This is my face...
Sometimes it is quite lovely and two months ago I was out driving to a "Boutique for the Soul" event as a vendor, got lost and asked a young man for directions who ended our conversation with "you are a very beautiful woman by the way." A statement to which I replied with a very sincere "thank you." I am rarely told I am beautiful and it always takes me by surprise. More so because for years my self image is that of my "psoriatic face" not my "normal face." I went to High School looking like this, that can get to a girl.
Currently my psoriatic face can be attributed to a strep throat infection I had a month ago. When I saw the doctors the other day we noted that my chart said I came in for strep throat on March 15th.
I am away from home right now, traveling with my husband for 6 months and so away from my regular MD and specialist. This may be a good thing because I've had the opportunity to look at things a little differently.
I was blogging about my recent skin flair up and two different friends wrote back that psoriasis was now categorized as an auto immune disorder. What? How come I haven't heard of this? I was diagnosed with this over 20 years ago! One asked if I had ever been to a rheumatologist. Ummm, no, and nobody has ever suggested that I go. Very interesting. Another wrote that a fellow RN who has the more common plaque psoriasis only sees dermatologist who use Enbrel. I looked up Enbrel and found the side effects list not to my liking, but it was interesting none the less.
According to Dr. Brockman who I saw at Urgent Care this particular brand of psoriasis is now called "guttate psoriasis" which I've never heard before. Go figure. It is a joy I share with a whopping 2% of the population. It is associated with strep throat and it is not uncommon for persons with guttate psoriasis to be strep carriers. This I found particularly interesting as the last time I had strep throat I was in second grade. I haven't had a full blown case of strep since then until this March. However when I don't feel well I often feel as if I might be "catching strep" but I improve before I go get it tested. I am going to have to talk to my ND about this and see if there are some long term treatments we can do to try to rid me of the strep for good...
In the meantime Dr. Brockman and the very wonderful Katie, who is a P.A. there at Urgent Care, did a great job working with me on treatment. Because this is believed to be an auto immune disorder we agreed to try a round of Prednisone to tell my immune system to "sit down" and stop attacking my skin. In addition Dr. Brockman suggested antibiotics to be sure we'd properly treated the strep throat. (I had been on antibiotics for the strep in March.) This makes sense to me. They asked about the usual regimen of ointments and creams which I hate. They make my face even yuckier if possible and usually means I have to be careful in the sun. The whole point of being in Colorado is so I can go skiing, I don't want to be playing at A-Basin stressing about my skin burning. I said all this and they understood. Instead I'm going to the tanning bed (yeay I love the tanning bed!) and continuing to use my Arbonne lotions to keep from scratching.
It has been five days since I saw them. The Prednisone makes me very itchy. UGH! I take it in the morning with the antibiotics. In the evening I take a bunch of acidophilus and probiotics to counter the disaster in my digestive system that will result from the antibiotics. I was on antibiotics almost all of my High School life to try to keep my skin under control and now any antibiotics for even a short time will mess up my digestive tract. Isn't that fun? My husband and I both notice significant improvement in my face and legs and arms. My back and torso continue to be in breakout mode which is driving me nuts because as I said I am feeling more itch with the Prednisone. But hopefully it will continue to get better.
I am encouraged by the research and new developments I've been hearing about and hope that they will continue. I am also encouraged by these doctors who listened to my experiences and what I felt worked and what I felt didn't work. I hope that we will be able to continue using modern medicine and traditional healing to work together to find solutions for various disorders.
When my kids express concern I remind them that is is just ugly and uncomfortable, it isn't life threatening and I am grateful that it doesn't keep me from the things I enjoy doing.
