POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: northernguy on March 17, 2008, 01:54:55 am
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I'm interested to hear from those who had the common HIV skin issues before starting meds, did going on HAART make your skin better (or worse)?
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I have lots of skin problems since acquiring this :( id like to know also if when starting meds this will bring my skin back to how it used to be.
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I have constant seb derm which becomes totally florid when I'm off meds. Bleeding sores, the whole bit. When I'm on meds it's comparatively bearable, but very noticeable.
I use betamethasone 0.02% ointment to control it.
MtD
/edited for a tyop/
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Mini had horrible skin problems even on meds, but while still carrying a vl. Her scalp was so bad that her hair wouldn't grow. Once she was on the right combo and got her virus down to u/d, the skin problems got a lot better - and her hair grew. She still has dry skin issues, but I think it's less from the virus and more from her ethnicity.
Mum
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icky skin problems are usually the sign my immune system is crashing. it's not pretty
But once my system improves the skin problems resolve quite a bit.
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One of the worst manifestations of AIDS for me was molluscum contagiosum, which covered my entire face and neck (this was pre-1996).
One I began HAART, they "melted" , and I mean literally. It was like having a white gooey wax on the INSIDE of your skin; it ran down and accumulated around my jaw line, then formed big walnut sized pockets that would burst.
Sounds terrible doesn't it? Another reason why I am a big advocate of starting HAART when your numbers indictate it's time, and sticking with it.
15 years later, I am left with surgical scars on my face, and the scars on my body from the ones they tried to remove by "freezing". The scars look a lot like KS lesions.
Alan
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Becoming extremely sensitive to the sun to the point of burning up for 3 days if only I went to the sun for an hour in London in April (!), was the main reason that convinced me to take an HIV test.
Unfortunately my skin is still very sensitive to the sun and the heath. Having y laptop resting on my tummy, for example, leaves red marks from the heath of the computer that would only go away after about an hour. Same thing when I take a hot bath. In this respect, I don't think the meds made any difference and I got used to it.
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I had that seborheiic dermatitis (sp?) crap on my scalp and some on my face from the HIV (never had signifiicant skin issues prior) and had it pretty much under control with differnt shampoos (I heart T-Gel coal tar) and creams. But after some time on the meds the skin issues all cleared up and I weaned off the creams and shampoos. Occasional slight issues, but nothing even close to before.
I think it all depends on what the skin issues you are having and each individual. Lot of us respond differently.
Good luck :)
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HI ... I've had minor skin issues since diagnosis. I have to use a dandruff shampoo or the itching will drive me crazy; I also have a fungal issue on my face (eyebrows, cheeks, goatee, etc. I use Ketaconazole to keep it under control. Then there's the darn genital wart that won't stay away and some skin tags on my neck --- all of these we're going to try to freeze off on Friday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
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Well my personal and unscientific experience is yes, but then you get kinda dry skin and fork out masses of £ (or $ I guess) on moisturiiser. But I know which I prefer (Clinique, or generally sommat cheaper n bargain -- all works the same ;))
- matt
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Well my personal and unscientific experience is yes, but then you get kinda dry skin and fork out masses of £ (or $ I guess) on moisturiiser. But I know which I prefer (Clinique, or generally sommat cheaper n bargain -- all works the same ;))
- matt
I've been going with Eucerin and Aveeno to paste down the flakiness.
What throws me is how unpredictable it is. If we were talking face to face right now you wouldn't even notice. Yet three hours ago at work I could feel the heat begin on my nose, spread to my face and before you could say "boo" my whole face was an angry red. Of course that never happens when I''m at the dermatologists. Makes it hard to schedule things like job interviews etc ???
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I have always had flawless skin, except for one Summer. I had an itchy, scratchy rash and went to a GP. I had just gotten the results from my most recent HIV test and was again negative and did not think to ask. The doctor I chose. knew of my company and the stress and thought I may be having a little nervous breakdown. In Los Angeles in the mid 90's, everyone was on Prozac and everyone was in therapy (a little later for me).
