Cpnhelp.org

First, gather yourself.  Extreme anxiety can only exacerbate our problems. Easier said than done, I know, but you have to calm yourself a little. Now, how long have you been on abx?  Have you changed your diet? Are you taking anything in addition to what's on the Wheldon protocol?  What about caffeine?

Thanks for the reply! I started off taking azith and rifampin about a year ago. But I felt I was getting worse so my dr drew labs and sure enough, I was getting worse on that protocol. So, he switched me to the whelon protocol about 4 months ago. But my dryness started about 3 months after I gave birth which would be strange if it were just my hormones. I thought all along that if just might be the rifampin screwing up my thyroid but I had that tested about a month ago and my dr said it was normal. So, now i'm scared it may be something autoimmune or worse because it's not just my skin. Its my eyes, lips and mouth. I mean, it's past the point of just dry skin. Literally, the oil glands on my face do not work at all. And sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to have to apply olive oil on my face and lips to relieve the burning and tightness and I have to drink water or my throat starts to dry out and hurt. It's really to the point of being debilitating. I'm scared to know what my body is trying to tell me esp since now i know my immune system is shot due to the c. pneumonia. I have a dermatologist appt next week and I want to ask her to test me for some things, I just don't know what. I've done some research and Sjogren's syndrome pops up along with Scleroderma and a few others. And I don't want to go into debt testing myself for all kinds of things if this is just a side effect from the antibiotics. This whole c.pneumonia thing has just become way overwhelming on soooo many levels. I have to say, before I got sick, I truly took my health for granted. If i EVER get over this, never again will i take anything for granted. Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated:) Oh, and I never drink coffee or any type of sugar, caffenated drink. Only water throughout the day and I really eat better now than I ever did.

My skin problems were not as bad as yours, but they were miserably there.  All my life I have had very dry skin; I needed hand lotion many times a day.  And the years before I began the CAP it was getting worse and worse.  And I had places that seemed to be actually rotting away on my face and especially my hands, which were exposed to detergent and bleach water for taking care of our dairy equipment.  It really was horrible.  It is also gone. Rica

Before all of this began, my face was actually on the oily side. I'm beginning to wonder if its some kind of autoimmune disorder that's been triggered from my Cpn treatment or something. I know it's definitely not normal And something strange is going on with me. I guess it isn't the antibiotics since apparently no one has these symptoms since they have been on treatment. Hopefully I will figure out what's going on with me.