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Skin color changes

Lately I have noticed how my skin changes color. I know that prolly sounds crazy, except my employees noticed it the other day. One employee looked at me and said "deb, your face looks yellow, go sit down, I will finish up here" Now the yellow went away, but lately I have been getting lots of remarks about my skin tone. It seems to be like a pendulum, even hubby said to me yesterday, "at least your skin is starting to look like its normal color again". I know I go back and forth feeling weak and dizzy, then I will get a burst of energy, then I am down again,.but I guess I was surprised to hear from so many that my skin color seems to be changing along with these "moments" you guys ever experience that? Its very weird i think.
lilmoma
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Avatar universal
I just started tx so I haven't noticed any skin color changes.  I just did my first shot thurs.  However the energy thing is weird.  I have felt slightly run down but not too bad except yesterday, all day I had nothing but energy.  It was like I was unstoppable.  Now today is a different story.  Do you get energy burst like that or are yours throughout the day?  Just curious as to what's up with the energy.

deb in az
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
lilmomma-I haven't noticed any color change other than redness in the sun. I think anyone with liver disease should always check with their doctor if their pallor changes. Yellowish skin is associated with hepatic disease so others hree might know if it's a normal course with some people.

az-I experienced a lot of different bursts of energy, actually the day after the shot for a while was like I was on speed (for a few to 8 hours). The next day I'd be back to the drained energy level.Otheres here have posted similar reactions.
Take Care both,
don
Helpful - 0
73878 tn?1214053207
I too notice a change in my skin tone (30/48). Last week was a very lazy, don't want to do anything, sleep, sleep, sleep and no energy, suffered a headache all day on Sat. and NOTHING would releive it!  It was then that I noticed my skin had a ash color to it.  This tx has really turned me sooooo white.  I naturally have a olive tone skin color and really get dark during the summer but this summer is going to be a different story!

After being down all last week, I suppose I somewhat got a burst of energy at the least to cook a large meal, which I am glad I did!  Had my brother over and my big sissy surprised us and drove down from Ft. Worth (5 hour drive).  Could not wait to go to bed last nite, it was a chore to walk back there to the bedroom!  Today I suppose I will be resting all day along w/ tomorrow as my shot does not effect me until Monday & Tues. (Sat. nite shot nite).  Every muscle and joint hurts!  Have not even showed my face at work in over a week!

Good day all,
Fisheress
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Avatar universal
Yellow skin can be a sign of jaundice. Jaundice is caused by excess bilirubin in the blood stream. Hepatic disease or injury or bile duct blockage can cause jaundice. I would see a doctor if this was happening to me. Mike
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Avatar universal
Well, I guess this is normal then. I do get "bursts of energy" speed-feeling like. When I first started tx, it never went away, and it caused me to feel like I was jumping out of my skin. It was horrible. Now, it is just temp. and lasts only an hour or so at a time, usually followed by a real hard down time.
It is hard to "pretend" all is well, when your skin goes yellow or ashen like you Fisheress. Still it is something I pay attention to b/c Yellow is not a color any of us like to hear.
lilmoma
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
If anything I've gotten so pale I am translucient and you can see the veins in my skin. As a person who always was outdoors of Italian/Irish decent I didn't know I COULD get this see through. I hate it. In addition not lightening my hair makes me look so mousy and page on top (but really no sense to lighten the hair since it's all falling out in clumps and cracking off)

I am a real beauty queen LOL
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Avatar universal
Sometimes I really see myself when I read your posts. I gotta say, I really scare myself when I think about it.
Maybe I have always put to much emphasis on "looks" but I worry about the hair loss, pale skin, all this stuff that relates to looks. I guess I am discovering how shallow I can really be,........gosh, doesnt the world expect that we look great all the time?! I mean, we should beable to "bring home the bacon, and fry it too!!"LOL
lilmoma
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Avatar universal
AH don't make me laugh out loud like that at work!!!!!   :)

I tell you it is REALLY hard some days and others I'm like oh who cares. So much of being a woman is the emphasis on looking our best - but during this time hells bells just looking is hard! I guess it teaches us the value of the "inner beauty" that people like Tyra Banks (yes because she's so UGLY people notice her "inner beauty") talk about all the time.  ;-)

I wouldn't really post about it that much like I'm THAT vain (although I think vanity is a HEALTHY thing in general - or we'd all be SLOBS) but I want to make sure other women know...it's normal and it's happening to a lot of us it's nothing to freak out for.

