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!

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.

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!).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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'.

GIVE ME SOME TONGUE, BABY.

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.