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Psoriasis advice

longsleeves — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:27:29 -0800

I have psoriasis and wonder what treatments work if you or someone you know also has it and what your experience has been. My father has plaque psoriasis and over the last eighteen months or so I have begun to develop it. I had a quick initial onset on my scalp and upper chest, which has since slowly expanded in area affected. A local dermatologist I finally consulted two weeks ago prescibed Derma-Smooth/FS, a suspension of fluocinolone acetonide in purified peanut and mineral oil. I have used the stuff and it has resulted in some clearing of the affected areas but the lesions are persistent and less noticable but no smaller, even thogh the doctor said the would begin to go away. He mentioned some other treatment that he woud use after the fluocinolone did its work.

Dad had a case that was very bad, progressing to that point that it affected large areas of his skin. He spent two weeks at a clinic in another state (The Cleveland Clinic?) for some sort of intensive treatment that failed. The concern as I understand it was that psoriasis in its more extreme manifestaions can result in skin cells replicating so fast that the body's temperature is raised by the accelerated metabolism to dangerous fevers.

Eventually Dad's psoriasis was controlled with methotrexate, which is more commonly employed as part of anti-cancer chemotherapy treatments due to its slowing of cell division. He had to get a liver biopsy before they started using it and subsequent biopsies to check for liver damage.

It worked, and the dosage was decreased over time to minimal levels to maintain the "remission."

The Dermatologist's staff had me fill out a form describing why I was consulting the doctor. By the time the doctor breezed into the examining room I was waiting in, one of about four he has, he already had his prescription pad out. From his seat abot five feet away he glanced at the red patches on my upper forehead near my hairline and said the scalp oil he was prescribing would control the codition. He didn't look at my chest and he spent less than five minutes with me.

I have a follow-up appointmet with this doctor in a few weeks. I did not remember to ask him about arthritis as part of the aouto-immune symptoms associated with psoriasis. My knees hurt.

I understand that immune suppresant chemicals are used sometimes to treat my condition, and well damn, that sounds scary.

Should I consult a rheumetologist on my own?

Any thoughts you may have or experiences you could relate awould be welcome.

another? ew, please . . . no thanks . . . REALLY!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:06:57 -0800

[peri-anal abscess filter]: How to avoid another? As I'm sure you'd prefer not to imagine, this question gets a bit icky. After 6 weeks of treatment following the surgical removal of my lovely peri-anal abscess (think the worst goatse you can imagine!), my surgeon ends his final consult on the following note: "Be careful. Once you get [one peri-anal abscess], a relapse is more likely."

Words fail to describe how crestfallen I was upon hearing this . . . and this was following a successful post-op treatment regimen (i.e., goodbye abscess, hello healing surgical scar on the periphery of the cakehole!).

My surgeon has no idea how it formed, and neither does my GP (gluteal muscles *may* have opened up after a coccyx-fracturing fall, but the fracture was extremely mild). My question is simple: other than not falling on my ass again, what can I do?

Are there diets that make one less succeptible to developing an abscess? Are there habits that I should avoid or take up? Do these things really form "mysteriously?" What is the dealio?

FYI, I've been a clean and healthy individual all of my life. I've never had anything like this happen, I shower regularly and attend to the cleanliness of my private bits to a fastidious, but not necessarily obsessive degree.

I'm 40+ male, and I know two things: (1) you are not my Dr., and (2) you will not examine me in person. Still, I can't help but wonder if I am I doomed to fear another peri-anal abscess for the rest of my days. Short of taping a very soft and fluffy sofa pillow to my ass, what can I do to avoid another peri-anal abscess?

Ew, I have bad breath

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 07:27:35 -0800

How do I fix the problem of bad breath from dry mouth (due to medication)? I am taking Wellbutrin and recently increased my dosage to the max amount. Ever since I did that, I've noticed a metallic taste in my mouth, and I've needed to drink a lot of water. An honest person at work told me that I usually have bad breath. Sometimes pretty bad, sometimes really bad. I did a little research and realized that the bad breath is from the dry mouth which is from the Wellbutrin. Many questions:

1. Is the bad breath caused by something specifically associated with the medicine or dry mouth condition? Like a specific bacteria, or a specific thing that I might be doing, for example?