In general I figure if I was end stage liver anything I'd look and feel much, much worse than I do now so it's all good.

But oh for the days of hair color and salon time .. ooooooh!

:)
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Avatar universal
HI. I'm a week behind you i think (6/48), and i feel the EXACT same way you do. I'm a little dizzy, weak, nauseaus, shakey vision, etc. almost always to some degree. I've noticed skin changes as well. I get red very quickly and my complexion is for sh*t these days. Every imperfection is so visible...ugh. My hair is drier and not so shiney anymore. I'm early in so not so much hair loss yet but i'm bracing. It's not vanity either. I usually don't wear make-up but now i have to. I look tired, i guess is what i think when i look in the mirror. The energy thing i can relate to also. It's like i'm doing speed sometimes. I crash HARD around 3 or 4 most days and really start to feel it in the evening. anyway. you're not alone. and now i know i'm not either. tracy
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Avatar universal
A GREAT BIG DITTO!!!!!!!!!!
I can smell the sun-tan lotion, and hear the sounds of belly-flops in the pool. Oh and lets not forget that ice cold beer that goes so well with a day like that.
Well,.........how about a VIRTUAL BEER?? Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!
thats the best I can do these days:)
lilmoma
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
YES!!!!
Everybody keeps asking if Im okay,.......yikes, does it really show that much?
Even when I smile and joke (Ido that alot) I get the old "you okay Deb, you look tired" Tired and old are synonomous, arent they?
I better go clean my bathroom, I am beginning to focus way too hard on this,..........I can get real OCD.
lilmoma
Helpful - 0
73878 tn?1214053207
You both are soooo right!  Oh the vanity!  I went a shade darker because I was looking soooooo washed out!  The grey was taken over the blonde color.  I was surprised how dark it came out just going a shade darker.  Must be the meds.  I am always picking up clumps of hair around the house....eeewww.....and it is so fine now that it tickles my face so I keep it pulled back.

Oh and belive it or not, I have the most awsome fingernails I have ever had!  Used to do the acrylic nails for YEARS, had them taken off when I found out I had Hep C (NEVER to go to the salon again!) and had cr*p for nails for the longest time.  I added a vitamin called Biotin to my morning meds and they are great!  My girlfriends always ask if they are my real nails.....

One more thing....ya know how good it makes ya feel when some good looking guy cops look at ya?  Well I am noticing the type I am attracting now! The toothless bubba's!!!! EEEEEEWWWWW! But that's OK, I have a great guy at home that tells me how beautiful I am every day!
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Avatar universal
My hair is probably the only thing I am worried about.  I'm so glad you guys talk about that.  How long before you started showing signs of hair loss or dryness?  I am constantly checking my hair....and I am not a mirror person I don't wear makeup and my hair is wash and wear style...but it's very long and curly and I sooooo don't want to lose any.

I think I am turning into a vain person from this....must stop obsessing...must stop obsessing....must stop obsessing.  hahaha

the other thing is I realize we are sensitive to the sun but bathing suit season is still upon us and the time will call to put them on....how long do the injections sites remain so ugly?  I mean am I just going to be a beat up, hairless, whiteass girl or what?  Do those marks go away in like a week or can you see them all the time......geez...just one just shot and I'm already complaining....I better go run and get over it...
This forum is great by the way!!!!
deb in az
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
LOL toof'less bubba's oh lord is this what we've fallen to????????? hahahahahaha.  oh my GOD hahahahahahahaa

I think we need a few virtual beers is the truth - since we can't have any in real life let's chug them on here. I'm starting to realllly need one thinking about those bubbas....oh my GOD.

I could just see us all hanging out in one place with the big toof'less bubbas howling at us - oh my GOD it's worse than the nightmare I had about Flavor Flav last night after seeing that show for five minutes it tormented me in to my dreams. I'm worried about the bubbas now! Gosh it used to be only vampires and such ;-)

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I just thought of it - how many Deb's do we have posting in here right now?

