Extremely Dry Skin/Cyclosporine Taper
 

Hi my name is Derek and I am 21 years old recovering from Aplastic Anemia. I had a bone marrow transplant on May 8th and am currently tapering off of Cyclosporine. It is a 3 month taper of which I am 2 months in, and I take 100 mg in the morning and 50 mg at night for a 150 mg daily dose.

For the past couple of weeks as I dropped in mg's my skin has dried up worse than the Sahara. It is flaking and scaling, and I have never been so uncomfortable in my own skin. My scalp is also just as dry, every time I run my hands through my hair it snows flakes of dry skin. My whole body is dry and I have been using dandruff shampoo/conditioner and putting eczema relief lotion on my entire body for a week now and it hasn't helped a bit.

My question is, has anyone ever experienced this? Is the dry skin a side affect of the Cyclosporine taper or is it because of the Chemo, the ATG, and the radiation I had in May? Or do I need to be drinking more water? Let me know your thoughts and comments I really do appreciate it.

Great that you've recovered so well from your bone marrow transplant.

I've read that Argan oil is very good for dry skin as is coconut oil. There's plenty of info on the web about these and other oils so you can do your own research easily. Application of oil to the skin works best if you make the skin and your hands damp first. Hope this helps!

Assess your intake of essential fatty acids. You may not be getting enough in your diet.

You can take omega 3 or flax seed oil supplements or go the whole food route. Foods with EFA are salmon, mackerel, coconut oil/milk, olive oil, nuts like walnuts, almonds, flax, etc. Lot of info on the web regarding EFA's.

Vitamin C is also good for the skin. Look into foods that can increase your vitamin c intake.

Lastly, vitamin D may be low. Many who have undergone long term treatments have not spent a lot time outdoors during those times. So it may be worth checking your vitamin d levels with your next blood work.

Hi drkbyr,

I have not heard of dry skin being a side effect from tapering cyclosporine used for treating bone marrow failure in the absence of a BMT.

You may want to discuss with your transplant team whether this is a form of skin GVHD that the cyclosporine was controlling??