After almost one week of Clobetasol
As I've said before, I've been to a few doctors for my BXO recently. Initially, I regretted it, but since having time to digest everything I've managed to get my head around it a little.
Doctors don't really appear to understand this condition, and what I got was the standard BXO speel. We prescribe potent topical steroids; apply once a day; if the condition doesn't resolve, we recommend circumcision. While I have enourmous respect for my GP, that response I could have gotten from Google, and in fact, I did. The problem was, that comment about circumcision sent me into a spiral of anxiety, so I started searching for more experiences with Clobetasol. Of course, that search turned up a rather pessimistic set of responses, and when you're really worried that perhaps you've been kidding yourself all this time, it's easy to forget why those who had conventional treatment often don't get their condition under control. Then you go and see posts by guys who tried everything and eventually gave up and resorted to circumcision. Search for natural treatments, and posts by people who take a more holistic approach, and you seem to find a lot more success stories.
Clobetasol is working for me. But it's really just doing what the natural treatments were already doing, albeit faster. I've had 5 treatments so far (once a day) and it took a few days to see any effect (just like natural treatments). The effect it has is to cause tiny pieces of the BXO skin to peel away by themselves, during the day (just like natural treatments). I'm not seeing any drastic peeling of sheets of skin, nor am I seeing the BXO skin turn to a gooey substance before sliding off. I'm seeing exactly the same kind of peeling as I was with natural treatments, but it's just happening faster.
That tells me a few things. First, that my natural approach wasn't that bad after all. Second, recovery from this condition is very slow.
I've found out that dairy and sugar cause my rosacea on my face to get inflamed, so have been trying where possible to avoid eating either. My face looks a lot better, and my other skin feels much softer too, so it figures other skin conditions will improve too. I've also been absolutely paranoid about keeping it dry behind my foreskin at all times. I think that that, alone, is the single most important thing you can do. When I thought about it a few weeks back, I remembered that there was a time a few years back when I started to notice a little dribble of urine after urinating. Maybe it was age catching up with me, but the point is, I think that began around the time I started showing symptoms of BXO. A few weeks ago I was at a conference and had to use a urinal because there were so many people and not many toilets, and I got a little urine under my foreskin. The skin became quite inflamed for about half an hour after that, and I had to make sure I kept it dry. I really think urine is the cause of my BXO. So keeping it dry plus keeping my diet clean seem to be enough, and I think if I did nothing else, I'd eventually beat it.
Clobetasol is great as it allows the healing to occur faster. But I am also continuing with my natural treatments at the same time. Perrin Creme Complete, in particular, seems to be good at accelerating recovery, so that's good to ensure I repair any possible skin damage due to the steroid. Once I get it under control, however, I'll be getting off it and back to purely natural treatments.
One other thing I realised just yesterday is how constricted the skin was. I took a photo of myself at the beginning of the year, and I'd estimate my skin has expanded by about one thumb width since then. Now, of course, it's not that my skin has expanded... it's that the BXO skin was heavily contracted when it was covered with the white 'skin'. The ring is another good example of this phenomenon at play.
Incidentally, something I'd really like to try and solve is, why the ring? Why do so many BXO sufferers get the ring? Why does the ring form? Why is it thicker than everything else? It feels like the ring is where it all begins, and the disease spreads from that place after that. So why do so many sufferers start with the ring? What happens at the ring more than anywhere else to create an initial breeding ground for the disease? I think if we can solve this, we might understand what causes BXO.
Doctors don't really appear to understand this condition, and what I got was the standard BXO speel. We prescribe potent topical steroids; apply once a day; if the condition doesn't resolve, we recommend circumcision. While I have enourmous respect for my GP, that response I could have gotten from Google, and in fact, I did. The problem was, that comment about circumcision sent me into a spiral of anxiety, so I started searching for more experiences with Clobetasol. Of course, that search turned up a rather pessimistic set of responses, and when you're really worried that perhaps you've been kidding yourself all this time, it's easy to forget why those who had conventional treatment often don't get their condition under control. Then you go and see posts by guys who tried everything and eventually gave up and resorted to circumcision. Search for natural treatments, and posts by people who take a more holistic approach, and you seem to find a lot more success stories.
Clobetasol is working for me. But it's really just doing what the natural treatments were already doing, albeit faster. I've had 5 treatments so far (once a day) and it took a few days to see any effect (just like natural treatments). The effect it has is to cause tiny pieces of the BXO skin to peel away by themselves, during the day (just like natural treatments). I'm not seeing any drastic peeling of sheets of skin, nor am I seeing the BXO skin turn to a gooey substance before sliding off. I'm seeing exactly the same kind of peeling as I was with natural treatments, but it's just happening faster.
That tells me a few things. First, that my natural approach wasn't that bad after all. Second, recovery from this condition is very slow.
I've found out that dairy and sugar cause my rosacea on my face to get inflamed, so have been trying where possible to avoid eating either. My face looks a lot better, and my other skin feels much softer too, so it figures other skin conditions will improve too. I've also been absolutely paranoid about keeping it dry behind my foreskin at all times. I think that that, alone, is the single most important thing you can do. When I thought about it a few weeks back, I remembered that there was a time a few years back when I started to notice a little dribble of urine after urinating. Maybe it was age catching up with me, but the point is, I think that began around the time I started showing symptoms of BXO. A few weeks ago I was at a conference and had to use a urinal because there were so many people and not many toilets, and I got a little urine under my foreskin. The skin became quite inflamed for about half an hour after that, and I had to make sure I kept it dry. I really think urine is the cause of my BXO. So keeping it dry plus keeping my diet clean seem to be enough, and I think if I did nothing else, I'd eventually beat it.
Clobetasol is great as it allows the healing to occur faster. But I am also continuing with my natural treatments at the same time. Perrin Creme Complete, in particular, seems to be good at accelerating recovery, so that's good to ensure I repair any possible skin damage due to the steroid. Once I get it under control, however, I'll be getting off it and back to purely natural treatments.
One other thing I realised just yesterday is how constricted the skin was. I took a photo of myself at the beginning of the year, and I'd estimate my skin has expanded by about one thumb width since then. Now, of course, it's not that my skin has expanded... it's that the BXO skin was heavily contracted when it was covered with the white 'skin'. The ring is another good example of this phenomenon at play.
Incidentally, something I'd really like to try and solve is, why the ring? Why do so many BXO sufferers get the ring? Why does the ring form? Why is it thicker than everything else? It feels like the ring is where it all begins, and the disease spreads from that place after that. So why do so many sufferers start with the ring? What happens at the ring more than anywhere else to create an initial breeding ground for the disease? I think if we can solve this, we might understand what causes BXO.
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