My Topical Steroid Addiction Story - Part 2

In 2012 I was also diagnosed with high blood sugar.   My A1C was 7.1, which is borderline diabetic and well beyond the so-called pre-diabetic range.   In an effort to get my A1C down, I lost 25 lbs by the end of 2012 but my A1C was still around 7.2, which was insane because I only weighed 140 lbs and yet I had the blood sugar levels of a diabetic which is usually due to obesity.  I eventually learned that some topical steroids are actually glucocorticoids, they cause the blood sugar levels to go up.

I stopped using any steroids on my foot sometime in 2013 and took another blood test about 4 months after, and my A1C was 4.8, shocking....  I thought I was in the clear.

During this time, whenever I was stressed, I would sometimes get small rashes.  I would subdue these rashes with the leftover steroids that I wasn't using on my foot.   Usually in two or three days the rashes would disappear and I would stop using the topical steroid.

In March of 2014, I did a run and a workout (not something I did regularly).   I started to get a rash on my abdomen area.  That rash looked like goosebumps but red.   They were itchy.  I managed to subdue the ones on my abdomen area by using some topical steroids.  I worked out again, and a couple of days later, some more bumps appeared, this time on the inside of my thighs.  Then a few more on my arms.  I went to a walk-in clinic, the doctor thought it was folliculitis and gave me some anti-bacterial medication.  I aslo had a cracked thumb, she told me it was definitely eczema and gave me some Lyderm.  I faithfully applied both on the prescribed areas.

Within two days, those bumps got bigger, to the point where they were the size of peas.  I went to the ER.  The ER doctor thought it was a case of scabies, but also gave me a referral to a dermatology rapid access clinic, just to double check his analysis.   Over the next two days, the situation got progressively worse.  I went to see the dermatologist.  The dermatologist said it was eczema...  I was emotionally crushed.

I had never been able to overcome the eczema on my left foot and now it was attacking the rest of me.  I felt angry, angry at the weather (it was a really cold winter), angry at all these misdiagnosis, etc.  The derm gave me 100g of betaderm (Betamethasone) and said in 3 days it would be gone.  I put the betaderm on, I put it all over my body like it was a moisturizer.  It did reduce the inflammation, but it didn't get rid of the itchiness and I was still getting more and more new patches elsewhere on my body.   I had spreading eczema.

I went to go see a traditional chinese medicine doctor.  He gave me some foul tasting concotion to take for 4 days and acupuncture.  I was skeptical it would help and it didn't help.  I was still get some occasional new spots and the itchiness wasn't dissipating.     I also saw a naturalpath and a different traditional chinese medcine doctor.  They all prescribed their "remedies" and got my hopes up, none of them worked.

I visited my regular doctor and she referred me to another dermatologist and gave me some topical steroids.  I was starting to get skeptical.   Their remedy is always some topical steroid and the one my doctor gave me was actually the one that caused my high blood sugar before.

I then started doing some research on the internet and that's when I stumbled upon http://www.itsan.org and learned about topical steroid addiction.   I realized my skin had become dependent and addicted to steroids over the years and that's why nothing worked.  I stopped using steroids for a while and my skin was trying to rebound, but I suppressed it using the betamethasone.   I immediately stopped using all topical steroids on April 1st 2014.  Within a day, the flare that had started 2 weeks earlier resumed in earnest.   I'm now in topical steroid withdrawal and this blog is going to be the story of my long road to recovery.

My Topical Steroid Addiction Story - Part 1

I'm going through Topical Steroid Withdrawal right now and it totally sucks.  Here's my steroid addiction story...

Once upon a time, I lived in Seattle and I also used to smoke (I know nasty habit).  I also had a kitten.   I didn't have any health problems... yet.  After the kitten grew up, I started getting asthma from his dander.   I was given an albuterol inhaler.  My doctor encouraged me to give up the cat, I resisted.   Somedays, I would avoid going home because I knew within 30 minutes of getting into the door I would have an asthma attack.   I lived in the cat's home.

I eventually did get rid of the cat, but I couldn't get rid of all his dander.   I was still asthmatic.  The smoking didn't help, it sometimes led to asthma attacks.   It was around this time, that I started getting some white patches on my back.   I had developed vitiligo.  The derm put me on clobetasol (an extremely potent topical steroid) and protopic (an immunosuppressant) to see if the pigment would return, it never did.  I think I was on that regiment for about 9 months.   I gave up, the vitiligo wasn't spreading and stopped using clobetasol and protopic.    Turns out albuterol is considered a steroid, it is sometimes used in bodybuilding and injected in liquid form for its anabolic effects.

In 2011, I moved back to Toronto (yay home), and my asthma disappeared within weeks.  Usually Seattle's climate is better for asthmatics, but the opposite was true for me.   It could have been that I left the dander infested place and moved into a place no one had ever lived in.   A few months later, I quit smoking.

In 2012, I went on a trip to Greece and Turkey.  I developed a small eczema rash on my left foot. I tried using some hydrocortisone on it, it didn't work.  I went to go see the derm to see what he could do.  He gave me some topical steroids for the rash.  It didn't really go away, in fact it was itchier and spreading.  He gave me a stronger topical steroid and told me to wrap it in serran wrap to make sure it got absorbed.  I listened to him, but he situation continued to worsen because it was itchy and I kept scratching it.   Eventually, I was using protopic on that foot and the condition seemed to start to fade but I read the protopic is potentially very dangerous and it was inconclusive whether it could lead to cancer, so I stopped that right away.

I still wanted this eczema to go away, I started using polysporin on it.  Polysporin is an antibacterial ointment that's sold primarily in Canada.  It actually helped quite a bit, but I was still scratching it because I put it in a occlusive dressing, being of the belief that if I kept the moisture in, it would keep the skin from drying out.  I would later learn this is a fallacy when it comes to skin moisturizing.  How naive I was then...