End of July
Tomorrow marks the end of July. I began consciously treating my BXO naturally halfway through June, and after making slow progress decided to set the expectation that I would use July as nothing more than a month where I understood how long this will take to treat. This is my update.
I believe, although I'm not entirely certain, that I discovered about halfway through this month that I had BXO over most of the glans as well as the inner foreskin.Since then, I've been treating that as well, with some visible progress.
So, what have I learned this month?
Soaking with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide does seem to encourage peeling. I try and do this for an hour a day, sometimes twice a day. The most healthy inner skin seems to be responding really well to this. When I say 'most healthy' I mean the skin that has BXO on it but is the least dry and hard.
Manuka Honey is great for healing. This is useful for wounds that come from peeling, but more importantly, as a way of helping the phimotic ring to relax. I use this every night at the moment.
Tea Tree Oil **appears** to be working. It's early days yet. What happened was, I bought some and tried it for two days early last week but stopped after it irritated the surrounding healthy skin. I then noticed on saturday that a lot of skin was peeling off, and I believe it was all skin on areas where I had applied the TTO. This week, I've been trying it again. I apply it with a cotton bud (q-tip) to try and avoid it making contact with the healthy skin too much.
I definitely have BXO on the glans. It's much thicker at the bottom than on the top. There are areas where the skin colour is more pink and healthy, and the size of this area is only increasing - albeit very slowly. As with the foreskin BXO, it's coming away from the edges, starting in the places where it's the thinnest. But in saying that, I noticed tonight that there were some tiny holes where it almost seems the TTO had penetrated the BXO skin and may be attacking the bad skin from the middle too. This would be awesome if it were the case.
When my skin is moist, it goes white. This doesn't mean my progress has gone backward - it just means the skin is white. I had a real setback about halfway through this month when I thought it had gone backward. I'd spent a week at home on leave and had worn boxers so I could keep the head and skin exposed the whole time. Then for some reason I had the head covered and it got a little bit moist, and went back to looking white. I then spent the next few days back at work, with the head still covered, and it shocked me a bit. I thought "oh shit, my progress has gone backward because it's staying white all the time". To really observe the progress, I need it to be dry. When it dries, it goes back to it's "real" colour (and I use that term loosely, because mark my words, that colour it currently has when wet OR dry is, I swear to god, not the colour it's going to be forever. I'm going to beat this thing).
So anyway, now to the big nagging question, "How long will this take to treat?" or perhaps more easily answered, "What have you learned about your progress this month?"
I have absolutely no idea. And that hurts me to admit, but it's the truth. I'm still dealing with injuries that occur because I'm overly keen with the peeling. I'm doing this because it's healing excruciatingly slowly. I still can't have sex, and I don't feel sexy or attractive. I sometimes feel like my life is wasting away while I sit back and wait for this to show the progress I need, and there have been times this past month when I've contemplated just chucking the whole thing in and going straight to my doctor. But then I'd end up with steroid creams and a condition to 'manage'. I want to do more than that. I don't want to have to be reliant on medications in order to have sex.
Last night, I took a leap of faith and ordered a product that has a very good reputation for treating Lichen Sclerosus (which is the more general name for BXO) in men and women. It wasn't cheap, and I couldn't find a seller in New Zealand (where I live) so it might take up to a month to arrive, but I don't really care. I'm at the point where I want this thing gone.
The conclusion I've come to after July is that what I'm doing now is working, but it's simply too slow and I need to do something more. My aim for August needs to be established, but will probably be to try and find a quicker way to treat than what I'm doing right now. In the meantime, it's tea tree oil, hydrogen peroxide, and Manuka Honey while I wait for the magical product to arrive. It's nothing illegal or dodgy... I just don't want to name the company at this stage until I know whether it will or won't work. The intention of this blog is to provide a factual resource for men out there and I don't want to mention a product once then never again. I'd rather be saying "I tried it and it worked" or "after a month I don't notice any more progress" than just "I ordered it". People like to jump to conclusions. If I name it, someone doing a google search for "BXO" and the name of the product I've ordered will hit this site, but that doesn't mean it does or doesn't work.
