I can scrape it off, and it comes back even after using exfoliating cleansers. Trying to put make-up on is a nightmare! I have never liked foundation, because it makes my face feel dirty, but I'm trying to cover up all the Lupus skin junk on my face. I have tried putting liquid and powder, even mineral foundations on and they all seem to cling to the thick and scaly patches, making them even more pronounced and they only reduce the butterfly redness a little. Anybody have any suggestions?

I had good luck with iodine mixed half and half with alcohol when the skin on the hands was really bad, so I tried it on the eye brows and lids during the day and soy oil at night.

Some days it works fine and some days not, but mostly it's not as bad as it used to be. The iodine may be hard to find. Where I live they stopped selling it about a year ago - I went around town buying up all I could find. They now sell the iodine soap. I don't know it that would be a good substitute or not.

Besides the flaking my skin also gets cracked and raw without the iodine and oil, so I don't mind the iodine color. I don't care if it looks funny as long as it feels ok, plus I am male, 62, and no longer worried about looking good.

The butterfly has dissapeared since I've added probiotics to my diet and I would like to talk about that, but I understand it is a controversial subject, plus it would be a long explanation, so I'll wait until someone asks for the details.

I've ben making yogurt for many years, but recently added sprouts (which are slightly fermented), home made sauerkraut (which I used to eat regularly as a child)active culture Kefir (commonly called "real kefir), and one supplement, DDS-1 acidophilus.

The DDS-1 acidophilus has many copies. some even use the name DDS-1 like a brand name. A company called Flora Balance has DDS-1 at a reasonable price.

I changed my diet about 8 months ago. I had scale and scabs on my scalp for about 10 years. The scabs remain, although not as bad, but the scale dissapeared the first week of taking the DDS-1 and has not returned. The purple spots on my hands cleared up next in about 4 months. there are still red blotches, but no purple. Next to clear up was the skin on my toes, red blotches also for about 10 years. In the last week or so I've noticed the purple skin on my elbows has dissapeared. the Butterfly on my face has been gone for several months.

My face is still redder than normal, especially the left side, which is the side I sleep on, but my nose and under my eyes is normal or almost normal color. My knees are still purple, I'm still having some joint pain, especailly the right elbow, which has been bad off and on for 11 or 12 years. I still get tired all of a sudden sometimes. the skin on my eye lids and eyebrows is still flakey.

the skin on the tips of my fingers is very thin. That started about 4 years ago, and now it seems a little better, but that may be an illusion because I haven't been doing much work with my hands lately.

I always wear gloves, but even with gloves the tips of the fingers get pretty sore sometimes - not lately.

My memory is better these days, but I attrubute that to exercises that I've been doing for about the same period of time - about 8 months. I got them from a book, "keep your brain alive". The exercises are based on research that is about 10 years old.

I guess that covers all the good and not so good I'm experiencing since starting the probiotics. I started the probiotics simply for better digestion, having no thought whatever that the lupus manifestations would be affected. If it doesn't get any better than this, I am satisfied. My scalp used to itch enough to wake me from a sound sleep, and (I did forget one thing) the skin high on my forehead was getting absolutely scarlet. It is still red, but covers a smaller area and is about three or four shades lighter than it was 8 months ago.

This is getting pretty long, so I'll stop now.

So when I get up and have no headaches (because they scare me) I know its going to be a good day. You take care.

My immune system was trashed by a drug called tegretol, or carbamazepine. I stopped taking it shortly after realizing the source of the problems. when I stopped on it the vertigo stopped, too, along with most of the joint pain, deep pains in the gut. The brain fog started getting better, too. The only thing that continued to get worse was the skin, and that is getting better since changing my diet.

I had said it was about 8 months since I changed my diet and started the DDS-1, but it's been more like a year. I get a two months supply and I've ordered three times now and have about 40 capsules left, one capsule a day.