[tenwatt]

Well it's been nearly a year since a doctor diagnosed me with psoriasis. Let me explain how this went down though. I broke out in a rash on my hands, feet, and upper/inner thigh. On my own assumption, I gave the credit to some sort of fungus (athlete’s foot/jock itch/etc.). It was going on long enough that I had to have a few doctors look at it and take their shot at what it might be. They all agree that it was some sort of fungus and treated me accordingly. It didn’t get better. They took biopsies and ran test and it didn’t come back as fungal or bacterial. The last dermatologist I went to (who had already ran a bunch of test on me) diagnosed it as psoriasis after seeing a chalky, dry spot on my knee. He gave me a cream to put on the spots (Halog) and sent me on my way. I literally only applied the cream to my knee once and the dry spot has not since appeared. On my hands, feet, and thighs, however, I ritually applied the stuff daily for months and it didn’t really seem to help anything. I never really had a lot of confidence in the psoriasis diagnosis.

I gave up on the cream and the cream and the rash seemed to subside on it’s own. Since then (for about six months now), I constantly have had a FEW, VERY MINOR spots pop up very small and very rarely…until this week. This week (Wednesday) I became VERY sick (sore throat, nauseous, head ache, so cold I trembled in my sleep even with a heavy blanket over me, NO fever). After two days of being sick, the rash has come back VIOLENTLY. Before they were just dry little, blister-like bumps the size of my pinky nail. They didn’t usually itch or hurt. These are smaller bumps but they look more like a blood blister. They itch to the point of burning and have caused the tips of my fingers to feel so numb that they feel as if they’re asleep. I feel like I’m being eaten from the inside out. I’ve experienced a LOT of pain in my life. Growing up in a junkyard led to a lot of broken bones and stiches. This is by far the worst pain I’ve experienced and it’s prolonged.

This is really working over my emotions and I’ve been allowing a lot of worthless thoughts to enter my mind (hopelessness, suicide, etc.). I’m not quick to jump into those feelings often but I just feel like I’m losing it.

The soonest I could get a doctor’s appointment is Monday. Please pray that I can have peace, rest, and healing. Thanx!

[Role Modlin]

My six year old daughter suffers from extreme eczema so I can empathize.

Prayers going up for healing.

[roscoestring]

My mother has fought psorisis all of my life and I have had a minor case of it. It gets worse as I get older. My mom has tried every cream and ointment known to man and nothing seems to help very much. A few years back I lost about 100 pounds and the psorisis seemed to go away. I have gained some of that weight back and I think it is causing my psorisis to return. Now it is itching and the worst is on my feet. Sunlight (sunbathing) seemed to help my mom's problem. But there is no cure.

Wishing you the best.

[MtlMom]

Praying for you. Please ask your doctor for a referral to a rheumatologist if you haven't already seen one.

[tenwatt]

I went to two different people this weekend (an herbalist and a dermatalogist). Neither believe it to be psoriasis. The dermatalogist did blood work and took a sample of my skin for testing. The derm also gave me a shot of steroids. Here we go again.

What a miserable weekend.

[tenwatt]

So the steriod seemed to knock this thing out. The pain/itching is gone and the rash is fading.

[Role Modlin]

First of all...amen.

Secondly...the steroid creams have been the only thing to even make a moderate dent in Jamie's eczema.

[tenwatt]

Originally Posted by Leboman

First of all...amen.

Secondly...the steroid creams have been the only thing to even make a moderate dent in Jamie's eczema.

The steriod cream never really seamed to help me...the steriod shot, on the other hand, seemed to whoop it pretty good.