Doctor Perry was really special to me so I called him my Jewish Mother, we tried everything, the rash would not go away. He referred me to a Dermatologist in Seal Beach where the first question asked was if I had done a recent HIV test and that Doctor stated my answer was off the record. I told Doctor about the test results and how recent they were, left the clinic and got a really cheap bottle of Aloe Vera lotion, used it every day and the rash was gone. I tested every six months back then and on the Christmas, I tested positive.
My VL was never higher than 36,000 and undetectable since 1998, my T-cells were below 100 but have been over 300 since 1998 and over 500 now. Other than during sero conversion, I have always had flawless skin. Have the best day
Michael
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My skin has improved a lot since I got on meds. I had small hard bumps all over my legs & arms, they are much much less obvious now but still not 100% gone. I had very dry patches under my eyes and behind the ears, its OK now. I also had boils that wouldnt go away and stayed infected in a couple places, which havent come back since meds. I hope you'll see a similar improvement, I didn't realize before that you were not on meds.
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My skin returned to "normal" and healthy state on meds. I too started geting molluscum contagiosum on the legs.
The skin doc thought I picked it up from the gym or ?
I did not go to gym's and no way I caught it from someone. But anywho, meds cleared it up and new groths stopped long ago.
But my best skin story was a few KS spots I had on my leg and arm, after meds, went totally away.
I can't even imagine how badly KS would have taken over my body if not for the meds.
Always made me so aware of how hiv destroyed ones body in the old days when meds were not available.
I can't imagine the horror of those early days of hiv with no hope.
To answer the question, YES, meds should give you your skin back.
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So, I'm going to revisit my question of two years ago.
I've been on Atripla now for almost 3 weeks and there has been no noticeable improvement to my skin. I'm bright red right now, and still doing a credible imitation of a snowglobe when I run my fingers though my hair. >:(
Am I being premature in hoping to see some improvement after 3 weeks?
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So, I'm going to revisit my question of two years ago.
I've been on Atripla now for almost 3 weeks and there has been no noticeable improvement to my skin. I'm bright red right now, and still doing a credible imitation of a snowglobe when I run my fingers though my hair. >:(
Am I being premature in hoping to see some improvement after 3 weeks?
Bugger Northo.
You might be wanting to show your frazzled hide to your doctor.
MtD
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@ mum....what, u saying that black people are ashy, lol.
we've known since day one to put the lotion on the skin...buffalo bill style...
yeah, since converting ive had my fair share of fungal outbreaks (3 to be exact).
hopefully meds will make it reoccur less frequently.
good luck!
best,
d
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So, I'm going to revisit my question of two years ago.
I've been on Atripla now for almost 3 weeks and there has been no noticeable improvement to my skin. I'm bright red right now, and still doing a credible imitation of a snowglobe when I run my fingers though my hair. >:(
Am I being premature in hoping to see some improvement after 3 weeks?
Could be that your skin issues have nothing to do with HIV.
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3 weeks is probably too soon and you can more or less expect some skin problems even after starting meds. Dandruff is a frequent visitor and when it acted up it also grew on my goatee and the skin under it and even my eyebrows were flaky. During the last few months I rarely did anything about as they usually came and went away within a few days.
But 3 weeks ago it acted up badly again and when I went back for my blood draw around the same time I spoke to the nurse briefly. She then spoke to the doc and asked him to see me and he quickly wrote me a prescription of ketoconazole cream. All the white stuff was gone after using it for 2 days!
So my feeling is that don't expect the meds to also fix your skin problems. Go talk to your ID doc and if your numbers are stable s/he should be able to give you something to fix your problems quickly.
Best of luck dude
(edited for typos)
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The overall health of my skin is the same as throughout my life - good, though naturally a bit dry - but the pigmentation seems to have changed a lot on meds. I used to be very, very pale, and now I'm considerably less so. I seem to have more freckles - I don't really tan but I don't burn in 10 minutes like I used to.. Its kind of hard to describe as I'm still basically a pale person. I guess its from the Reyetaz or Ziagenavir (I forget which ones yellows you).
