Using protopic
I’ve had eczema since i was younger but went years without huge issues, maybe a few flares on my wrists and neck but nothing big. Last september I started uni and might have overdone it with freshers because I had the worst flare up of my life, all over my upper body. my skin was wrecked. I was prescribed topical steroids and they worked for a week but stopped after that.
I went on to try every single home treatment under the sun including diet changes, red light therapy, no moisture treatment, allergen tests etc. At this time i was put on a derm waitlist for 2 years so i gave up hope with the doctors. Over time it never changed and looked the same, i felt so insecure and never wanted to leave the house, my eyebrows even started falling out because of eczema on my face.
Now last week I went to a gp in my uni town, mainly because i had issues sleeping because of the itching at night, and was prescribed protopic (which my old gp never mentioned). I obviously knew about the dangers as i had watched tiktok after tiktok about withdrawal, but at this point i was desperate and just wanted to give it a try as i thought it couldn’t get any worse.
A week in and my skin has slowly started changing. My face is almost clear and i’ve had people even compliment my skin. my hands and arms are slowly healing but i think it will take longer as they’ve taken a lot of damage. the burning and stinging as side effects is almost nothing to the pain i felt during a flare so as long as i leave some time before i sleep to let the burning reside, i can sleep peacefully and not scratch anymore.
Sorry for the long post but if anyone is scared of trying protopic as a treatment, i’d say just go for it! i dont know about the long term effects yet as im less than a week in, but at the least its helped my mental health and confidence lots. good luck to everyone!