Back On The Prednisone

I finished up my last 7-week titrated dose of Prednisone this past Sunday. By Monday morning I was already sprouting new blisters on my thighs and upper arms. And by sprouting I don’t mean the usual one or two blisters that appeared overnight when I was on the Prednisone. I mean there were a dozen, and I swore as the morning drew on I could almost see them form in real time.

Fortunately I had a previously scheduled appointment with my dermatologist that day. She agreed that I obviously needed to stay on the medication while we wait for the Duplixent to take full effect (estimates range anywhere from five to eight months for the complete treatment of pemphigoid). So I’m back on another titrated regiment; this time only 3 weeks, to be reassessed when I see her at the end of the month. She also added  30 days of doxicycline and a B-vitamin suppliment to the mix.

And as far as the extremely stubborn areas on my neck, I mentioned to my physical therapist a couple weeks ago that no matter what I did they weren’t healing; they’d scab over, but would slough off at the slightest provocation in the shower the next day. She suggested putting xeroform under whatever bandages I was using. That made sense; the area on my wrist that they pulled for the to patch my tongue where the tumor was removed was covered with xeroform for weeks before it had healed enough to be exposed to the air.

So for the last two weeks I’ve been using the xeroform on my neck, wrapped in a gauze bandage and I’m seeing a definite improvement.

I hated going out wrapped in gauze like that because I was so concerned about what people would think, but then I said “Fuck it. I need to heal and what people may infer from my gauze (and the leprosy-like sores on my arms) isn’t important.”

Some days I feel like I’m a walking advertisement for the pharmaceutical industry, but you know what? Two days on the new regimen and the blisters stopped forming within 24 hours and we’re back on the healing path.

She’s not giving up and neither am I.

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