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yes your skin will get much better eventually.
but if you get iris you can have a few weeks or months of worse skin.
3 weeks is not enough. I flaked for weeks and weeks. My scalp. My face. etc etc.
but finally a healthy immunity does wonders
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My personal experience is that my skin condition improved dramatically when I started meds.
Pre-meds I had been suffering a back-to-puberty-from-hell acne throughout my face and back for months, which was worse each day.
1 month after starting meds my skin was totally clear.
Your millage may vary, of course.
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As I was going through my downward spiral before detection I was having extreme skin problems consisting of mega-flakiness, skin infections, and acne. As of now (closing in on 5 months of meds) almost all of that has gone away. The only thing I really deal with now is flakiness, to counteract that I drink more water and try to moisturize when I think it's happening. If your skin problems persist for a while go see a dermatologist, it's what they're for.
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I also had a skin issue. Back in '06 I developed a rash on my face. I always had flawless skin. I was working 2 jobs at the time and averaged 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I tried different cleansers and moisterizers to no avail. October of that year I went on vacation and got alot of sleep. I noticed as I was getting dressed one day that my rash was gone. Now I make sure to get my proper rest. I never had a problem since then. Sorry, I now I didn't answer your question. But maybe it's not HIV related. Maybe, like my situation, it was stress and lack of sleep.
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Could be that your skin issues have nothing to do with HIV.
Oh goody. Maybe I've got diabetes or a thyroid condition. That would be icing on the HIV cake. :'(
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I started having minor but persistent and annoying skin issues (basically ongoing itch and dryness on thighs, ankles, and behind the knees) years before getting HIV, so I can assume in my own case that HIV didn't cause them. They did, however, get a bit worse about a year ago. Also, I began having dandruff a couple of years into HIV, and even dry, flaky skin on the eyebrows, neither of which I'd ever had before.
Four months ago the situation around the ankles became severe: visibly red, scaly patches. That's when I decided to do something. (By the way, I suspect part of the ankle problem may be related to woollen socks, but that's not something I"m willing to give up; cotton socks on a cold winter's day would leave my feet freezing!)
I do not recommend going to a dermatologist. All she did was say "atopic dermatitis" which I already knew, and prescribed a cortico-steroid which I knew I wouldn't take.
What does appear to have helped--since the problems really have subsided amazingly in the last four months, since I started using the following, has been:
1. Taking a couple of spoons of a flax oil/borage (or evening primrose oil) mixture regularly if not every day.
2. Rubbing coconut oil into the scalp (absolutely no more dandruff, and I have better hair than I've ever had before) Rubbing coconut oil into the ankles has not worked quite such a wonder there, but at least it really mitigated the itching at a moment of attack.
3. Reducing the use of soap and shampoo to a necessary minimum, and only using very high quality products (no sodium lauryl sulfates or that sort of thing) when I do use them; not using any other skin products. Very high quality does not equal very expensive.
4. Improved diet--getting the refined vegetable oils, the white flour, the sugar, and the processed junk out or at least reduced to as much of a minimum as possible.
5. Yoga (on the theory that all the increased blood flow from inverted postures and the like would help.)
6. Rgular visits to a sauna on the theory that if any toxins were behind these problems I would sweat them out.
7. Getting more sleep, as Etay says.
The problems have not gone away, but they are dramaticallyk reduced. Whether that is because of all of these steps, or only some of them, or has nothing to do with any of them, I have no idea. They would get worse in winter anyway, so I would have expected some improvement around this time of year anyway.
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3 weeks might not be enough time...I'd say wait 2 months, and if no improvement, you need to see a dermatologist about your issues.
My skin "issues" these days are not the 'no immune system' variety (although my complexion has seemed a little gray to me for years now) but are more to do with aging. Example: take brown paper grocery bag; wad up into a small ball; unroll; this is what the skin on my cheeks looks like ! LOL
Also as I get older my skin gets thinner. It appears to be somewhat dehydrated all the time, even though I drink lots and lots of water.
Skin issues are very aggravating; hope you can get some relief.
Hugs, Alan