Better or worse...

Some days its hard to tell if I'm getting better or worse or if its just simply changing getting better in some spots and worse in others. I'm very disappointed that I didn't get to continue the Keflex but I have other medical issues going on right now and it was necessary for stop so I could take other medications. What medical issues? Thyroid disease, diabetes, kidney issues, depression, anxiety. Nice little mix there isn't it? So I'm on Celexa and Ativan for the anxiety and depression, Amaryl for the diabetes, Synthroid for the thyroid disease and Lisinopril for my kidney issue. Yes Lisinopril is generally used for high blood pressure and to protect against heart attacks but it is also used to help protect the kidneys from protein. Or so my doctor says!

So here's my hands as of tonight...

They're just slightly peeling but not bad and just a few tiny spots where a blister tried to come up and just didn't quite make it. I have a couple spots you cant really see in the pictures where I picked a piece of skin off and it pulled good skin off and bled a tiny bit. Thats my fault, I'm a picker, I try not to but it seems to be so hard to not pick sometimes.

Now for my feet, which look rougher and I have been having pain with the last couple of weeks. Here's my left foot. Its the better one I think.

 

 

Now my right foot. This is the foot that's been giving me trouble. It hurts, half the time I don't want to walk on it but I'm doing the best I can to suck it up. I'm not going to complain about it, it is what it is. 

 

 

 

 So there you have it. Not the best of updates but who knows what the future holds.

Now its been suggested that if I quit smoking (I quit several months ago) that this would go away. It didn't. If anything it may be worse now than when I smoked. Also it has been suggested that I'm allergic to bugs and/or bug feces. I don't feel this is the case. I'm also on a medication for my allergies, but honestly, I cant see that this would be the case. My diet has changed and is changing again, doing this has not helped at all either. The Keflex was helping, but I needed to do the best thing for my body right now. So your guess is as good as mine, what caused this, what will heal this...

I just know that tomorrow is a new day and I hope everyone has a great one!

Better days

Well I thought I would go ahead and post today even though I wasnt going to until next week. Ive been doing pretty good and I feel like the Celexa has really kicked in. Im not so stressed out now and today I can really tell its working because I can say today that I am happy :)

Now since starting the Celexa I was taken off Keflex. I was really worried what might happen especially since some say Celexa caused their P or caused them to have flares. I was scared! Ive been on it now about 3 weeks give or take and I have to say, I think my skin is getting better. Ill post some pictures I took the other day. My feet arent the greatest. My right foot in particular is pretty rough. Its p[ainful too which doesnt help. I dont dare say anything on the NPF website because the last time I put pictures up there were a couple of people who said hurtful things to me so now Im afraid to. Anyway, heres some pictures from a few days ago.

Taken 9/8/09

 My hands are doing better but Ive been doing stuff today so theyre all red Ill take pictures tomorrow when I havent irritated them so you can see what they look like right now.

Alright, well thats all I have to say at the moment! I hope youre all doing well :)

In a nutshell

Ok, I'm going to try to put everything from the last 4 - 5 months into one post and catch up to today so that I can continue on from here :)

So you hopefully have read my P story which I previously posted. I haven't always had my camera to be able to take pictures so you wont see any from when it was severe. I have had some really rotten days even when my hands and feet looked mostly clear. Having something like psoriasis is not just physical, it's also a very hard emotionally and mentally. Its hard. It doesn't matter if you have pustular, palmoplantar, guttate, plague or any other type of psoriasis I haven't mentioned, this is a very hard skin disorder to have, no matter the severity.

So when I first started taking pictures I had like the very start of my first flare. I started getting the blisters and the pictures were taken the next night. They come up so fast you can almost watch them rise, literally. I only had pictures of my feet because at this point my hands hadn't really started doing anything yet. I had maybe 5 tiny blisters on the palm of one hand when the ones of my feet were taken.



A couple of days later my hands flared up and ugh, it was almost unbearable. I couldn't even dress myself, I couldn't walk, I couldn't use the restroom without assistance. I crawled around on my knees and elbows when I had to do anything. Thank God for my husband. I wouldn't have made it through that without him. It got really severe on the bottom center of my feet and my fingertips and hands.

