eat even more, but the next day I woke up with a nice little flare on my neck. Within a week, it was gone.

Christmas came and went with no issues; apart from Christmas morning when my dad decided to serve me a buttered bacon sandwich despite knowing that I have to eat dairy and gluten-free. His annoyance at my ‘fussiness’ and comments to “just scrape [the melted butter] off the bacon” had me on the brink of a Christmas breakdown. But no, nobody is allowed to argue on Christmas. I had curry for breakfast instead – win! 

I got looooooooads of health-related stuff for Christmas which was amazing, including lots of cotton clothes, a bullet to make smoothies and sauces in and a huge hamper of free-from foods – highlight being dairy-free chocolate spread (oh, Nutella, how I have missed you!). Subsequently, that 10lbs I lost due to the new diet has been firmly reinstated upon my thighs.

For NYE, we went to Copenhagen. I tried some gluten-free beer (only 50p?!?!) which was actually really nice. What wasn’t really nice was the cold. The cold is not good for me. I had another minor flare on neck, scalp and face, but everything else went just dandily. Hoorah!

I’m now in the process of tapering my arms down to 3x a day. As if!! It’s taken so long to get to this point that a few weeks ago I would have guffawed at the thought! No teething problems so far so let’s just hope I can keep it up (posting on this blog does seem to jinx it though…). I’ve had some inexplicable itchiness (no flare though) on my lower back and sides with a little discolouration so I went back up to 2x daily and now tapering back down to 1x a day. Come to think of it, it’s probably due to my parents having some work done on the house which has resulted in me being surrounded by dust whenever I’m there.

COME ON SKIN, WE CAN DO THIS!

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7 MONTHS

It’s been so long since I posted that I can’t be bothered to work out how many days it’s been now.

Honestly, the reason I haven’t posted is because I have nothing to say. I couldn’t be more happy with my skin right now, it continues to amaze me.

I’ve had probably the most stressful, strange and emotionally draining fortnight, which resulted in a two hour visit to the police station to give a witness statement following the scariest incident of my life to date. On top of this, work has been incredibly busy and I’ve been working late and on the weekends so get stuff done.

My skin typically doesn’t react well to stress, so it’s been an absolute pleasure to see that my skin has been 95% perfect. The other 5% is a bit of itch on my back and just above my belly button, so I’ve upped my apps to 2x a day for those areas just for now. Apart from those tiny itches, the only parts that are still bad are the seborrhoeic areas – scalp and pubes, ladies and gents, scalp and pubes. It’s hard to keep one cool enough and the other protected from the cold enough. Oh well, it’s improving.

OH and I went back to my nutritionist last week, and found out that – even though the aim was never to lose weight – I’ve managed to lose 5lbs in about 5 weeks! My metabolic age has gone from 17 to 13 years old! Goes to show how much just healthy eating (I still haven’t done any cardio since April – excluding sex, obviously) can do your body good in such a short space of time!

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DAY 191 – GP ON BOARD!

Exciting news!!! I’ve got my GP on board!

Well, I say ‘my’ GP, I’d never met him before yesterday, which made the thought of trying to ask for an antibiotic and steroid for eczema whilst sat there with perfectly clear skin even more scary. I went in prepared with a laptop full of before photos and case studies, print-outs of everything Dr Aron has ever posted to the Facebook group, all of his explanations of the treatment and every email conversation we’ve ever had.

And hey, I didn’t need it! He listened to me gushing nervously about how the treatment works (my voice was almost shaking) and took a quick look at the before photos (I panicked because I assumed the speed of it meant he’d already made up his mind that this was a ridiculous waste of his time), and then had a quick look at my current skin before turning around and saying “Well, the results speak for themselves. What would you like me to prescribe?”

I almost cried in shock and happiness. As he was writing out my prescription, he finally took a look at the pack I had printed, and when he saw that Dr Aron works at the BMI in Hendon half of the year, he seemed even more happy with his decision to prescribe. He says the treatment is remarkable and he wants to contact Dr Aron himself, so tried to take a photo of his details on his phone before I told him he could just keep the pack.

That was quite frankly the easiest GP appointment of my life, when in reality it should have been the hardest. I suppose that kind of sums up the level of knowledge that the average doctor has about how to treat severe eczema. So now I need to learn to mix the compound myself after I pick up the individual components from the chemist. I’ve still got about another month left of my old tub so it will be a while till I have to cross that bridge!

I think the key was being prepared, and feeling confident in my rights as a patient and in the treatment itself. Before I went in, I got a pep talk (/Facebook chat) from a wonderful woman called Hayley (a Dr Aron patient herself and also the mother of two sets of twins – with one twin from each set being a patient too). She told me to be bold and confident; act like a consumer, not a pupil.

Having the NHS’s support has taken a big weight off of my shoulders; I was starting to get anxious and have dreams (lol, nightmares) about what would become of everyone if something were to happen to Dr Aron. Selfish as that sounds to think first of our treatment, this man has been my lifeline for 6 months and if I had to end this treatment abruptly I know I’d just get rebound all over again and any progress would be lost. Let’s just remind ourselves of what I would be going back to:

*Shudders*

I think the reason that held me back from speaking to my doctor for so long was not only the fear of rejection (I haven’t had a huge amount of success in choosing my own treatment in the past as some dermatologists can have a habit of dismissing your concerns because they know best) but also the feeling that I’m somehow mugging off our NHS (which I love dearly and never want to see end) by requesting they fund my technically private treatment. However, I’ve actually saved the NHS a huge amount in the last 6 months by not needing Protopic (£30 a tube) every 2-3 weeks and not going ahead with the 22 weeks of light therapy I was on a 3 month waiting list for an appointment to discuss (I sobbed so hard when my hope and excitement of getting a derm appointment was dashed by the fact that I realised my agony would go on for so long in the meantime); also the doctor and dermatology appointments themselves. That’s the conscience side of it, but regardless of how much I may have saved the system which I pay taxes towards, it is my patient right (as stated by NICE and the NHS) to choice of treatment if all components are available on the NHS and I can show that they work for me.

