Last day of Light Box Therapy

Today is the last day of my light box therapy.
I had an appt last week with my dermatologist. He told me to buy flax seed oil and take double the normal dose daily. We need more omega's than most people. He said I could do fish oil pills if I wanted - but some don't like the fish burps I guess. Personally I have been taking fish oil pills for awhile and never once burped up any fish taste. I would know - I hate fish! I take Market America's Heart Heath Fish oil pills.

He also suggested I switch over my lotions and body wash to CeraVe & Cetaphil. They are nice - no smell and both say for atopic skin - some kind of dry skin condition I guess. I found they're a bit pricey - but I guess if they help I'll stick with them. I have tried many other expensive products before also. I let you know how it goes. I bought the CeraVe lotion at Walgreens for $16.99 last week. It's a pretty large size bottle. He told me to put lotion on everytime my skin gets wet from the bath or shower.

My Dermatologist also wants me to try to get more sun. I have to have the "bad areas" of skin exposed though so that would be really tough. He suggested I walk/run in a running bra and also put my hair up in a bun so the sun can reach the back of my neck and my ears. I tried the bun yesterday and it was no different than a pony tail - so easy. I'm not willing to brave running down the road in a bra yet though - I think this is great motivation to start doing crunches though :-)

I have a follow up in 5 weeks - will keep you posted.

I love having a tan!

Well here I am rounding down my 3 1/2 months of light therapy. I have to say I'm really scared about what to expect now. I have a great tan and for the first time in a long time I have not had to worry about how low cut my shirts are. I also bought a nice one piece bathing suit and went swimming with my kids. I posted two new pictures I took recently. I'm amazed - my friends say it now just looks like I have a large birthmark or tatoo on my back. The chest area is pretty much cleared. The few leg spots look just like my back (a little dark spot). My neck still has 2 stubborn red spots as well as the back of my neck. All in all I'm thrilled with the results. I have a cream of vitamin D which I have used only once in awhile on my neck. The rest cleared up with the ubv light box therapy. I stated with 16 seconds and am now up to about 2min 20 sec. I go every m/w/f mornings before work and am in and out within 15 minutes. The extra traveling has been the only real hard part. My insurance has covered every appt for light box. I only pay my copay if I have a regular appt with the derm.

I wish I could keep this nice tan forever! I have a great tan - without any tan lines! It rocks :-) I'll keep you all posted as to how long my skin stays good. I've heard others say it returns with a vengance after - I am hoping not. For the moment I'm very happy with my dark "birthmark" and was happy to finally post some good pictures.

I have been still eating a lot healthier and trying to minimize the gluten. I have found my life to be extremely stressful as of late and have decided not to beat myself up when I eat something with reg. flour in it. I do however keep it to a min and only when it would be more stressful for me to make something from scratch just for me. I know the stress is not good for my skin either - but when you have teenagers as well as a 93 year old grandmother who lives with you your life is full of unexpected surprises.

Wishing all health and clear skin:-)

Update

Wow - I so lost track of time and didn't realize it's been a month since I posted last. I've been doing narrowband uvb light treatments 3 days a week. I'll be doing this for all of March/April/May. I have seen huge results on my chest area, neck and back. The leg spots don't want to budge yet. I'm up to a minute twenty seconds so far. I did have one time only that I got a small burn - the "clear" skin became red - however by morning I was nice and tan.

I might actually have a tan this year !!! Wow - I never have a tan. I have light skin so I usually burn outside and don't seem to ever keep a tan. I like the new look :-)

I noticed after the first few weeks the skin was looking much better - then I slipped up on the diet - the psoriosis got red again. I'm back on track now. I knew this wasn't going to be an easy journey - but I'll get there.

I'm really hoping to have clear skin for July. We're planning a trip out to Wisconsin to visit my husbands family. It's a large family reuinon and most people are renting cabins on the lake. I haven't worn a swimsuit in at least 5 years. I'm hopeing I can. Especially since my little girl loves to swim.

Pressing on

Well - I've gone through 4 light therapy sessions. I'm up to a wapping 23 seconds now. They keep asking if I burned any last time - I have not and really can't see how 23 seconds is enough to burn you. I can see a difference in the redness for sure. The scaling was pretty much gone before, but the bright redness was bad. Now it's more pink. I'm fading and am very happy about it. It's so nice to actually see something change. I also do my infared sauna 3 times a week and epsom salt baths.

I have to say I really really like my new dermatologist. Not only is he not pushing me on the drugs but he himself has psoriosis. He said out of all the treatments out there he's seen the most "remision" time with the light therapy. He wants me to go for 3 months for now. I also shared with him how my son had inverse psoriosis on the back of his knee that lasted about 6 months and went away and now he has patches on both his eyelids. He gave me some vit D cream samples for him to use. My son also uses my infared sauna and loves it. He's not willing to switch his eating habits much right.

