how do I know when pityriasis rosea is healing?

It will be white when it is going away. I am currently battling this. I have had it since Nov 19th and my best results have been to wash in a cool shower dry off lightly and immediately cover my body in coconut oil. I take 4 gel capsule coconut oil pills a day and I wash in Head and shoulders shampoo. At Night I take two benedrly and it seems to be going away. I can tell you that your body's internal temperature has a lot to do with this. By this being my second month of having I had had two menstrual cycles and this got horrible. I swear by the coconut oil and the capsules. They have helped tremendously. 37 yr old female

I've had this skin condition since May 2013 and it is slowly covering the lower half of my body and starting to move up. I was wrongly diagnosed for the first few months as health professionals thought it was ringworm and supplied me with anti-fungal creams. I was diagnosed sometime around October 2013 after my second biopsy and given a cream from my dermatologist but new patches appear daily and the old ones are extremely rough. The first rash is just now barely visible. Is there anyone who has suffered from this annoying condition for this long and did it ever completely go away or is this a life long struggle?

Oh, forgot to add: you'll know when your PR is really healing because your patches will start to look scaley and have peeling skin. It's a good sign when this happens! You're almost out of the woods.

So grateful to everyone who shared their experiences on this thread, I found it really helpful in dealing with my own PR. Here's my story:

I got a herald patch on my stomach the first week of July and thought it must be heat rash. I ignored it as it didn't itch or hurt, but about two weeks later I had red blotchy patches on my upper chest and in the crooks of my arms, which did itch and were really unsightly. I was misdiagnosed twice, first by a GP who thought I had a fungal infection, and then by a dermatologist who told me it was probably contact dermatitis from some new environmental allergy. He gave me corticosteriod creams and sprays, which did help, but only temporarily. When the patches kept recurring whenever I stopped use of the corticosteriods he switched his diagnosis to eczema.

At this point I was panicking: I was racking my brain trying to eliminate potential allergens and eczema irritants from my life and find a treatment that would soothe my "eczema. I stopped using my laundry service, started washing my sheets and towels nearly daily (in case it WAS actually a fungal infection), changing all my toiletries, moisturizing multiple times a day with lotion and coconut oil, taking only long cold baths instead of hot showers. Nothing was really helping and I was miserable!

Fortunately I went to see an eczema specialist, who almost immediately realized I had PR and not eczema (thank God!) At this point it had been about two months since my herald patch. She told me there was nothing I could do except let the infection run its course, and that I should avoid corticosteroid creams if I could manage the itching without them, due to the nasty side-effects associated with their use. She told me I should return for a follow-up if my infection wasn't over by four months from the first appearance of my herald patch. Fortunately, it seems to be over (knock wood!)

I really believe that exposure to light helps. My rash was worst on my stomach, chest, and upper arms (relatively less exposed to light than other parts of my body). The only place on my hands I got the rash was directly underneath a thick ring I always wear (a part of skin that thus doesn't get any light exposure). I'm quite fair and concerned about UV exposure under normal circumstances, but I did try to get brief (15-30 min or so) exposure to sun each day on the parts of my body with the rash.

Based on my experience, I'd say try corticosteroid creams at the lowest dose you can if you need to clear up your rash for some kind of important event like a wedding. They do work for PR temporarily, but your rash will keep recurring until the infection has run its course so it just doesn't seem worth it to use them what with all the associated side effects, barring exceptional circumstances.

Hope everyone struggling with PR finds relief and gets better soon! Hang in there.