Hi
For the first time in 48 years I feel as though my psoriasis is properly under control and I want to share my experience with you in the hope that it will help.
It started when I was 7 - all over body but not face or scalp. Treatment in those days was coal tar bath and steroid cream. I was in my twenties when a doctor first mentioned that long-term use of the steroid creams they kept prescribing was not a good idea. They didn't seem to work for me anyway. I abandoned the doctors and their creams, scratched myself raw all winter and lived for the summer when the sunshine would clear it up.
In 1998 I discovered Exorex and for me it was a miracle cure. I was clear for a whole year. Then it just stopped working. I have no idea why.
Winter 2004 it was so bad I had to give the medical profession another chance. Ichthopaste bandages became my new best friends. Then someone (alarmed by how I was smelling no doubt) told me that she managed psoriasis on her feet with Epaderm. I ditched the bandages and went back to bathing morning and night, slapping Epaderm all over my wet skin when I got out the bath. My psoriasis was still angry but the Epaderm helped in that it didn't get so dry.
In 2007 I joined this site, I never posted anything but I read lots of posts and in particular the things being said about SLS. I was so stupid I'd been lying in my Radox baths thinking - 'God look at the state of my legs - this hot water is really aggravating them'. I now know it was the SLS in the Radox doing the damage. I started reading the ingredients and the only bath product I could find not having SLS was Palmolive bath milk.
I haven't looked back. I now bathe once a day in the non-aggravating Palmolive, slap loads of Epaderm on when I get out and let it soak in. My skin is clearer than it has ever been. Except last week I ran out of Palmolive and for two days I bathed, not thinking, in a bath foam I'd bought back from the Dead Sea. I woke up with my fingernails bloodied from scratching and my partner had to point out to me that I'd been bathing in SLS again.
That's my story, apologies for the length but if it helps someone then it's worth it.
