I had an autoimmune disease, then the disease had me (2013)
It started when I was 25. I found the area above my ears, just at the hairline, was always itchy and flaky. Within a few months my scrotum turned red and itchy and flaky. Since there had never been anything wrong with me other than than a flu or two, I immediately went to the doctor. The diagnosis was &quot;probably psoriasis&quot; and I was prescribed hydrocortisone and Dovonex.<p>2 years later I grew giant, hard skin patches on my knees. My fingernails started detaching. I could live with it, although as a gym rat I needed to make sure my knees were wrapped since doing anything on my knees ripped the skin open.<p>My fingernails continued to go through phases of detachment and normalcy, and I&#x27;ve lived with the limited skin problems because they were limited. But just in the last year I&#x27;ve grown giant scaly patches up and down my back, and now there are spots growing, expanding across my forehead and nose. I can see how people look at me now, there&#x27;s something clearly wrong with my face.<p>I&#x27;m terrified. I&#x27;ve always had general fatigue that seemed to match flareups in my skin. While the angriest, spreading psoriasis + fatigue comes in waves, each wave seems worse than the worst that came before. I&#x27;m scheduled to see a dermatologist in a few weeks (in Canada, I&#x27;ve had to wait 3 months just be able to have this appointment) but my deepest fear is that I&#x27;ll be told this is my life now. Even though I know that&#x27;s the answer, I know there&#x27;s no cure for psoriasis.<p>I don&#x27;t know why I&#x27;m typing this, except perhaps that I realize that both the author and I are on the same hunt, and not finding much of anything that can help us feel like we&#x27;re more than 80% (or 60% or 40%) of the person we were as teenagers. But perhaps there is hope that I&#x27;m seeing more articles like this, autoimmune diseases are getting more attention.