health - sixtyatsixty

I am enjoying good health?

My Psoriasis has shaped the person I am. I caught Ringworm when I was 4 resulting in me starting school wearing a white muslin hat in order to disguise from other children my hair was falling out and had bald patches (and maybe it was contagious?). Once ringworm cleared Psoriasis appeared and I have been a life suffer ever since.

It may be genetic as my father’s mother’s side of the family were sufferers. It was a long time ago but I have memories of seeing one skin specialist in Winchester, however, the general consensus was I have it, so get used to it and learn to live with it.

So from the age of 5 I was prescribed probably thousands of pounds of Steroid, Coal tar, and high concentrated vitamin potions. At the time this was seen as a good treatment but the sun and salt water were also known to be beneficial. So my mother was always keen for me to expose my skin to the sun and spend time in the sea. We therefore, frequently visited the south coast after school. Despite this, it never disappeared.

During my early days working in the corporate world it was a constant battle. Coverup began. I have always been conscious the sun has been a huge benefit, so I have always gone out of my way to get as much of it as possible and in 1990 I chose to leave work and move to Ibiza. The idea of sun and sea was I believed an opportunity to rid my body of this complaint.

With better access to salty water and sun you would think things would be easy, however, no one has taught me about the risks of lying out in the sun - I learnt the hard way and at some stage all my legions blistered and despite an emergency hospital visit I still needed to learn that exposing the largest organ of ones body to the sun needs to be done with extreme care. Things improved during my stay but nothing goes on forever and I returned to the UK. I entered back into the corporate world and in no time psoriasis returned with vengeance - In order to get more sun which really seemed to help I bought a sunbed after a particular bad attack of guttate psoriasis.

At this time I also began in earnest dabbling in alternative and holistic treatments.

During my 28th year the pivotal moment was meeting David Logan in Bath who took me through a 6 month course of Hypnotherapy. And I haven't looked back. There have been times when I’ve slackened the management and broken out in gutate psoriasis but it is rare.

One such outbreak came when Matthew and I had only been together a short while and I worried about the impact this might have on us both.

I am glad to say Matthew was not worried at all and in fact was supportive and booked up a holiday to Jordan and the Dead Sea a place I had always wanted to visit. The Dead Sea is a popular location for psoriasis treatment.

It’s a full time job managing this as it impacts everything day and night. Psoriasis has shaped me into the person I am and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Over the years I have noted other sufferers and occasionally reached out to discuss or help but this is deeply personal and every one is on their own journey and it seems very hard to assist. I have raised money for the Psoriasis Association over the years to support those less fortunate than myself with treatment.

Probably my biggest challenge this year is to reach out to fellow sufferers and try and assist them on their journey.
This is something fellow sufferers have for life it’s just how we accept it, manage it and live with it.

My other Health topics I will discuss later.