Plus, if this is going to become the conventional method for treating eczema (which I have no doubt in my mind that it should), we need to start somewhere, and every new GP on board is an open-minded grass-root to helping countless other patients who approach them in the same state of suffering.

Eczema can have a hereditary element, and the fact that my sister has eczema, my dad has urticaria, mum had severe acne, maternal grandpa has eczema/urticaria and paternal grandad has psoriasis means that my future kids are probably in for a tough ride. That’s a long way off yet, but I want us to reach a stage where I can be comfortable in the knowledge that should my kids ever suffer from eczema, I will be able to receive the correct (and probably most efficient!) treatment possible.

If you live in the South Buckinghamshire area and would like to find out the details of the doctor who supports Dr Aron’s treatment, please leave a comment below.

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DAY 176

Ages since I last posted an update! To be honest, things have been so ‘normal’ that I thought it wasn’t worth updating…

I went to Dublin with the girls and broke my no-pint rule (6 months!) at the Guinness Factory. No flare-ups.

Have been trying my hardest to eat healthily whenever possible and have been putting together a typical 7-day food diary for you to get an idea of how I’m shoving things together and hoping they work out ok. Will post soon!

Last weekend, I went to my great auntie and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary and felt faaaaaaaabulous!

… But then I rubbed make-up into my eye on the way home and, as it turns out, I’m potentially allergic to either my eye-liner or mascara. My forehead has also flared after being caked in foundation for the first time in months. Now, 3 days later, I’m still struggling a bit not to rub my eyes even more. Yesterday, people at work asked if I was ok because I looked like I’d been crying. Luckily, they’re a little better today, but still sore, dry and a little itchy!

Also, I had my first glass of wine in over 6 months at that party. I thought since the Guinness gave me no flares that my luck may have changed on the alcohol front, but despite drinking white wine, which is normally a walk in the park compared to red, I started itching within 10 minutes and had to give what was left of my glass away – I think that’s monumental proof of the level to which eczema has changed me as a human being.

The rest of me is doing great though; my right leg is on 2x a day, my left leg and upper back are on 121212, and my lower back and stomach are on 1x a day. ONE APPLICATION A DAY!!My arms, forehead and patches of my neck I wanted to go down to 4x but am keeping them at 5x in light of this little flare. Such slow progress on these areas but can I really argue with such clear skin?!

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DAY 155

Progress pics alert! I woke up really early this morning due to jetlag, and since I’m currently on business travel I didn’t have much to do, so naturally decided to take some skin pictures… Sometimes, only when you revisit where you were do you realise how far you’ve come!

I LOVE HAVING A FULL SET OF EYEBROWS!

Thinking back to how many times my forehead flared in the first few months of treatment, I’ve sort of taken for granted the fact that it’s been very clear for a while now. Yay!

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DAY 154

Exciting news… I’ve begun 212121 on my stomach and lower back! I could have probably done this sooner but didn’t want to add the pressures of my travels to the change so held on until this week to drop down.

Three days in, so far so good!

And overall, dayumn my skin is looking positively lickable! For once, I haven’t suffered too much hypo pigmentation after tanning, perhaps because it’s not needing to heal over much anymore. I’m all one smooth brown colour and I can’t stop getting my belly out just to admire myself!

As an update to my last post, my arms did fully flare (well, not fully fully, but you know, post-Dr Aron fully) and with it came a tiny bit on my chest, but my chest went down again in a few days after upping applications of the compound.
I controlled my arms by using undiluted twice a day (not the four that Dr Aron normally starts you on; it didn’t seem that severe). I’ve now weaned myself off the undiluted so am waiting to see if my skin will cope with such a quick drop down.

Two major things contributed to my holiday flare:
1. I fancied treating myself to a cheeky sunbathe but thought the sun was a trigger for me so covered my arms in a sarong. Turns out, it’s not the sun, it’s the heat of the sun that triggers. Covering them may actually have made the heat worse… The rest of my body was absolutely fine!
2. We went on a two hour ferry which, in true Indonesian style, had air con units installed but refused to turn them on. It was a packed boat but the people sitting next to the windows were getting ocean spray in their faces so closed the windows, leaving us gasping for a bit of cool air. I frantically fanned my arms the whole journey, but still I could see the redness rising and becoming inflamed. Gaaah…

Anyhoo, I’m back in the UK now and am thus preparing to deal with my next trigger factor: the cold. I’ve realised the thing I’m probably going to struggle with the most is finding cotton clothes for winter. Unless you want to pay £30 for a plain, frumpy cotton shirt/top, there aren’t a lot of options out there. I struggle to put together a work wardrobe on a budget as it is, so I think I’m going to just have to buy jumpers but wear long-sleeved cotton tops underneath to save my skin from contact.

Oh well, I should be used to being unfashionable by now… Everything will be a-ok! (#nomakeup)

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