Day Fifteen: Exploring Treatment Options

I’ve tried a lot of treatments for my psoriasis over the years.

I had a baptism of fire into the world of having a skin condition, as went pretty quickly from no psoriasis, to having it cover 80% of my body at age seven. I was hospitalized at eight, swathed in coal tar and body stockings and blasted with UVB for six weeks.

It worked pretty well, but my psoriasis still came back, and while my dermatologists tried to keep it at bay with ointments, creams and lotions, I still had to go back to hospital for coal tar/UVB treatment two more times before the age of 16.

I couldn’t even attempt to list off all the treatments I’ve tried.I remember there was one that left purple marks where the psoriasis had been. There was the plastic patches and the special ointment that went on underneath them. There was the tube with the red lid, the one with the dark blue lid, and the one with the cerulean lid. I think I liked that one most – just for the color.

A lot of them have been smelly. I’ve actually learned to tolerate the aroma of coal tar, but I remember standing in the hospital in underwear at eight years old with the nurses applying the thick brown goop with their gloved hands. I had this little doll with a skirt that smelled like a strawberry cupcake, and I held it tightly against my face, crying, trying to block out coal tar’s stink. Melodramatic? Yeah. But that cold, thick stuff covering my body seemed pretty horrible at the time.

I moved on to the stronger stuff later on. In my early teens I tried out Methotrexate, but I wasn’t great at swallowing pills, and having to choke down so many of them turned my stomach. I don’t remember having very good results – but I was probably useless at having my doses on time.

I tried Cyclosporin at around 18, and I just recall this day shortly after starting my treatment when my skin felt like it was on fire – it went red and starting flaking off everywhere. It was like I’d just managed to piss off my skin, big time. I was miserable, and I quickly gave up on it.

I went back to UVB. It proved to be consistently successful, so it became my go-to treatment of choice through to my 20s. Luckily, my naturally olive skin could take the medical grade light. But it always came back.

After moving to the UK, I tried PUVA for the first time, the one where you take the pills and have the UVA light treatments. My skin cleared up perfectly by the end of the course. I asked the nurse at my last session how long the positive effects were expected to last and she said they wouldn’t expect to see me again for at least eight months.

Within a matter of weeks, my psoriasis was back.

Since then, I’ve gone back to UVB, with steroid ointments in between courses.

Eighteen years of struggling with this disease, and I still haven’t figured out how to kick it.

I’ve always been wary of biological treatments, only dabbling with Methotrexate and Cyclosporin before I was old enough to really understand the potential impact they could have on my health.

But I feel like it might be time to give them another shot. I know there are people out there, like Leann Rimes and CariDee English who are using biological treatments with amazing results – they’re snapped by the paparazzi in their bikinis or modelling in magazines without a care in the world, despite being seriously affected by the disease in their youth like me.

It’s great that they talk about coming out of hiding, and being ok with their conditions, but they probably has a lot to do with the fact that their psoriasis is in remission. Mine is far from it – but that doesn’t stop me hoping I can be like them, and overcome it like they have.

I’m starting to understand how serious my disease is – that I have severe psoriasis (covering more than 10% of my body), and there are treatment options out there that could considerably increase my quality of life. I need to stop just putting up with it.

I’d love to hear from anyone that has used biological treatments for their psoriasis, whether you’ve had good experiences or bad. Would you recommend it?

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