A week is a long time

As I write this weeks post, I’m exhausted again. My Psoriasis is creeping back and as I have to be truthful at all times, I missed some treatment days and skin care sessions. As the title of the blog says:

A week is a long time

Often misquoted and attributed to Harold Wilson

The thing is that while I’m on this mission to achieve remission with Psoriasis, it’s still ever present and therefore it’s something that needs constant maintenance.

It has triggers that can cause flare ups and many of them are simple things and others are more complicated. For example

• Smoking is a well documented trigger, and as I write this I’m mindful that having smoked on and off for 25 years, I had no improvement during that time. Therefore its reasonable to assume that the smoking was a constant trigger, that simply fought against any treatment I had tried. Now that I am several years free of the curse of smoking, Steriods are working. But was it as simple as that?.. no I don’t think so.
• Diet, but more specifically the quality of the food that we eat, is now well documented to affect the Gut Biome and critical and groundbreaking studies published by the Mayo Clinic and in scientific journals like Nature, are showing that actually “we are what we eat”… and that it’s not the amount of calories, it’s the quality of calories that matter. The more processed a food is, the more refined, the more likely these foods will contribute to the cracks in you genetics and result in auto-immune disorders and other ailments.
• I’ve changed my diet adding in Keifer and Kombucha’s to try to improve gut health. I’ve quit sugar (I has sugar withdrawal…low dull headaches for a week), now I drink black coffee. I also gave up milk, I use a little butter and cheese and only take a probiotic yogurt. I’m working on eating less processed foods, starting to go organic and focusing on whole foods. This article on Heathline.com is quite good as it speaks about triggers.
• Artificial additives are now been documented and shown to actively kill gut bacteria. Diet drinks can wipe out billions of good gut bacteria, leaving the bad stuff to go mental. Have a read here and see what you think, I’ve been drinking diet drinks for years, thinking I was avoiding sugar.
• Antibiotics are designed to kill bacterial infections, unfortunately they don’t know the difference between good and bad bacteria. My most recent significant flare and spread event started a month after I needed to go onto wide spectrum antibiotics to treat an infection related to Diverticulitis.
• Stress. Life throws curve balls at you and that can trigger stress, and sometimes significant life events can trigger huge stress.

Right now I’m dealing with significant life events, caring for a parent, that is outwardly sprightly and bright, but whom has been ravaged by Alzheimer’s, COPD and a myriad of other medical issues, that are all combining into a perfect storm.

Due to the progressive nature of the condition, it has lead to a recent prescription for Anti-Psychotic medication to help keep balance on the fragile mind that’s detaching from reality. The hospital have said we have run out of road (probably a month or more ago) and there is urgent need for LTC (long term care) in a nursing home setting.

Life dictates the time you can spend on keeping yourself healthy and sometimes you need to take a back seat. As the needs of family or friends takes precedence.

Concern yourself more with the needs of others

Dalai Lama

While that may result in a lot of stress, try to be mindful. The person in crisis is in need and your stress will transform over time to calm. Right now in the middle of the moment, as the crisis is mitigated with a plan of action, your meeting that need.

Skipping a few treatments is not even a ripple, in context, a stressful week is only a slow down in progress. If it’s a few months, so what! There are positive steps and new information has been collected.

Not sure how this all reads. I’m not trying to moan about my situation, I’ve a great group of family and relatives offering and giving support. I’m determined to meet the needs of my parent and things are progressing well.

The point I am making is that stress will happen, life will throw the schedule out the window, but that’s not defeat when dealing with Psoriasis. It’s a ripple on the pond, nothing more.

If the stress can be managed then that’s another trigger that can be taken under control. So this week while I missed a few treatments, I just get back on track. Being consistent is the trick, just like the moisturising 3 times a day. It works.

The moisturising of the rough plaques on my legs, softens the plaques and the Boots Dermacare stops the plaque formation, which gave the steroids the chance to work. I am not hoovering up after myself, or shedding skin everywhere for the first time in years.

Oh and one more little admission, I’m a day late with the blog. Well that’s ok too. Psoriasis health online 17th 18th October 2021