These were taken about 2 weeks later.


At this point I only had one picture of one hand, its the one I use as my header for this blog. It was taken about 1 week after the previous feet pictures you see here.



All the skin ended up peeling off. The worse part of this has been the pain and not being able to live the way I want to. At one point it was so bad it was bleeding, the itching was driving me insane, it looked like my skin was rotting. I was crawling around the house on my knees and elbows because I couldn't walk.

So this is like one big roller coaster. You get better you get worse you get better again, you get worse. I did at one point clear up on my hands, my right hand completely but not my left. My left hand is always worse than my left which I am grateful for because I'm right handed.

Ill post some pics and date them so you can see how it gets better then worsens. Thank God its never been as bad as when it first started and I couldn't walk. Since that first flare, it's been much milder but as I said, it goes from mild to moderate then mild.

These were taken on 5/29/09 You can see I was doing great here. I had been on Presidone for a week and using Halobetasol Propianate Ointment 0.5% for 2 weeks at this point.




This was 5/30/09. Just a little bit of red spots and a tiny bit of peeling.


6/07/09 Check out my right hand, its beautiful! My left hand was getting a little rough though.



6/20/09 After using Halobetasol for a week prior to the pictures. I had to stop using it per doctors orders on this day.


6/22/09 Still not too bad I guess but what you can't see is the pain. The feeling like you have been playing with fiberglass.



6/23/09 The next day, you can really see how fast this stuff flares. My fingers were really hurting there. It didn't help that they were swelling up either.



6/24/09 Still about the same.



6/30/09 It looks a little bit angry here.



So, the 5th of July I got out of bed and my right heel hurt. It was a shock, put my foot down and OUCH! So I baby it all day and take it easy. Well the 6th comes and its worse. I really don't like going to the doctor. Besides it being about 15 miles away in the next town over, sometimes I just feel like its such a waste of time. So going against my husband telling me I need to go I stay home. Well when the 7th got here I could only limp around and I knew I needed to do something because it wasn't getting any better. I waited until I knew there wouldn't be a lot of people in urgent care and drove in. The doctor who was there that night is awesome. I really like her, she listens to what youre saying and doesn't just blow you off like a lot of doctors do. She determines that I have a skin infection from a small crack in my heel. Oh yay right? You bet your butt yay! lol She put me on Keflex. Well I had been trying for a while to get my dermatologist to put me on Keflex because one of the gals on the NPF forums says that it helped clear her up, so this is something I REALLY wanted to try. I was so happy. You couldn't slap the smile off my face. So I go on Keflex. At that point I was only taking baths with oatmeal and epsom salts and occasional Halobetasol. The next pictures were taken 3 days after I started the Keflex.

7/10/09




Next ones are taken 5 days later. Still kind of angry looking.

7/15/09




A very wise woman told me it takes time to heal, be patient. :)

Next ones were taken on the 18th, 10 days after starting Keflex.

7/18/09



Next ones you can really SEE the improvement. They're taken 23 days after starting on Keflex.

8/01/09



Wow huh? Yea WOW! To me this is a HUGE improvement! I did use my Halobetasol about 4 days during that time. If I wouldn't have I don't know it would have done so well.

Now, that pretty much brings you up to date. Right now I DO have some blisters coming up again. I'm using Halobetasol for a couple of days and then not for a couple days, on and off. I would be in trouble if it weren't for the Halobetasol I think.

So I have hard days and easy days and lately they have been more easy ones which is good. I have had days I hurt so much I couldn't open a bottle or hold a glass. Days I had to have help doing the most simple things.

I hope they find a cure one day. But until then Ill keep treating my psoriasis and doing the best I can while I try to help others. Ill try to keep posting updates on here, plus I have 3 other blogs so I'll most likely be going between them all on alternating days.

As for me Ill end this post for the night. Today is my 9th wedding anniversary and we have a drive planned to Lake Michigan to see lighthouses. Have a great day!