A BRIDE-to-be woke up with burning, peeling skin just seven days before her wedding due to an agonising addiction to eczema cream.

Gemma Day’s eyes were swollen shut and her skin was flaking off after ditching steroid creams.

7 Gemma, pictured with her husband Brenton, suffered agonising steroid cream withdrawal a week before her wedding Credit: PA Real Life

The 24-year-old had been using the creams since she was a teenager to control her itchy skin condition.

But when she stopped using them her withdrawal symptoms were worse than the eczema itself.

Just seven days before tying the knot with her lawyer fiancé Brenton Day, 25, on April 14 this year Gemma’s reaction to ditching the cream was so bad she had to start using them again so she could go to her own wedding.

“I had to cave in and use more steroid cream to calm everything down before my wedding,” Gemma said.

7 Gemma's face swelled up and her skin began to flake off Credit: PA Real Life

7 Gemma's skin burned and she felt 'like a monster' Credit: PA Real Life

“Eczema dictates all the big events in my life, which doesn’t seem fair.

“I can’t even wear make-up. I’ve only used it 10 times in the past five years, but did manage to wear it on my wedding day.

“I even asked my boss if I could work somewhere where no one could see me, because I feel like a monster when my eczema is red-raw and cracked, at its worst.”

Gemma was born with eczema, a condition causing the skin to become itchy, raw, red, dry and cracked, but it got worse when she was 13.

7 Gemma's skin would fare-up worse than her eczema as soon as she stopped using steroid creams Credit: PA Real Life

7 Her face was so swollen she couldn't open her eyes Credit: PA Real Life

“What had been small patches of dry skin started to spread across my body and slowly, over the years, it covered almost every patch of skin, covering my entire body,” Gemma, an office administrator, said.

“Now only my feet, a small part of my chest and my palms are clear, but the rest of me is coated.

“Sometimes I feel like a monster. I try to keep as much of my skin covered as I can, but it’s hard to cover my face when I have a job to do.”

After visiting her doctor in her teens, who suspected her condition had worsened because of school stress, Gemma was prescribed steroid cream to help ease her discomfort.

7 Gemma even planned her wedding around her eczema, knowing it was usually best in autumn Credit: PA Real Life

But she found that as soon as she stopped using the creams, her skin went into topical steroid withdrawal – leaving it dry, red and burning, with the redness spreading even more.

“After using the cream so much over the years, unwittingly I became addicted,” Gemma, from Toowoomba in Australia, said.

“I’d get flare-ups of sore and cracked skin every time I tried to wean myself off the steroid creams.”

7 Gemma had to go back on steroid creams to keep her eczema under control for her wedding, but has since stopped using them Credit: PA Real Life

And a week before her wedding her withdrawals were so extreme she couldn't open her eyes and had to go back to using the steroids in order to function.

“I woke up and couldn’t open my eyes because they were so swollen,” she said.

“It’s a common side effect of withdrawal from steroid creams and I was freaking out.

“With my hen do the next day and my big day not long after, I was devastated to think everything could be ruined.”

RED SKIN SYNDROME: A painful condition that leaves the skin raw, cracked and bleeding Red Skin Syndrome, also known as Topical Steroid Addiction or Topical Steroid Withdrawal, is a condition that can arise from the use of topical steroids to treat a skin problem, such as eczema. RSS can also arise from topical steroid use in individuals with no prior skin condition; such as with cosmetic use for skin bleaching or to treat acne, or in the case of caregivers who neglect to wash their hands after applying topical steroids on someone else. RSS is characterised by red, itchy, burning skin that can appear after ceasing topical steroid treatments, or even between treatments. Symptoms: These can fall into two categories - those that appear while using creams and those that appear when not. Rebound redness between applications

Rashes spreading and developing in new areas of the body

Intense itching, burning, stinging

Failure to clear with usual course of treatment, requiring a higher potency topical steroid to achieve progressively less clearing.

Increased allergic response Treatment: In order to treat the condition, the use of steroid creams must be stopped. The condition resolves over time, but no medications or methods of treatment have been proven to speed up the healing process. Source: Itsan - the red skin syndrome support group

Even before the flare-up, Gemma had planned her wedding around her eczema.

“Autumn is the best time of year for my eczema, so there was no question – we would be getting married in the Australian autumn season, which is March to May,” she said.

“We picked April, but then there was the question of my wedding dress.

“I had always suffered with the eczema on my arms, so knew I could never choose a short-sleeved wedding dress and opted for a long-sleeved one.”

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When the pair, who met online, finally tied the knot on April 14 Gemma says it was the best day of her life, but regrets the hold her eczema had over her.

Hospitalised with eczema only last week, she has now given up the steroid cream, but has to moisturise four times a day, drink at least three litres of water and most importantly – try not to scratch.

“It was only after my wedding that I realised I had been addicted to steroid cream because of how much my skin flared up when I wasn’t using the treatment,” she said.

“Now, I want other people with eczema to know they are not alone and hope that sharing my story will help them.”

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