Health Boards
Sun-18-09-2011, 19:24 PM
Granny Butty Wrote
Argh! Sorry folks, been meaning to get on with my tale of flakey woe and end up getting sidetracked! (Thanks for reminding me, Poppy!!!)
Ok, well I've had psoriasis for about 13 years - I started off with plaque psoriasis in patches on my lower legs shortly after some surgery - I wondered to begin with whether it was a bite, or even (gasp) ringworm, which was the suggestion I had from a very useless locum doctor. The patches grew over a period of weeks, during which time I had visited my usual GP at least 4 times, with no luck. I was given hydrocortisone cream and told to disappear.
On returning to the chemist for the fourth tube of cream, I was asked what I was using it for by the elderly pharmacist - and obviously I showed him my legs. He told me it was psoriasis, and that I should perhaps change my GP surgery, which I did - and was given Dovonex to 'clear it'! It DID disappear after a while, and I thought no more about it until, after a very messy break-up with a boyfriend, I started to develop what has become the bane of my life. I was diagnosed once more by the same pharmacist (who had since retired) with palmoplantar pustulosis (or pustular psoriasis) which started to cover the palms and fingers of both my hands, and also both feet. As the years have gone by, it has become worse and worse, and the plaque psoriasis has joined in to make life that little bit itchier!!
I have had no remission period in the time I have had it, apart from a couple of days where I had fewer pustules appear 5 years ago while I was on antibiotics for a kidney infection.
I find it difficult to manage the skin on my hands, it's been thinned by the steroid cream over time, and is constantly cracked and weepy. The onslaught of psoriatic arthritis had added to the irritation, as has the nail psoriasis which also crept in!
I have become used to the inconvenience of it, and some days it drives me insane! I get many thoughtless comments from people about it, I get people tutting at the state of my nails, and I've been turned away from clothes shops because they don't want me to handle their items, unaware that psoriasis is NOT a contagious disease. I am frustrated by people's ignorance of psoriasis, and become less and less ready to inform them of their ignorance. I have found that I tend to avoid situations where I feel that I have to explain my condition to others, and I sometimes have a short fuse when I am asked anything about it. It's not the psoriasis which makes my life a misery, it's the attitudes of people around me!
For any 'new' psoriasis sufferers out there, the best advice I would give you would be to ensure that the people you deal with daily are fully aware of what psoriasis IS, and also what it ISN'T! Don't leave your condition open to myths and rumours - set them straight from the start. It doesn't hurt to be a little bit assertive when you deal with people - I wish I'd done it from the start myself!!
Argh! Sorry folks, been meaning to get on with my tale of flakey woe and end up getting sidetracked! (Thanks for reminding me, Poppy!!!)
Ok, well I've had psoriasis for about 13 years - I started off with plaque psoriasis in patches on my lower legs shortly after some surgery - I wondered to begin with whether it was a bite, or even (gasp) ringworm, which was the suggestion I had from a very useless locum doctor. The patches grew over a period of weeks, during which time I had visited my usual GP at least 4 times, with no luck. I was given hydrocortisone cream and told to disappear.
On returning to the chemist for the fourth tube of cream, I was asked what I was using it for by the elderly pharmacist - and obviously I showed him my legs. He told me it was psoriasis, and that I should perhaps change my GP surgery, which I did - and was given Dovonex to 'clear it'! It DID disappear after a while, and I thought no more about it until, after a very messy break-up with a boyfriend, I started to develop what has become the bane of my life. I was diagnosed once more by the same pharmacist (who had since retired) with palmoplantar pustulosis (or pustular psoriasis) which started to cover the palms and fingers of both my hands, and also both feet. As the years have gone by, it has become worse and worse, and the plaque psoriasis has joined in to make life that little bit itchier!!
I have had no remission period in the time I have had it, apart from a couple of days where I had fewer pustules appear 5 years ago while I was on antibiotics for a kidney infection.
I find it difficult to manage the skin on my hands, it's been thinned by the steroid cream over time, and is constantly cracked and weepy. The onslaught of psoriatic arthritis had added to the irritation, as has the nail psoriasis which also crept in!
I have become used to the inconvenience of it, and some days it drives me insane! I get many thoughtless comments from people about it, I get people tutting at the state of my nails, and I've been turned away from clothes shops because they don't want me to handle their items, unaware that psoriasis is NOT a contagious disease. I am frustrated by people's ignorance of psoriasis, and become less and less ready to inform them of their ignorance. I have found that I tend to avoid situations where I feel that I have to explain my condition to others, and I sometimes have a short fuse when I am asked anything about it. It's not the psoriasis which makes my life a misery, it's the attitudes of people around me!
For any 'new' psoriasis sufferers out there, the best advice I would give you would be to ensure that the people you deal with daily are fully aware of what psoriasis IS, and also what it ISN'T! Don't leave your condition open to myths and rumours - set them straight from the start. It doesn't hurt to be a little bit assertive when you deal with people - I wish I'd done it from the start myself!!