Hi everyone. Got a problem with my skin. Been on steroids for 3 years and am now down to 12mg. The skin on my right shin is so thin that I keep getting red blotches on it. Yesterday all I did was to dry myself with a very soft towel, ran it up my shins and four inches of my shin was covered in large dark red blood mark. I also get them coming up on my right arm but only small spots. I know your skin gets thin with steroids but does anyone know how to cope with it. I live in trousers now dont like to see my legs on show. Oh no date for my hip replacement yet
Hi, I have been on steroids for a year, and am now at 7mg.after starting at 15mg. I am taking it very slowly, and hope that I will not have a flare up. My skin seems to have little blood spots, and I hope that they eventually go away.
I had both hips replaced a few years ago, and have has no problems at all. The operation is very straight forward, and I was only in hospital for three days. Keep doing your exercises and you will be ok.
Good luck,
Grace
Not problem I've had really (sorry) - used to get the odd tiny spot just above my wristwatch but that is all.
However - for making it marginally better lots of people swear by Diprobase or Doublebase. You can buy them but you should also be able to get them on prescription. It helps the dryness and hence the delicateness.
I never really dry myself - I get out of the shower, wrap myself in a towel and put on a towelling dressing gown and sit at the computer until I am dry. Avoids that bit of the damage at least.
Arnica may help...
Wonder what I said there! They can't complain about naming two emollient creams can they?????????????????????????
Hi Mousemum,
I've only been on pred since may and I'm at 9mg with plenty of red spots and large blotches. Theytake a few weeks to fade and by that time new ones show up. Of course any small bruise brings up something as well. I would really like to know if the 83mg asperin makes it worse. The spots/blotches are not desireable when I am playing tennis. I always suspect my mates are mumbling about "what's he contracted".
The aspirin probably DOES make it worse - but it does have its advantages. I am on an anticoagulant as well (sintrom, bit like warfarin) and for a while had the blotches but only small ones. Still on pred but no blood spots.
Well befor either warfarin or prednisone my skin was/is so thin that dogs leave horrid purple blotches if they jumpon me, which fade red and then disappear. Also my skin tears easily on the back of my hands--its that nasty thing called age that causes it.
I have nasty purplish blotches which slowly disappear while new ones take their place. I have found if I try not to rub or even touch my arms they improve and even using creams causes problems. If I scratch my arms I then get blotches. I play a game of seeing what new ones have appeared each day, I suppose it exercises my brain which is becoming very mushy. If I touch my arms I do seem to get the skin splitting as well. During the summer my white paintwork had attractive streaks of red. I am now wearing sweaters and cardigans which makes my house look a little less like Halloween.
I am still on 20mg Pred - coming down slowly from the 40 I was started on in June and which I had to re-start in August because the reduction was too fast - and the sunspots on arms and legs with which I've learned to live over the years are now angry red blotches. Several times I've been asked by anxious friends if I have measles! As the pred dosage reduces do the marks fade - or is this forever?
I too have thin, blotchy, spotty (sometimes bloody) skin. Went to a special skin doctor yesterday and he informed me the ONLY way to combat this was to use a cortisone cream! (which he prescribed) !?! What a laugh! I asked whether it would interfere with the pred i was taking - he said " No" !
Mine has improved - and I think other people have said they got better. I think part has to do with your age when you get off pred - as noninoni said, it's also an age thing and pred speeds up the aging process in some ways.
Hello Housemum,
I am exactly the same, I started on 60 pred 2 years ago, now down to 5 but feel fine, apart from the awful blood spots on my legs and arms, on my arms,its when I just hold a handbag on my arm I get them and on my legs
, I protect them like mad, but just as I seem to get rid of one, (that takes ages) suddenly another big red blob is there, I did put arnica on them, but that seem to agrivate it a bit, and it spread a bit larger? my Dr has given me Diprobase which was OK at first but it seems to dry my skin up more, looklin on google it seems its for Excema, which dries rashes up? I have tried Bio Oil, because the blobs when they go leave a sort of scar.
Like you I stick to trousers, and wait for winter and wear thick tights.
But could be worse,l have no other symptons to speak of, so touch wood for that.
Thanks everyone for your replies. Its good to feel I am not on my own but do feel the rest of you with this complaint. Hopefully as I get onto less Pred it wont be as bad and as you all say at least we can cover up through winter. You would think with so many people with this problem the doctors would be able to suggest something tho or is that too much to hope for. xx Carol
My GP has not got a clue what is causing my blotches! She said I should have a blood test full blood count, which I am sure will be normal. One advantage is that it does seem to clear the swimming pool.
There's a world of difference between knowing WHY something happens (pred makes blood vessels more delicate, especially the tiny capillaries in the skin) and being able to change it.
And ptolemy - your GP should be doing a full blood count every 6 months anyway.
Hi Eileen point taken I think I'm just fed up today and sounding off unfairly. XX
I didn't mean it as a "point" - but it is something that applies to many of the things we experience, good and bad. They are known about, in that sense they are not something to worry about and lose sleep over - after 60 years of pred they do know a lot of things but they still don't know how pred works, just that it does but with a few codicils.
But work it does - and has saved sight and lives despite its nastier side.
Well said Eileen. I only seem to get blotches on my arms and hands and find that if I knock them gently they bleed easily. I am also finding that my face appears chubbier as well but not sure if its the preds. I thought I was ugly before PMR but boy you should see me now but neither makes me want to cover up or stay in doors. People either accept me as I am or they don't. All the best and keep up the good work.
Well said Eileen. I only seem to get blotches on my arms and hands and find that if I knock them gently they bleed easily. I am also finding that my face appears chubbier as well but not sure if its the preds. I thought I was ugly before PMR but boy you should see me now but neither makes me want to cover up or stay in doors. People either accept me as I am or they don't. All the best and keep up the good work.
15 years ago a young man at work thought my purple plotches might be cancer and wanted me to check them out. Made me laugh since I knew that the true cause was energetic happy dogs. My mother also bruised easily, so I was prepared.
Nowadays I use a mixture of a good moisturizer- Cerave in the US- and petroleum jelly to fight dry skin on my arms. One alone does work.