2. It is very embarassing having someone constantly offering me breath mints, so I'd like to be able to figure out myself if my breath smells so that I can do something about it. So - how can I tell if my breath smells? The whole covering your mouth and nose and sniffing thing does not work, and the metallic taste is not always there when my breath smells, so I can't use that as an indicator.

3. How do I fix this issue or at the very least mask the smell or make it temporarily go away? Is there a specific mouth wash, method of brushing my teeth (I already brush, floss and use a tongue scraper twice a day out of habit), food I should be eating, or something that I should be doing? And how frequently should I do it?

Thank you in advance, you can email me at ewihavebadbreath@gmail.com if you're embarassed about your bad breath too or want to ask me anything.

Keep those mice OUT.

echo0720 — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:25:01 -0800

There are lots of old mouse-trapping threads, and I'd be happy to get more advice on how to trap mice, but what I really want to know is how to keep them from coming in in the first place -- any suggestions? I know that they come in through holes, and I live in an old building where there are probably tons of holes that I can't even see, so as much as I would like to, I don't think I'd be able to patch those up. I take out the trash pretty much every day, and try to keep the kitchen spotless. There's no food lying around - everything that is out is either in boxes or plastic bags. I live on the top floor of a building that I'm sure is full of other tasty apartments (and I'm in a corner, so my place isn't even on the way to other places), so I just can't figure out why they keep coming back. Any suggestions on how else I can try to keep them away?

Get my hands away from my face so I don't get sick so often!

sirion — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:20:29 -0800

Nose scratching, Face scratching, Nose Picking, Teeth picking, Eye rubbing: Get my hands away from my face. I'd like to not get sick quite as often, and I've noticed I have a few unsavory habits that probably have gotten me sick a number of times. How do I keep my hands away from my face permanently?

Why do bugs skeeve me out?

AlisonM — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:52:11 -0800

Why do bugs skeeve me out? The thought came over me last night - I had gone out with a couple friends yesterday evening for a couple drinks, and we sat out on the patio since it was one of the first few hot days of the year. Sure enough, there were mosquitoes and gnats flying around, and they eventually drove us indoors because we (ok, I) was really grossed out. Later that evening, I was in my room, and a gigantic (I'm talking 2 inches wide) mosquito flew lazily across the room in front of me. I was TERRIFIED, and if you had asked me at that moment, I would have been convinced that the mosquito wanted to kill me and start the revolution in my bedroom. I ran screaming from my room and made one of my housemates go in and kill it.

Even disposing of a dead bug can turn into a project involving a broom, a paper plate, some duct tape and a mad dash to the outside trash can.

Now, I know in the grand scheme of things, bugs won't do me any harm. Oh sure, I could have an itchy lump from a mosquito for a couple of days. And your run-of-the-mill bee sting isn't any more than slightly annoying for a minute or two (I'm not allergic, thank god), but bees are the worst for me. (I once threw a baseball bat at a bee, which kind of pissed him off and made him chase me. That's part of the reason why bees are the worst for me. In my mind, they want REVENGE. The rest of them just want to get away.)

Anyway. is there a legitimate psychological reason why the "OMIGODTHEBUGISGOINGTOGETMEEWEWEW!" part of my brain takes over instead of this logical part of my brain that knows that in general, don't really mean me any harm, and even if they did, they can't do much? If there is a psychological reason, is it learned, or are we as humans programmed to keep the bugs away?

Who published this feature about everyday people naming movies they wanted to see which never came to town?

GaelFC — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 13:35:29 -0800

I know I saw a feature in a recent magazine, which I thought was Entertainment Weekly, but now I can't find it again. It was a full page of photos of regular people from around the nation, and they had asked each person to name the movie they most wanted to see that never came to their town -- "Capturing the Friedmans" was named, among others. Has anyone seen this feature, and if so, can you tell me which magazine it was in? We get a LOT of magazines, so if not EW it could have been in Esquire, People, Vanity Fair, etc. Any help will be much appreciated!