Life With Psoriasis: David's Story

My name is David. My wife and I got married a little over two years ago. And we are expecting our first baby on January 1st. I was diagnosed with psoriasis when I was a teenager. I first started with just some scabs on my fingers. It was embarrassing having these dry patches and open sores that looked like they were bleeding. I didn't really have very much control over when it would flare up. And other than taking some medication for it, that was the only option.

I work in IT, and when trying to conduct business with people and, you know, you've got to shake everybody's hand when you meet them. And, sometimes, you don't want to shake mine. The way I understand it, psoriasis is effectively the skin regenerating faster than normal in certain areas. It doesn't get a chance to fully develop, and it begins to just flake off.

It never really itched for me that bad, but it was painful, from time to time. I never noticed anything myself that specifically triggered the psoriasis. It seemed like sometimes the drier weather kind of encouraged it a little bit more. I was prescribed a couple of different types of creams that I could apply, but I wasn't supposed to use them everyday. It was supposed be just for bad flare ups. When I did use it, it more or less masked it. But it was always still there.

Psoriasis was more of an embarrassment thing than anything else at all. If I was to give any kind of encouragement, I think it would be that it can get better with the right treatments, and over time. So it's not something that you will necessarily be stuck with forever. If i had advice for someone would be to see your doctor, follow the treatments, but to keep your chin up, because it's not going to be something that's going to be completely disabling on you.