Health Boards
Tue-03-11-2015, 19:04 PM
Hi There Everyone,
I hope everyone is doing well. My name is Jim and I’m here because my life has turned somewhat upside down within the last 24 hours. I’m not entirely sure what I hope to get out of this post, but perhaps a Psoriasis sufferer that has dealt with similar characteristics can help me focus my train of thought. I do apologize for how winded this may be, but if you don’t mind, it will help me process all that has happened.
Before last week, I was a 30 year old relatively healthy male with no history of any skin-related issue, aside from puberty and the occasional pimple brought on by stressing for a big work meeting here and there. Last week, I had an itch on my legs that wouldn’t go away. When I actually pulled up my pant leg to investigate the “bug bite”, I noticed I had a long red rash that carried ½ way around my calf, right at my dress sock line. It literally looked like I had worn socks that were too tight. The odd thing is, I have almost the EXACT same marking around my other leg. Same color, general length and location (sock line, wrapped around ½ my calf). I originally thought maybe I was having a reaction to the type of fabric (I did just buy new socks…….so much talk of socks…how boring…I’m sorry!). I then started to notice little red marks on the backs of my hands/wrists. They seem to bunch in the area in between my thumb and index finger, on both hands. All of these marks have been somewhat pale red, with flaky dryness on top. The point here is….aside from a dot here and there on different areas of my body, this “rash” has been so contained to these two areas (calves and back of hands) and they are almost symmetrical in pattern.
All that aside, I saw the dermatologist yesterday and instead of giving me some cream for a reaction I thought I was having, she instead gave me a lifelong commitment to battling Psoriasis. I still just don’t understand…..I have so many questions and I won’t burden anyone…..it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me right now. The doctor’s first action was to check my elbows and knees (I guess these are common outbreak areas?), though I have no markings there. She kind of pushed my comments aside about how oddly symmetrical the leg markings were…..which I thought was the original ground zero site all along…..she took a biopsy, which I am awaiting the results from. In the meantime, she told me to stop taking the steroid tablets that the Urgent Care gave me two days before (I was worried about it and didn’t want to wait for my derm appointment), then she told me the outbreak will get worse now once I come off the steroids (awesome!) and then she basically just threw some trial spray of something called Kenalog at me. Everything happened so fast….and I now have a mountain of questions and concerns and once I hear back about the biopsy, I do plan to meet with her (or another derm) to really go over proper care, warning signs, etc.
I just feel a little lost right now…….and I guess I’m wondering if anyone has had similar Psoriasis flare-ups, specifically with characteristics that somewhat mimic mine?
Regardless, thanks for your time….and apologies again for the lengthy post.
I hope everyone is doing well. My name is Jim and I’m here because my life has turned somewhat upside down within the last 24 hours. I’m not entirely sure what I hope to get out of this post, but perhaps a Psoriasis sufferer that has dealt with similar characteristics can help me focus my train of thought. I do apologize for how winded this may be, but if you don’t mind, it will help me process all that has happened.
Before last week, I was a 30 year old relatively healthy male with no history of any skin-related issue, aside from puberty and the occasional pimple brought on by stressing for a big work meeting here and there. Last week, I had an itch on my legs that wouldn’t go away. When I actually pulled up my pant leg to investigate the “bug bite”, I noticed I had a long red rash that carried ½ way around my calf, right at my dress sock line. It literally looked like I had worn socks that were too tight. The odd thing is, I have almost the EXACT same marking around my other leg. Same color, general length and location (sock line, wrapped around ½ my calf). I originally thought maybe I was having a reaction to the type of fabric (I did just buy new socks…….so much talk of socks…how boring…I’m sorry!). I then started to notice little red marks on the backs of my hands/wrists. They seem to bunch in the area in between my thumb and index finger, on both hands. All of these marks have been somewhat pale red, with flaky dryness on top. The point here is….aside from a dot here and there on different areas of my body, this “rash” has been so contained to these two areas (calves and back of hands) and they are almost symmetrical in pattern.
All that aside, I saw the dermatologist yesterday and instead of giving me some cream for a reaction I thought I was having, she instead gave me a lifelong commitment to battling Psoriasis. I still just don’t understand…..I have so many questions and I won’t burden anyone…..it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me right now. The doctor’s first action was to check my elbows and knees (I guess these are common outbreak areas?), though I have no markings there. She kind of pushed my comments aside about how oddly symmetrical the leg markings were…..which I thought was the original ground zero site all along…..she took a biopsy, which I am awaiting the results from. In the meantime, she told me to stop taking the steroid tablets that the Urgent Care gave me two days before (I was worried about it and didn’t want to wait for my derm appointment), then she told me the outbreak will get worse now once I come off the steroids (awesome!) and then she basically just threw some trial spray of something called Kenalog at me. Everything happened so fast….and I now have a mountain of questions and concerns and once I hear back about the biopsy, I do plan to meet with her (or another derm) to really go over proper care, warning signs, etc.
I just feel a little lost right now…….and I guess I’m wondering if anyone has had similar Psoriasis flare-ups, specifically with characteristics that somewhat mimic mine?
Regardless, thanks for your time….and apologies again for the lengthy post.