I have hit the 18 month mark. It still wows me. I get excited about these landmarks, not because I’m happy that I’ve been going through this for so long, but because of how proud I am that I have not given up the fight against this condition and the man! I will never give up spreading awareness and I will never bow out once I am fully healed.
I am actually in the works of putting together the beginning trails of a documentary. I am determined to get the word out. Be on the lookout in the next two months for a trailer. The funding stage will begin after that which is nerve-racking but super exciting!!! I believe in this so much and the need for not only reform in how topical steroids are used is something we desperately need, but proper education in this area needs to be addressed.
Any who, stay tuned for that! As for now, I’ve been a bit of an itch fest. I went and got my skin swabbed (yea for waiting over 2 hours in the waiting room WITH an appointment) and I do have a staph infection. It’s mostly my wrists, elbow area and chest. Everyone usually has staph on their skin, but because of my condition, it affects me greatly. I probably picked it up at the airport flying back from England. Public places are the usual culprits. Hoping this dose of antibiotics will help. I hate taking antibiotics but I don’t have a bath right now so I can’t soak in apple cider vinegar and epsom salt, but I will once I am back home. Only take antibiotics when absolutely necessary!! If no swab is done, don’t take it (unless it is blatantly clear you have MRSA and will die if you don’t). That is my opinion seeing how antibiotics are being handed out like candy and now we are having a huge problem with immunity to different antibiotics because of overuse.
Here are some pictures from this past month xo
To any sufferers reading, I know this is tough. I know this isn’t a breeze, and the fact that it can last for so long (plus unexpected flares) can be a huge boost in anxiety. Just know you aren’t alone. Know that your suffering doesn’t have to go in vain. If we all work together to raise awareness and use our stories as a collective, we can make a huge difference in the lives of future TS users. No one should have to suffer like we have. It’s unjust and abominable to have a 4 decade history of this without any reform. So lets shed some light on this subject and do it with facts, professionally and empathetically. We are all angry (I totally get it, we feel our doctors should be held accountable), but anger will get us nowhere. Instead, use that passion to gather as much research as you can and spread it around to local doctors xo We can be the change. We can be the hero of our own stories.
Love, B. R. Wren
Found in Reverie 
Great to hear your progress and am intrigued and excited for your documentary! Awareness is so important!
My thinking re antibiotics is similar to yours…only when necessary. I always fill up on prebiotics and probiotics once the dose is up to replenish the good bacteria and it’s helped! Not sure if you’ve tried these but good after antibiotics 🙂
Thanks for the update, you’re doing great and eczema really does show our strength and resilience and to me it’s admirable!
Selina
Myeczematales.com
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Thank you so much, Selina!! Xo and I am taking probiotics =)
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You can do it. Never give up. Freedom will come. It took me 4 years and now I can bathe in the sun and have a shower like a normal person.
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That’s awesome. Perseverence!!
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Hey Briana,
I am so glad that you are doing well! Wow you are 1.5 years in! I am almost approaching my anniversary soon my body looks great my face has recovered I can start living normally again!
I am so thankful for your posts! I wanted to ask you are you using anything for your hair? I after at least 8 months began to use shampoo it is a paraben free, sulphate free, vegan too it is called Alumine Chinese Herbs! And that really helped me with my hairloss, plus flaky scalp! Here is the link for it https://www.benevita.eu/en-gb/hair-care/chinese-herbs-stimulating-shampoo/ let me know what you think!
God bless you!
Pooja
xxx
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Hey! =) I’m glad you are feeling great! I do use a shampoo about twice a week for my head from SheaMoisture. I don’t usually use any conditioner as well. I’ll take a look at the one you use! =)
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It looks good from what I can see. It’s much more expensive than mine. Does it smell nice? Mine doesn’t really have a smell.
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Hey Briana sorry for the late reply! It is a premium product that me and Peter Lamas are working on (yes going through withdrawal allowed me to have the confidence to start my own business)! My partner Peter Lamas developed the Chinese Herbs specifically because his mother suffered from cancer and had to go through hairloss, I have used it yes it is great and regenerating hair growth but for the smell and to get more thicker hair in general the Bamboo Nectar conditioner is brilliant! Briana I would like you to try it, Peter Lamas and myself want to give a platform for women like us who have gone through a health complication to be feel beautiful again.
I hope everything else is well!
🙂
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So, the Doctors found you have staph and here you find it out again. Clearly, your issue is bacterial (and to the more experienced medical eye, that’s very obvious). Why the tunnel vision with TSW? Why is it so important that people suffer when there is a safe and effective alternative that achieves the desired result without all of the pain and suffering? Why do TSW advocates assume that there are no dangerous side effects to TSW?
As to the antibiotics..
Fundamentally and firstly, “antibiotic resistance occurs in bacteria (microbes), not in people”. If you take an antibiotic longterm YOU will not become resistant to it. The bacteria you come into contact with may be a resistant strain but not YOU personally. Nope, never.
There are two concerns for antibiotic resistance: how it HAPPENS and how it SPREADS.
