Growing up with Psoriasis

I often get asked, what was it like growing up with P(soriasis)?  To be honest, I have always had it, I don't remember life without it.  When I was 5 years old I fell off my bike and cut my elbow, it never healed right, that was my first patch of P.  My pediatrician always treated me till I was in my teens.  Back in those days, there wasn't much treatment available, I used steroid creams on my spots.  I had HUGE spots on my legs, arms, back, torso, stomach, butt.  The few areas clear were my hands, feet, and face.  I had most plaque P, it looked this is but it would get white scales on it.  (note: This is not me, but pretty characteristic of the size and redness of my knee and leg spots.)



Guttate P is smaller patches of P, more of a tear drop shape, more wide spread and it tends to cover a wider area.  I had this on my upper arms, across my back and sometimes my upper legs. 



So some of my FAVORITE treatments:

Occlusion therapy: This consisted of Mom putting on my ointments (it was always ointments, ewww) and then wrapping me in plastic wrap and taping it on.  I would then sleep in this for the night.  The thought behind this was the medicine wouldn't rub off in the night on my PJs or sheets and the meds would soak into my skin.  The result, I would wake up with plastic wrap bunched up around my waist like a belt, talk about uncomfortable!!!  And for the areas that didn't bunch up, I would have that wet band-aid white skin, moist feeling and have to cut off the plastic wrap.  Sometimes, the wrap would be stuck on like a second skin, and I would miss a piece, usually around my calf, so I would get to school and be changing for gym and find a piece of plastic around my ankle.  Yep, that lead to some interesting conversations.

Tape:  At some point, a drug company came up with the idea of putting the medicine in a tape and every night, Mom would again, cut up pieces of the medicated tape and apply them to my spots.  And this crap was expensive!  My mom was the champion of making that tape last, she would cut some wild shapes to get it to fit my spots.  As before, I would be in school and find pieces I missed to pull off before I go into class.

Air pressure shots:  A device of pure torture!! Imagine a doctor who looked at you like target practice, every other week!



My doctor would sit back and see how far he could shoot me from.  I am not kidding.  I would then have the medication puffing up my plaques, bleeding, and feeling like a bruise and him saying "that wasn't bad was it?"  That lasted about a year.


The UVB Light Box:  This was probably the easy and most entertaining.  I would put on coal tar the night before (it heightens light sensitivity) and then stand in the box for about 5 minutes or so the next morning.  BUT being a kid, those cute little goggles you are supposed to wear?? Yep, I would take them off and screw around in the box.  Now, I have trouble with extremely bright lights, I basically damaged the rods in my eyes.  Thankfully I didn't go blind (don't know if I really could have) but I did do permanent damage, I have prescription sunglasses that are black black black, I have to wear sunglasses on cloudy days because even those those have a glare that cause problems for me. 

So which treatment worked best???  I couldn't tell you.  I think all of them worked to some extent.  Everyone reacts differently to different therapies, what works for one may not work for another.

What do I do now?  Nothing.  I use tropicals sometimes, I am basically in remission.  I break out when I am ill or stressed out so those are the two things I work hard to avoid.  I am not a germaphobe by any means, but in the winter, I use a wet wipe to clean the shopping cart, especially right after school starts, kids are little germ factories.  I take time for myself, I love to read, make jewelry, play with the dogs, etc.  so I try very hard to keep relaxed.  I also keep moisturized.  I can't stress that enough.  I keep 3 types at my office.  Moisturizing prevents me from scratching, and I will scratch until I bleed if I itch.  In the winter, I will take a bath with bath oil in it, than after I get out, I will apply the oil to my skin to stay moisturized.  I never shower in the winter, only baths, and only 2 a week tops.  Summer is a different story, your skin doesn't need the same moisturizers.