My Skin Condition

I've been wanting to write this post for a while, but also been very nervous about it. I mean, what's a post about my skin without showing photographs of it? It's been getting so much better recently though, so I thought I would make a post explaining my condition, and what I've been through for the past 10 or so years of my life with it.

What I have is called Psoriasis. Normal skin creates new skin cells and sheds the old ones at a reasonable pace, you don't generally notice it happening. However psoriasis is caused by the skin creating new cells at a more rapid pace, meaning the skin sheds dead cells more noticeably. Because of the extra blood supply needed to 'power' these skin cells, it leaves red, dry skin patches all over the body. Some people just have it on their scalp, some just on hands or feet, or some just have it all over. I've had it bad, but I've seen people with much worse conditions on the internet. I'll spare you the photos, but feel free to Google them if you're curious. 

Fun fact: around 2% of the world's population have psoriasis, which is more people that own a pet budgie and around the same amount that have pet fish. (don't quote me on that like, I read it in a leaflet years ago!)

I've been lucky and never really had it on my face or hands, the two parts of my body I can't cover up with clothing or hair. One of the reasons I have my full fringe is to hide the skin on my forehead (not to mention that I suit a fringe ;D) I've had it all over my body and scalp too, which meant I couldn't do things like swimming, not that I physically couldn't, I just didn't want to show off my skin in any way. PE in school was difficult, as I would try and get changed as quickly as I could, while also hiding my body with the clothes I was putting on or taking off. I was also fortunate in that I was never bullied for it. Maybe people realised that it was something I couldn't control, or maybe they just felt sorry for me. I was bullied for other things but that's beside the point (plus that was before I got psoriasis) In fact, the only time people have mentioned it is in Youtube comments (just shows how people hiding behind a computer monitor aren't afraid to be rude asses) 

I can't remember exactly when I got it, but I think I was around 11 or 12 at the time. It just randomly started appearing, perhaps due to puberty. They say it's hereditary, but no-one in my family has had it before, as far as I know. It's just a mystery.

There's no cure for it either, just treatments. And I reckon I've had nearly every treatment the hospital could offer me over the years.

The main treatment is creams. Obviously since the condition makes your skin very dry, moisturising cream helps keep skin soft and supple, but it's by no means going to help very much with psoriasis. I've been prescribed so many creams from the hospital that I don't think I could name them all! Other cream treatments include having to painstakingly put cream just on the individual spots, wait like half an hour, standing up not touching anything, then washing it off. That was the worst topical treatment I think, just because of the hassle.

I also had a spell of phototherapy, which is light treatment. Basically I would have to go to the hospital twice a week, and stand in a sunbed (for medical use, it won't tan you very much) for around 3-5 minutes. It did help a bit, but never fully got rid of the condition. In the end I had to stop going because it was too much to take time out of school twice a week to go up to the hospital for it.

The final treatment I've been trying for the past 3 or so years is Methotrexate. It comes in two forms, tablet and injection. There are other tablet treatments, but this is the one most people are on, and works pretty well. It works by lowering the immune system, to stop the skin from wanting to produce new cells all the time. Because of that, I need regular blood tests every 3 months to make sure it's not effecting me too much. This treatment has also been the most challenging for me, as blood tests constantly make me feel faint, and taking the tablets (which eventually mounted up to taking 8 tablets every Friday) was too much for me, since I'm awful at taking tablets in the first place.

So for the past 3 months I've started the injection version of the medication. Since I'm bad enough with blood tests, I thought I'd never be able to have a weekly injection. And since it's done in my stomach (it can be taken through the thighs or elsewhere, but I found the stomach was actually the easiest) I was terrified since I'd only ever had injections in my arms. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though, and although I'd never be able to self administer it (my dad does it for me since he's a paramedic) I'd take the injection over blood tests any day! (I still have regular blood tests though :c )

And so, over the past 3 months my skin has improved immensely. My body is, for the first time in around 10 years, almost clear, and I only have the odd patch on my back and head to go! My boyfriend has certainly noticed the difference, and loves it. I can finally go swimming in a bikini (bring on summer!) and I feel like I have more confidence to show off my body more. And with that come the before and after photos. I've never shown these to anyone (not even my boyfriend but I hardly think he needs to see them lol) and I'm still pretty nervous about posting them but they really show the difference in my skin. So here goes...

Oh god these photos are awful, but then again they're meant to show how bad my skin was lol xD I was also thinner then wow ;o; Also ew, eyebrows. And my forehead was pretty much one big psoriasis patch. Anyway, that aside, here's the after photos (taken fairly recently)

Non matching underwear ftw xD Still not perfect, but so so so much better than it was. And bearing in mind these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago I think, it's gotten better since then, there's virtually no marks on my neck or chest at all! So I would say, after 10 years the Methotrexate injection has given me the most success with my skin.

So that's it, long wordy personal post over! Let me know if this was in any way interesting, or if you have a skin condition like psoriasis, how do you treat it? Any success? Just remember, that there will be something out there that will help your skin!

Edit:

I left this post in my drafts for a couple of days after writing it, I just felt too nervous to post it. However I bought a cute bikini today and after posting a photo of me wearing it on twitter I felt I could actually post this thing xD So here's a complimentary bikini photo because it's just SO CUTE OMG

Bring on summer!