Other health problems associated with PPP

[susiedragons]

I have PPP and am currently being treated with PUVA and topical steroids. (My other postings give more details about all this.) 

I have just had a bad night.  My feet were hot and itchy as the PPP is starting to flare up again.  As well as itchy skin I had a lot of aches around my ribcage and back, which made it v difficult to turn over in bed and to get up. I've had this before and haven't had a satisfactory answer from the medics. Now that I'm up and about I feel swimmy, headachy and slightly sick.  My feet are still "stingling", which makes my lower legs achey and crampy, presumably due to jangling associated nerves and  muscles etc.  At the moment my hands are reasonably quiet.

A lot of the info about PPP that I've found seems to be focussed mostly on skin conditions and treatments.  Do other PPP folks get other symptoms elsewhere anything like me?  I'd be interested to know if you do, and if so, what help do you get and how do you cope?  Positive mental attitude can be hard to maintain at times .....

Thanks a lot   Susie     

[Matilda]

Hi - I am also a new member on this forum.  I read your earlier post about shivery feelings alongside the ppp and share that experience.  I have had antibiotics a few times since January as the GP thought the ppp was infected and that was causing the feverish feelings.  Do you also have psoriatic arthritis?  If so, that could be causing the back pain. 

[david_8]

Hi, Susie


 ? do you know what type of puva= psoralen you are having & list of its possable side effects

best to get checked out you know your oints/meds/medical history

all types of p can be more than just the  skin
ask your derm/gp about types of  p and its comorbidities  like metabolic syndrome etc or
pa = costochondiritis/psoriatic spondylitits etc, and about seeing a  councillor

i have a long list of p/pa linked autoimmune diseases & my feet are very bad at the mo
get /have episodes like you describe

hope you get answers soon

[susiedragons]

Thanks for getting back to me Matilda and David.  I have absolutely no idea which psoralen I've been treated with, so no idea about possible side effects.  I can always find out.  The good news is that my hands have pretty well cleared up.  The bad news is that I've knocked one of my fingertips and now have a 'hammer finger' in a splint, which makes typing quite exciting ;-))

My feet are getting easier to live with - but they still stingle (sting+tickle!) a lot of the time and I'm still getting the shivers and related symptoms.  I haven't been checked for PA or any other PPP health related problems, I have mentioned this but nobody has done anything about it.  At the moment I'm applying Betamethasone RD in the morning and going to bed with Carbodome and Zipzocks with zinc ointment.  My feet get hot at night inside the socks, so they start itching and bothering me.  I wear old pairs of my husband's socks over the Zipzocks to try to keep some of the gunk off the bedding.

I am now starting to look at some of the family problems which were horrendous with a counsellor, which finally brought me out in stress related PPP in the first place.  I wonder if this will make my PPP worse again, but I can't spend the rest of my life waiting to sort it all out.

Feeling reasonably good at the moment as progress is being made on several fronts.   Thanks for being so helpful.  Susie

[Matilda]

Hello again - I posted earlier that the dermatologist I saw suggested I put a layer on emollient, let it soak in for about 10 minutes, than wrap the feet and hands in cling film, finally covering with tubular bandages.  I have now done this for two nights, and honestly find it helps.  Till I saw the dermatologist, I was moisturising, then using cotton tubular bandages.  I find the notion of cling filming myself less than enticing, but hey, it seems to help.  I don't cling film my legs, just moisturise, then cotton tubular bandages to try and stop the bed sheets getting greasy.  Honestly - what a way to prepare to sleep!  Hope you are feeling a bit better