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11 August 2006

Utterly disheartened. Warning: medical stuff inside. Perhaps not for the squeamish.[More:]My psoriasis is uncontrollable and I am at my wit's end about what to do.

I have a type known as guttate psoriasis, which makes me look as if I've been spattered with pink paint, front and back. These pictures are not of me, but it is at least as bad as this.

It doesn't itch, thank God, it just looks so fucking horrible.

I've recently finished a course of treatment a steroid cream, followed by a D-vitamin cream, over a period of a few months) which initially helped a little, but it's incurable and, at the moment, appears to be chronic.

I feel like I've got the plague. The only saving grace is that it's confined to parts I can easily cover with clothing. But the fact that it's incurable is pretty fucking depressing.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity Fuck.
JAN! When I saw your post before reading the "MI," my mind leaped to the terror-stricken worst, because I thought it might be cancer-related, given your recent go-round with some of the girl parts.

It's not! Yay. It's not going to kill you, for which I'm extremely thankful. No one who cares about you (including us) will give a shit -- none of us is unblemished in this life. None of us is perfect; and if anyone happens to appear so on the outside, it's an illusion anyway.

I don't have anything that falls into the 'advice' category. Maybe others will know about other treatment things to try, or methods of coping, or will have something else you can use. And I'm sorry it feels kinda rotten that this hasn't responded. But I hope you don't let this mess with your head too much. You're a beauty - nothing more to say!
posted by Miko 11 August | 20:33
essexjan, I just wanted to let you know that I can understand what you're going through. I have lichen planus, and although I've only had one outbreak that was in my early 20s and I'm currently asymptomatic, it's incurable and tends to return periodically and last for years. I dread it coming back. So, no advice for you really, but I know it sucks.
posted by amro 11 August | 20:39
E-sexy-jan, I, too, was relieved it was "just" psoriosis. But then again, I feel your pain. I've had a lot of skin problems over the years (mostly due to my crazy allergies to everything, and highly sensitive skin). I have eczema, although it has been managable for the past few years, the intense sweaty heat gave me a little flare up the past couple weeks (and it does itch!).
posted by SassHat 11 August | 21:02
I'm glad it's not itchy, and I'm sorry I have nothing constructive to say. Maybe there is another medicine that will help, but you probably know that. Just vent here as often as needed, 'cause that's why we're here.
posted by redvixen 11 August | 21:31
Not to minimize your suffering, those pictures don't look so bad; without being tolsd it's psoriasis, I'd ahev just thought "big freckles". If it doesn't itch and you can cover it with clothes, I wouldn't worry too much about how it looks.
posted by orthogonality 11 August | 22:27
I highly recommend this skin cream even though it has a website that makes it look like the snake oil scam of the week. it cleared up the atopic dermatitis of someone close to me, and I use it all skin irritations with good effect.
posted by PlanetKyoto 12 August | 00:06
Thanks, PK, I've bookmarked the link.

I'm feeling a bit better this morning. I'm going to try sea salt baths, followed by baby oil, which has helped a lot in the past.

If that doesn't work, I'll order some of this.
posted by essexjan 12 August | 02:43
Gak. That looks like a whole lot of no fun, but yeah if it were itchy that would truly be nightmare-ish. At the risk of sounding exceptionally ignorant (because I am), is there any stem cell or other type research going on for it?
posted by chewatadistance 12 August | 09:28
There's very little research into in, chewy. Research money is spent on the most debilitating form of psoriasis, which is linked to arthritis and which is literally crippling and totally disfiguring, but for the other kinds, there's little research.

Recent studies have shown it possibly to be an auto-immune disease, although other research argues against this.

Today I bought

- baby oil
- baby bath oil
- Dead Sea bath salts
- Aloe vera concentrated juice (tastes vile but it does help, if taken over a period of time)
- Folic acid - I read somewhere that it's good in large doses.

If I can't make it go away, let's hope I can maybe smooth it out a little and make it look less 'angry'.

posted by essexjan 12 August | 10:06
GIVE ME SOME TONGUE, BABY.
posted by quonsar 12 August | 10:37
Good luck -- sounds like you have an action plan going here. Hope you find some results you're happy with. And yeah, I don't mean to minimize it either, I'm just relieved it wasn't what I initially thought. Fingers crossed for ya.
posted by Miko 12 August | 11:02
You couldn't make it up || A Banner in the Sky

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