So the diet - well I have to say I have come a long way. It's still a struggle though. I have been working on cutting out the dairy - this is really hard because I love cheese. I could care less about the milk. I also have no issues cooking with almond milk. My only complaint is that it only lasts 7 days in the fridge and I'm the only one using it. I don't eat cereal - so it's really just to cook with. I wonder if I can freeze half or if I can find smaller containers.
I find my digestive track is working better - but has a long way to go. You all know I was on antibiotics for 12 straight years - so all the good bacteria was gone and I was lucky if I "eliminated" twice a week. Now I find it's either feast or famine. I either go 3-4 days with nothing or go 3-4 times in one day. It's so weird and must be what I'm eating. I almost wonder sometimes if I have some lactose intolerance issues because a few of the "busy" days I ate yogurt for breakfast. I'm a work in progress :-) I also still go for colonics once every 4-6 weeks. This is supposed to also help tone the colon so it works properly as well as get out the older "crap".

I will post updated pictures soon. I have had some computer issues and need to find my disk to reload the camera software.

Narrowband light therapy

I started light therapy today. Yikes - insurance covers it but you still have to pay the copay. That's $60 extra a week. This is going to be really hard financially.
They started me off at 16 seconds. Boy that seems like nothing. You go into a room and the nurse punches your info into the computer. She tells you how long you'll be in. Because I have fair skin and it's my first time she did 16 seconds. There's a booth you stand in and shut the door then push a button for it to start. You wear dark glasses also. She gave the instructions on how it works, tells me I can leave my bra and underwear on if I want. If almost all the skin under the bra and underwear are affected then it would seem right to just go nude - which I did. Then you get dressed, pay your $20 and leave. I have one month of these scheduled for now. We'll see how it goes. I don't think I'll be getting a tan at 16 seconds a time :-) To bad - I really could use one.

Dermatologist appt.

I haven't been to the dermatologist in 16 plus years. I had a mole on my back that stuck out some and because my psoriosis is in that area I found I was constantly hitting it when I itched. At night if I was itchy I woke in the morning with the mole bleeding and irritated. It also would scab over. I decided it had to go - so I saw the derm this week. He said it looks fine - but removed it for me no problem. It was sore for a few days and I couldn't were a normal bra because the strap rubbed on it. So I've been wearing a sports bra for 4 days now. (Makes me feel like I should be at the gym).

He wanted to know what I was doing for my psoriosis and I said nothing. He let me know there were a lot of good drugs out now. I told him I would only be open to light therapy - nothing else. I spoke with his nurse for awhile while she prepared everything for the mole removal. I explained to her how I was on antibiotics for so many years and it really did a number on me - I'm not open to anything that will cause more harm in the long run. She told me you can do light therapy without having any drugs with it. It helps a lot of people. I know it's not a cure in the long run and I'm looking to get better for long term not short term - but it may help boost what I'm doing naturally. It also may make it so I can wear a swim suit this summer :-) So I'm going to start light therapy this coming week for awhile and see if it gives me that extra boost I need. I have minimal scaling right now but lots of deep red skin. I would like that to fade away :-)

I added in yellow saffron tea this past week also. It has very little taste. I ordered the yellow saffron and slippery elm bark tea the same day - but only the yellow saffron has arrived so far. I like it and thought I saw a little improvement with it - hard to tell so far thought. These are 2 teas recommended my Dr. Pagano.

loosing weight still / infared sauna

I am still eating pretty good. I never ever have processed foods now which is great. I do almost all my cooking at home from scratch. I am learning I like a lot more new foods (especially veggies). The good new is I've lost more weight. I'm down now to about 157 (Started at 173).
I love fitting back into my size 10 jeans.

Someone recommended I try an infared sauna. I thought they were quite pricey for something I was "trying" and didn't know if I would like so I had passed on the idea....until I saw someone had one on craigslist for a really really great price. She had bought one of the small portable foldable ones and used it only once or twice - then she had bought one of the large wooden models. So I went this weekend and pickup up the small portable one for really cheap. I tried it out this morning. You basically sit in a small chair and zipper yourself in. I feel like I'm sitting in a space suit :-) It heats up - but doesn't have steam like the regular saunas. I makes you sweat. I don't know if it will make any difference at all - but I found it very relaxing. I sat in it and watched the news on tv then took a nice hot shower to wash off the sweat and followed up with lots of coconut oil all over my skin. They say you should sweat for detox reasons - if nothing else I like the heat as I'm always cold! I think it's a great way to start the day.

I tried dark chocolate almond milk this morning. That stuff is great! My church had a big women's ministries chocolate event last night. We had 9 different rooms set up that you travel around to and do something different. I was in the craft room all night making marshmallow snowmen so it was easy to not eat all that junk. At the end of the night one of the rooms had leftover cartons of chocolate almond and soy milk. I took home one of the almond milk to try. It was a great addition to my breakfast. I've tried the plain almond milk before and find I don't like to drink it by itself - but will use it for cooking and smoothies no problem. Like I said - trying new stuff is fun - never know what you'll end up liking.