My appearance

[[Ac...]]

Has anyone else's appearance been negatively affected by this?  It's one more thing for me to mourn.  I've lost weight, lost muscle, have bags under my eyes, bad skin, new acne, weird nails.  I even feel like my teeth have gotten less straight quicker than usual! 

 

An old timer buddy told me at the start of this process to look in the mirror and realize it's all going on in your head and that you're ok.  That was true then.  Now over a year out I can see a difference that this long term stress put on my body 

[[...]]

I have had these all....first 2 months my skin was changed to brownish /greenish.... all these are from Medicine....for some people last longer

[[Ha...]]

Yeah, I've aged a lot. Hardly recognise myself in the mirror, and I'm soooo unfit from being bedridden and unable to exercise. Gone from working 50 hours a week in a physically demanding job to struggling to walk for more than 20 minutes without needing to rest, and thats an improvement

 

 

 

[[eo...]]

Yes! I'm 6 months out and I'm finding it more and more difficult to believe that I'm just seeing myself differently when I look in the mirror or that some of these changes will get better. I have bags under my eyes that just seem to be getting bigger. My skin looks aged, with new lines, sags, and wrinkles. And I'm pretty sure my teeth have gotten less straight than normal too! I think the issue with the teeth might be from grinding my teeth at night. It seems that even though I wear a mouthguard at night there is still a lot of shifting pressure on my teeth. I am also just too focused on my appearance now for some reason which leads to me noticing and worrying about more and more "issues" (teeth, eyes, skin, etc.).

 

I still have a glimmer of hope now and then that I can look better, or feel like I look better, at some point, as happens with some people on this forum. I'm guessing it could take a while considering what our bodies have gone through.

[[...]]

Yes!!  It is terrible.  I have skin of a person twice my age!  What the heck is that about!

[[Li...]]

Yes. I was always told I looked 10 years younger for my age. But I don't believe that anymore. I've lost over 10 lb and haven't been able to put it back on and I didn't weigh that much before. But I have read posts from others and they said once you fully heal everything goes back to normal. So I'm holding on to that hope. Hugs!

 

LiveLife