I've been reading through this board for a while now and thought it was probably about time that I put in my 2 cents worth and mumbled a bit for your amusement
.
My P broke out when I was 6, no reason at all can be laid to blame, the docs say it was stress but come on at 6 I don't think I could spell stress let alone know what it meant. Any way, since that day I have never been clear, I'll be 28 next month so I guess you can say that I'm pretty much used to having P.
In fact to be perfectly honest I can't actually remember not having it. I suffer basically everywhere. Scalp, face, ears, chest, back, arms, legs, nails and all the places in between.
Childhood and in particular High school was pretty bad, but kids can be cruel.. life is pretty good now.
Right now my doctor would describe it as extensive, I describe it as pretty dam good. I've seen extensive, I've had it bad. When I was 8 you couldn't touch me anywhere above the waist with out touching my plaques.
I'm from a large family, on the P line there are approximately 27 people. Of them 2 of us show P, and the other one died a couple of years ago. I think that used to hurt me, that no one else had it, why me etc... but I'm over that now
Suffering with P from such a young age sounds horrible, but I think I'm at an advantage, everyday I read stories of people who are embarressed about their skin, I'm not saying thats wrong, but I don't give a monkey's what other people think. If someone has a problem with my P then its THEIR problem, not mine. I'm confortable with the way I am, I ware what I want and do what I like. I sunbath at the beach, I go swimming, whatever. I guess I'm just used to it or something.. Not that I wouldn't like to be clear of it. I know people who don't leave the house for weeks when their P shows up.. Thats just not me.
There is only a couple of situations that have really annoyed me and got me upset about P in my life. The worst one to date has been being refused the job I dreamed about because I had p. The RAF refused to employ me because of it. Thats in the past and was 10 years ago but it still gets my goat.
The situation may be about to repeat itself as I wait for the results of my medical for entry in to the fire service. I know that there are people in the fire service who suffer from P but they all got it after they joined. Apparently that makes a difference (
??) We shall see what happens over the next few weeks.
Treatment wise, I basically gave up on any treatment about 5 years ago. Nothing worked for me, I've tried pretty much all there was at the time. OK some sort of worked, but only for a limited time and extent and when treatment stops it always came back worse than it was before starting. Even the UVA and UVB failed to clear it completly.
What works? Well for me there are 3 things:
1 - Get out in the Sun as much as possible.
2 - Moisturise every day with a regular moisturer.
3 - Be happy in who, where and what I am.
The most important one?. number 3.. I find if I'm happy then my skin doesn't flake so much. weird, but hey, it works for me.
Anyway, I suppose I'll stop now. And let someone else write....
Cheers
Stu.
