Hi Helen
Having been through exactly the same as you last February I really do sympathise – the treatment really does dry your skin out and the lines look as if they are there to stay. However, I can honestly tell you they will go away but you might have to work at it a bit.
I felt very frail in myself but I did try to eat as well as possible with a wide variety of foods including cheese, oil, red meat. eggs and fruit and veg. I gave up completely on alcohol but instead made sure I had things like fizzy water and melon to rehydrate the skin (lots of water). I also tried to keep active out in the fresh air – slowly at first and then buiding up. I think it really did help avoid infections in the early days and also made me feel so much better.
Regarding the hair I Know they tell you NOT to tint it so as soon as I had about an inch of hair I used one of those tints without amonia and chose a soft baby blond which didn´t look too harsh and seemed to look quite natural even on really short hair. I also put lots of conditioner on every single time I shampood my hair.
Regarding nails I only had the blue lines on my toes so I just covered them with a pretty nail varnish so I didn´t have to look at them! So far I have kept my hand nails quite short and have now started using nail varnish again now that they are in better condition. Up to then I was leaving them without any nail varnish and using lots and lots of handcream rubbed on and around the nails too. I also used rubber gloves for wet work and tried not to let my nails come into contact with chemicals etc.
I do eat kiwi fruit and yoghurt every day and things like this seem to help with all the dry skin, scalp and hair problems.
Well, I think that´s all the advice I can come up with at present – please try not to get too despondent as you have come through a pretty difficult time and deserve to pamper yourself a little bit (well quite a lot really). Things really will improve over the next few months – honestly!
Very best wishes
Carol xxxxx:-)
