Life has been busy, but I know I’m behind on adding a photo update so here it is. I’m pretty sure I’m seeing some new darkening in areas so I’ll just keep at it. I shaved more of the hair around the area so the Vitiligo patch may look a little bigger in this photo.

I’m fairly certain there is at least one area that is repigmenting!  I have been fairly faithful in applying Protopic twice a day, but there have been a handful of times (like last night) when I only apply the ointment once.  I have stopped the steroid ointment because it is so greasy and I have to wear slacks all day at work.  Very exciting times!  I haven’t been getting any sun exposure on my knee to allow the pigment to darken.  Maybe I’ll get some sun time this weekend.

I am optimistic that the redness I see, especially around the hair follicles, is the Protopic doing its thing.  It could be that it’s irritated from crawling around with my son, who knows!  It’s almost a month since I started the ointment and most people report seeing results two months into treatment.  I’ll keep posting updates and hopefully I see progress!

Not much pigment activity yet.  It’s only been a few weeks.

I wish I had a picture to show how this works, but as you can see from my previous posts I have Vitiligo on my leg below my knee.  I shaved the hair in the area when I started the Protopic treatment so I can’t do a quick example.  Before I shaved it the hair was 100% white.  In the summer when I’m wearing shorts I usually dye the white hair using “Just For Men” for beards.   It has a handy little brush applicator.

A few tips:

1. Try to get the dye color that matches the surrounding hair.
2. Don’t leave the dye on too long or the hair will become too dark.  This is trial and error the first couple times.
3. Try to only cover the white hair.  If you get dye on the surrounding hairs they will darken as well and you will have a dark ring of hair around the Vitiligo area.
4. Wash the area thoroughly after the desired level of dye.  If you don’t get all the dye off then it will continue to darken.

Do you have any cover-up tips you can share?  I would like to hear what clever things people have come up with so leave a comment!

I found the photo of my knee from 2003.  It’s difficult to compare to the new photos because I didn’t shave the area in 2003 so the hair masks any small pigment patches that may have been there.

I took a quick pic this morning before I left for work.  I haven’t had a chance to compare to the first shot and it’s much too early to claim the Protopic is or isn’t working.  I do have some shots from years ago that I took as a reference to see if the Vitiligo spreads.  I’ll dig those up and post them soon.

I read about some possible side-effects of Protopic.  After the first few applications my skin was noticeably irritated, but not to the point of being painful or unbearable.  I’m almost a week into the application and I don’t have any irritation now.  I’m not using the steroid every day so I’m sure that is helping minimize the irritation because steroids are known to thin skin.

If you found this blog then you probably already know what Vitiligo is (sounds like Vittle-Eye-Go).  If not, read this description from vitiligosupport.org

I’m a thirty year old male and I’ve had Vitiligo since I was about ten years old.  It first presented when I had a horrible bicycle accident that shredded my right side from my knees up to my hips.  My Vitiligo is confined to an area below my right knee and my right hip all the way to my mid-line.  For some reason it stops directly at my mid-line a few inches below my belly button.  You can see in the photo below that my knee has repigmented in a few small spots on its own, but the Vitiligo has continued to spread very slowly over the last twenty years.

Yesterday I had my first appointment with a dermatologist in about ten years.  I have followed treatment news, but since there haven’t been any breakthroughs I haven’t felt the need to have it looked at.  The dermatologist looked briefly at the Vitiligo and asked me a few questions and then prescribed Protopic 0.1% twice a day and a steroid ointment named Clobetasol once a day.  I applied the Protopic for the first time last night and this morning.  I’ll take a “before” photo when I get home this evening and post it here.

The purpose of this blog is to document any progress I make.  I am going to use the Protopic on the spot below my knee since it is the most visible.  I will upload pictures each week over the next few months to document any change in pigmentation.  Hopefully I will see results and somebody else living with Vitiligo will be encouraged by the progress and have renewed hope that treatment will help them, too.

Knee 7-9-09