Me, Az and lilmomma you're a Deb too?  It's our age group it must be!
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Avatar universal
hahahahaha....did you ever see that movie The D.E.B.S. I haven't but I laugh every time I see it.

deb in az
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Avatar universal
Oh yeah Im a Deb. Used to get whiplash as a child everytime someone said "Hey Debbie" me and ten other girls would turn around!
Debbie does Dallas,.oh yeah. How bout Debbie does TX and I dont mean Texas!!!!!!!LOL
I have great fingernails too!! I too stopped going to the salons after my dx, took about a year to get back to their original thickness.
well I really am going to go clean the bathroom now, gosh I am sooo lazy.
lilmoma
Helpful - 0
92903 tn?1309904711
On skin color - As Mike said, yellow would concern me. Other than that, I remember on my 16 week visit, my Dr said, "Well you look alot better. Your color has improved, you were looking pretty bad the last time you were in" (8 week visit). Gee, they never tell you you look like sh!t when you do, they wait 'till you're better.

On hair loss - I ran into some physician guidelines published by my tx clinic a from 2-3 years ago. There they advised Nioxin to prevent hair loss - but emphasised it should be started BEFORE tx. Dunno why.

My hair has thinned. Off tx for 3 weeks, and the last couple days I've noticed increased scalp sensitivity in the shower. I hope that's not a sign of impending shedding.
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Avatar universal
Pale, red, ashen - I had all these colors. But yellow or brown isn't a good color when we're talking liver disease. I was surprised that no one thought much about it until your post. Maybe we're just alarmists - you and I - but I've seen a lot of yellow people at my transplant clinic. Mike
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I used the Nioxin that someone in here sent to me   :)  but my hair was already so bad it couldn't help it. There was nothing left to help maintain.  I wish I had known about it before hand but honestly...I'm sort of loooking forward to chopping it all off and getting a nice wig. Why that will save me so MUCH TIME in the morning that I can sleep late instead of wash, condition, towel dry, style, blowout, spritz, flatten, curl, crimp, polish and lusterize!  I can probably get up ten minutes before I'm supposed to leave now LOL.
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Avatar universal
I learned about Nioxin prior to tx. and began using it. Too soon to tell if it works tho.

I think I might have discovered the Perfect Lotion tho:

ArmorAll: says right on the bottle "prevents fading and discoloration, prevents cracking, and slows down the age-process.
So there you have it, I need to switch over to the same stuff I give my truck!!!!!!
My skin feels just like the interior of a vehicle, thats no lie!!
lilmoma
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Avatar universal
I posted this on 3.31 "Azgirl, shot 8, and I am starting to lose hair. Even worse, pit hair, leg hair, seems to be growing like weeds. I turned 50, I'm going retro. see how long it gets... whole new type of combover....I spent the week in a motel, and please G. let it be the lighting, but I am like yellowish green? I know I'm from southern new mexico, near the big crash site, but jeesh... mottley ugly, reddish blotches, straight from the x-files. Thank god I don't feel as bad as I look."

my chest (you know the area that would have cleavage if my cleavage hadn't migrated to my belly button) seems to be taking the brunt of the sun issue, stings and itches if I expose to the sun
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Avatar universal
When I found out we were going to be loosing our hair.  I freaked, did not like that idea at all.  But, I caved in and early on went to get it cut short and put it back to my natural color brown.  My hair being long and would cause attention to the cut; I did it before the hair loss and now the attention is off my hair cut and my hair can fall for awhile in peace.

I just took shot 14/48 on Friday; about 2-3 weeks ago, I started finding my hair everywhere.  I am like a shedding cat. LOL  If, I lift the hair in certain places you can start to see the balding area. It seams to be thinning in the front and side area first.  

Nygirl has the right idea; get a wig.  Have you found any you like yet nygirl.  Keep us informed on the details of that wig purchase. Just think we get to pick and choose from alot of styles and colors.

cajun
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Avatar universal
yup mine is in the front, receding hairline style.  no wig for me, pit hair combover... come on, be a trend setter...actually, I can probably get by with a ball cap in my line of work, and no one will think anything of it...
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