Hi all, I keep reading about many who've experienced thinning of skin. I'm a bit unclear as to what this means. Showing of veins? Prone to more bruising? Over the past month or so I've been experiencing very soft and Very Smooth skin, almost like a babie's "tookus"! Lol....Anyway, what are the negatives of this happening? Thx
You can prevent skin from becoming fragile (easily broken when bumped, instead of just bruised) by keeping your skin well moisturized and making sure your diet includes all those things containing nutrients which are good for the skin, you know, the usual, Vitamins A and C, protein, that kind of thing. Making sure you remain well hydrated internally as well as with skin creams should also help. I've had no skin problems to speak of. Not all of us get the same side effects. This disease and its treatment must drive the doctors crazy - we are all different!
Hi Lynda, Bleeding very easily at the slightest scrape, not being able to use tape on skin since taking it off pulls off the skin. When I was getting abrasions on my shins I had to use "stockinette" type covering that slipped on to my leg and over the bandage. Tape would have pulled off my skin, and then another abrasion to deal with. This had become a fairly common problem with me. Even I no longer have PMR, I still have to be careful, I don't think the skin ever goes back to it's former texture, especially as we get older. I sincerely hope you don't experience this, and so far you seem OK!
Lol,lol...I'm driving MYSELF crazy!!
I think you have just intimated what I had hoped would not be the case. I haven't had too much problem apart from bruising and I drink lots of water and moisturise daily but my skin looks like crepe paper. I thought that once I came off Pred it would improve. I'm not going to lose hope.
I'm in exactly the same position. I got off relatively lightly re side effects. Very little weight... just had round instead of my normal hollow cheeks. But the thinning skin has persisted and I take my own dressing to the surgery when I have blood tests as they will use micropore and it just rips off a strip of skin. My skin certainly has not gone back to normal but I can cope with that. Luckily, even when I do get damaged it has never, so far, become infected but I do take care. Always stop and wash immediately and slap on a blob of good old fashioned Germolene and cover it. Works for me. Do bruise easily but I'm fair skinned so, of course, it shows.
Too often when we age, our skin does resemble crepe paper. I personally do not think pred causes that? How old are you?
My skin has also become very soft and smooth but my face and arms often feel a bit hot and tight as if they are sunburnt.. I have always used a moisturiser on my face but now I am careful to use body lotion regularly as well and a moisturising barrier cream on my hands. So far no problems!
Maybe you worry too much about little things. I don't mean an insult, but sometimes we can get caught up in worrying about every little detail or happening. Things just happen, and we can't take all of these things too seriously, sort out what is really important. Then focus on that.
It wasn't like that before Pred. I'm 70.
Hi Lynda, I'm having a mix of what others have mentioned. Crepe paper skin, that has a hint of transparency. Any of the petechial hemorrhages from, say carrying a loop-handled plastic grocery bag, that may slip on my skin will leave these hemorrhages sometimes the merge and form a blob under my skin. When they finally heal, it leaves a darkened brownish-tan area. If my skin is abraided, and bleeds thru, I use an antibiotic ointment, and bandage with a non-stick pad, using paper tape, which doesn't pull on my skin to remove and redress. Wetting the paper tape easily releases the adhesive. My forearms kinda look like a 90 year olds with crepe skin and bruises.
I use skin cream (Gold Bond for Eczema several times a day). Most of my pinpoint hemorrhages heal up in a week or 10 days, the larger ones can take up to three weeks to turn brownish-tan and a couple months for that to dissappear, sort of.
I hope you don't get this sensitivity to bumps and abrasions! (((Hugz)))
My skin has become papery thin and bruises easily—I have bruises and marks everywhere, very noticeable. When I started pred 2 years ago and my skin started to change, I asked my doc about whether it would recover when I got off the pred. He said no, other side effects would reset (like hair loss for example) but not skin.
Both my doctor and nurse say I have got thin skin. The symptoms I have is continuous bruises, particularly arms and legs, even hands, skin can get torn just touching things, purpura and recently I have had blisters forming from some of the worse bruises. For these I need to go to the surgery to get them dressed.
I've been in remission for 1 and 1/2 years and off prednisone. if I bump into anything it tears my skin and bleeds a lot....also takes a while to heal. I take vitamins, use lotion etc....think I'm stuck with the skin issue the rest of my life! At least I have my life back.
How true, but oh my....that's a pretty crummy thing to be left with!
Mt MIL had very delicate skin in her later years, she died at 84 - never took pred in her life! My skin OTOH is still pretty tough after 9 years on pred. One of the things pred is said to do is speed up the aging process - so I suspect that if you do develop delicate skin you probably would have done eventually anyway, it just came sooner. A few of us who don't have problems think it has some to do with the fact we don't use soap of any sort at all - except to wash hands. Anything that foams, whatever the manufacturers claim in advertising, will strip the natural oils from the skin and dry it out - which makes it more delicate.
We are all so different, different genes, DNA etc. I am older than 84, am very fair and probably would be prone to more delicate skin anyway. On the PLUS side, my papery thin finger nails have become thicker and strong, can grow much longer without splitting or breaking. When I was in rehab for over a month recently, my nails grew quite long, never split or broke. I personally like my nails to be short, but strong!
Hi Sue Ellen, Me too! I've been in remission for several months. Yes, it's great to have a life without PMR interferring!
Yes, my nails are better on pred than ever in my life! When I got to a lwoer dose they started to split again!!