Flakes & dry skin.

Since stopping steroids at the beginning of the new year, I've basically been forced to take 2 showers every day--one in the morning and one before bed.  I've always been a shower-in-the-morning type of person, so when the evening hours roll around, it's sometimes difficult to convince myself that I *absolutely must* take another shower.  I usually feel somewhat lazy at this point in the evening and just the thought of showering seems tiresome, but I'm coming to learn the consequences that I'll encounter the next morning if I don't follow through.....

I'll wake up the following morning, sit up and witness a blizzard of skin flakes falling onto my lap....

And then I'll proceed to the bathroom mirror to see this awful sight....

And then I'll want to cry the whole morning away.

Last night I thought about taking a shower a few times throughout the course of the evening, but I kept procrastinating until I finally fell asleep without doing it.  And now I'm sitting here telling myself that I can never let this happen again.

The necessity of the evening shower is this: I need to moisturize before bedtime.  But I can't simply put moisturizer onto my awfully dry skin.  The very second that you put something moist & creamy onto severely dry skin, you experience intense burning followed by hours of itching.  Showering must proceed moisturizing.  The skin must be softened and the pores opened for the moisturizer to be comfortably (and painlessly) applied.

Showering and moisturizing in the evening will not make the next morning an absolute cakewalk.  But it will make it a little more tolerable.

Tonight I'll take my second shower, most definitely.