Farming practises worldwide where, for example, cattle are given high doses of antibiotics to encourage rapid growth is one of the primary reasons for the increase and spread of resistance. As a result, these farming practises are beginning to be legislated for cessation plans globally (tapering cessation actually!).
Nonetheless, it’s true, antibiotic resistance is on the rise worldwide and physicians have a guardianship role to play in maintaining the efficacy of all kinds of antibiotics by not prescribing unnecessarily or ineffectively. Let me say that again. UNNECESSARILY OR INEFFECTIVELY.
MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) is a “serious” global threat (there is one higher category “urgent”) though ‘reported’ statistics show the illness rate is falling due to the number of serious cases lowering year on year; and there are still a number of antibiotics that can be used to successfully treat MRSA (WHO, 2013).
The Dr Aron Regimen is administered, with overwhelming success, on the basis that all chronic eczema sufferers are infected with Staphylococcus Aureus (staph A). (Swabbing and culturing of wet/oozing eczema will reveal if it is Staph A and/or MRSA and/or Golden Staph and/or ??).
Dr A makes a clinical, educated, experienced diagnosis based on a written history and digital imagery provided by or for the patient (by a caregiver), and is supported by thousands of his patients actual, real life experiences, that red eczema, is *indeed* infected with Staph A. In fact, it is the single most underrated trigger for eczema and once removed, well, miracles happen. Itching stops, skin heals, lives change.
Traditional eczema treatments – when antibiotics are prescribed due to evidence of pus-filled/wet/oozing infection (and that would be oral and topical) – are short course. They hit the staph A for 7-10 days only. As many here will attest, while the wet/oozing might go away, the red eczema never seems to go away completely; in fact, over weeks, months and years, it gets WORSE. A word here on the steroid component, that do do their job of suppressing the “symptoms” of eczema – redness and inflammation and associated pain…but steroids alone do nothing for the underlying cause/s.
Here’s the kicker…antibiotic resistance in microbes can begin to occur, or has a higher chance of occurring, when microbes are partially depleted but critically some are left behind to mutate. And the possibility of antibiotic resistance occurring is logically much more likely to be a concern with traditional eczema treatments (7-10 days is not enough to get control of the sneaky Staph A when you have dry skin that hides and shelters it so well).
Staph A microbes that are enmeshed in red, persistent eczema are instead likely whipped up by traditional prescriptions for antibiotics, as instructed by regular doctors/derms, and it is these acts that are the very definition of “contributing to antibiotic resistance”.
Dr Aron’s methodology, essentially longer application of a dilute compound, including the antibiotic, which is prescribed NECESSARILY AND EFFECTIVELY, is the opposite of this and is the embodiment of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines that state “preventing infections prevents the spread of resistant bacteria”…Dr Aron’s Regimen unequivocally does “prevent the spread of infection”, both on the patient AND halts cross contamination to others in the community (a hallmark of the WHOs guidelines for stopping the spread of resistant microbes!). It’s the SPREAD that is also a global crisis concern, perhaps as much or more so than the risk of creating NEW resistant microbes.
Dr As approach eradicates the staph microbes absolutely, avoiding the stop/start methods traditionally and unsuccessfully prescribed that, again, by definition, are far more likely to create the perfect environs for the advent of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics used to treat infection DO NOT create microbial resistance; they prevent it by stopping the spread of infection.
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I truly don’t understand why you come on so aggressively. I completely agree that antibiotics are necessary when you have an infection and I have been doing tons of reading on staph and the delta toxin this past month. You do not need to berate me in such an unprofessional way.
My endeavor is to help everyone, including Dr. Aron patients, with this fight. I have never once said that if you have a bacterial infection you should not treat it. Just because staph is on someone’s skin does not mean they don’t have RSS.
Right now, TS is being way overprescribed and causing many severe problems in people, not just skin problems. My hope is to be a part of that reform where doctors can take a step back and reassess how they use TS on people. I am hoping that some Dr. Aron users will join up in this endeavor because overuse of topical steroids leads to secondary bacterial infection (which is why Dr. Aron advocates for treating staph and not just slathering people in potent creams). We are all on the same side when it comes to over use of steroids.
As far as antibiotic resistance, we do differ. Even Dr. Aron has pointed out his use of antibiotics could cause bacterial resistance in some of his patients, but he says it’s a risk he’s willing to take. I agree with you that I think more than 7-10 days may be needed to kill of certain infections of the skin, but I am still unsure of how long is too long when using them.
If someone has RSS, then going back on steroids is not going to help them in the long run. That is my one upset with Dr. Aron’s method. If I have a staph infection that has been clinically shown to be a problem with eczema, then sure, let’s get that sorted. But I don’t feel steroids are necessary for that endeavor, especially when it comes to TSW patients. Killing off bacteria is the job of the antibiotic.
I firmly believe in eradicating the issue of TS abuse around the world so that eczema sufferers, as well as others who have to use TS, do not get sucked into all the problems of overusing has caused people.
I appreciate your passion about the issue with staph in severe eczema cases, but please also see that RSS is also a real and true tragedy of overprescription of steroids.
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