That's all from me for now. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post.
I believe, although I'm not entirely certain, that I discovered about halfway through this month that I had BXO over most of the glans as well as the inner foreskin.Since then, I've been treating that as well, with some visible progress.
So, what have I learned this month?
Soaking with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide does seem to encourage peeling. I try and do this for an hour a day, sometimes twice a day. The most healthy inner skin seems to be responding really well to this. When I say 'most healthy' I mean the skin that has BXO on it but is the least dry and hard.
Manuka Honey is great for healing. This is useful for wounds that come from peeling, but more importantly, as a way of helping the phimotic ring to relax. I use this every night at the moment.
Tea Tree Oil **appears** to be working. It's early days yet. What happened was, I bought some and tried it for two days early last week but stopped after it irritated the surrounding healthy skin. I then noticed on saturday that a lot of skin was peeling off, and I believe it was all skin on areas where I had applied the TTO. This week, I've been trying it again. I apply it with a cotton bud (q-tip) to try and avoid it making contact with the healthy skin too much.
I definitely have BXO on the glans. It's much thicker at the bottom than on the top. There are areas where the skin colour is more pink and healthy, and the size of this area is only increasing - albeit very slowly. As with the foreskin BXO, it's coming away from the edges, starting in the places where it's the thinnest. But in saying that, I noticed tonight that there were some tiny holes where it almost seems the TTO had penetrated the BXO skin and may be attacking the bad skin from the middle too. This would be awesome if it were the case.
When my skin is moist, it goes white. This doesn't mean my progress has gone backward - it just means the skin is white. I had a real setback about halfway through this month when I thought it had gone backward. I'd spent a week at home on leave and had worn boxers so I could keep the head and skin exposed the whole time. Then for some reason I had the head covered and it got a little bit moist, and went back to looking white. I then spent the next few days back at work, with the head still covered, and it shocked me a bit. I thought "oh shit, my progress has gone backward because it's staying white all the time". To really observe the progress, I need it to be dry. When it dries, it goes back to it's "real" colour (and I use that term loosely, because mark my words, that colour it currently has when wet OR dry is, I swear to god, not the colour it's going to be forever. I'm going to beat this thing).
So anyway, now to the big nagging question, "How long will this take to treat?" or perhaps more easily answered, "What have you learned about your progress this month?"
I have absolutely no idea. And that hurts me to admit, but it's the truth. I'm still dealing with injuries that occur because I'm overly keen with the peeling. I'm doing this because it's healing excruciatingly slowly. I still can't have sex, and I don't feel sexy or attractive. I sometimes feel like my life is wasting away while I sit back and wait for this to show the progress I need, and there have been times this past month when I've contemplated just chucking the whole thing in and going straight to my doctor. But then I'd end up with steroid creams and a condition to 'manage'. I want to do more than that. I don't want to have to be reliant on medications in order to have sex.
Last night, I took a leap of faith and ordered a product that has a very good reputation for treating Lichen Sclerosus (which is the more general name for BXO) in men and women. It wasn't cheap, and I couldn't find a seller in New Zealand (where I live) so it might take up to a month to arrive, but I don't really care. I'm at the point where I want this thing gone.
The conclusion I've come to after July is that what I'm doing now is working, but it's simply too slow and I need to do something more. My aim for August needs to be established, but will probably be to try and find a quicker way to treat than what I'm doing right now. In the meantime, it's tea tree oil, hydrogen peroxide, and Manuka Honey while I wait for the magical product to arrive. It's nothing illegal or dodgy... I just don't want to name the company at this stage until I know whether it will or won't work. The intention of this blog is to provide a factual resource for men out there and I don't want to mention a product once then never again. I'd rather be saying "I tried it and it worked" or "after a month I don't notice any more progress" than just "I ordered it". People like to jump to conclusions. If I name it, someone doing a google search for "BXO" and the name of the product I've ordered will hit this site, but that doesn't mean it does or doesn't work.
That's all from me for now. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post.
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