Inspiration needed please....

Any providers??

The end of a new beginning!

This is my hand. For those of you who are familiar with psoriasis, you will see that my form is a 'unique' form. I have small red spots on my hands, elbows and legs. The majority of people who live with psoriasis would have 'plaque' psoriasis, which are scaly patches of skin often appearing on the joints of the body. I had my first consultation at the Royal London Homeopathy Hospital based at Great Ormond Street. I was impressed with the modern interior and the fresh 'clean' smell. Most hospitals I have entered have that familiar stench of hospital food, baby sick, dettol and poo. After handing in my appointment sheet the receptionist advised me to go into the waiting room and sit on a red chair. Shortly after an elderly Filipino nurse checked my height, blood pressure and weight. She then asked me to go back into the waiting room and sit on any other seat apart from the red ones. :-S

Two cups of herbal tea later (green and jasmine) the consultant invited me into her room. I felt extremely comfortable in her presence. Many questions later, i.e. family history, significant life-changing experiences, etc I was prescribed some medication.

I have been advised to take four 1000g of Evening Primrose oil capsules. These are used to strengthen the immune system beneath the surface of the skin. It supports your skin to treat and repair itself. The mini polystyrene looking tablets I must take four times a day and suck them like sweets. I have been advised not to touch them 'ever'. I should put one tablet into the lid of the bottle and consume it from there. I am excited about this treatment and I really do hope that I get the results I want. My next consultation is in September.

Skin for thought....

Something like 1, 000,000 people in the UK live with a skin disorder called ‘Psoriasis’ - and I happen to be one of them. Fortunately I don’t have a chronic case of psoriasis, but one that is frustrating and frequently disfiguring.

I have read many opinions on this condition and so I have decided to put in my two-penny worth. I have convinced myself that there is no ‘cure’ to his condition because there is no cause. Unless a cause is found, only then will a cure be found. I also believe that psoriasis is a phenomenon in its own right and much more research needs to be done in order to eradicate the misunderstandings and with some luck, find a cause. (Hence cure)


My psoriasis began with a bout of stress when I was at college. I live with red lesions of skin on my arms and legs, and occasionally my face (this is of course the hardest to bear, as people like to stare at oddities).

There are numerous kinds of ‘treatment’ offered to people with psoriasis and are quite often expensive; if not on pocket, then on your health. The starting point of treatment for me was a topical treatment and made with coal tar. After application, I would STINK of petrol. The next treatment I tried was a steroid gel. It thinned my skin extraordinarily fast, leaving it brittle and dry. The third suggestion given to me by doctors is to go on the sun bed (as I said, expensive treatment!), and this has been offered as an extra option to be used with either one or both of the above suggestions.

I am due to start the sun bed treatment towards the end of August.

I have been following the topical treatment for a few years now. When I went abroad to the Philippines where the sun was scorching 38 degrees, the psoriasis completely disappeared! On my return to the UK, two days later, the psoriasis returned, worse than it was before.

This condition is now affecting me psychologically and emotionally. My self-esteem is being knocked from little to nothing. I don’t feel like a normal human-being, I feel like an alien. I don’t remember what it feels like to be ‘normal’. I find it hard to accept people into my life and I am extremely selective in respect of which people I let spend long periods of time with me. This sucks big time.

This Monday I am starting a new treatment with homeopathy -the practice of treating like with like.

Homeopathy offers quite a few reasons for the origins of psoriasis, but a good homeopath will always insist on a personal consultation before they will give you a diagnosis. The underlying general treatment will be diet. Maybe I will use this blog to provide you with a fortnightly update with photos as to how well my treatment is going. Or I could just accept the treatment as ‘one of those things’ which I have to do in order to offer myself the slightest bit of hope that I will be ‘normal’ again.

Since college, life has never been the same again.