This is a PSA about psoriasis and a treatment that actually works

This is a PSA about psoriasis and a treatment that actually works.

The tl;dr: There's a new drug on the market called Taltz that was approved by the FDA in March this year. It's an injection treatment that works and won't screw with your immune system (too much) like previous drugs will. The before picture on the left was taken on August 28, and the after picture on the right was taken on Oct. 9. As I understood it through my dermatologist and the drug company, Taltz works by targeting the parts of the immune system that cause psoriasis to flare up, and suppresses them, rather than just carpet bombing your whole immune system. That's a layman's understanding, but it's good enough for me. Although I've been sick since I've been on this drug, I don't think it was because my immune system was compromised by the drug because I recovered in about a week and a half.

If you or someone you know has this bogus disease, go to your dermatologist and ask about Taltz.

The tl;wr:
I've dealt with psoriasis for about 13 years now. It started with a small scab that I first noticed on my right shin during PE in the 7th grade, and I knew something was funny when it never went away. When I started getting bad dandruff at 16, I went to the dermatologist and psoriasis was diagnosed. It eventually grew to cover both legs, arms, my scalp and odd parts of my shoulders and torso. My case is a particularly aggressive one, which means that all other treatments and home remedies before Taltz failed.

Last year, I also developed psoriatic arthritis that put me in an immeasurable that I had never dealt with before. I could barely walk for a month, and had to be put on painkillers because any movement of my neck felt like getting stabbed.

Psoriasis is far more than a skin condition, and almost always assumed to be eczema by someone who doesn't know me. What psoriasis essentially is, though, is a genetic autoimmune disease that causes your immune system to go haywire. That's why the skin in my before pic looks scaly, and although I don't have a pic of my scalp before, it was pretty much the same up there. The inflammation inherent in an overactive immune system can also develop into arthritis in a very small percentage of cases, which I learned from a fancy dermatologist in Santa Monica basically means I won the "sucks to be you" lottery when it comes to this disease.

Not only is it unsightly for the people who have to deal with those of us with this disease, we can be in almost constant pain. That's because the sores we have will itch and we'll scratch them (caught myself doing this in my sleep a lot) or crack from dryness, and cause nearly constant bleeding. This also means our risk of bloodborne infection goes through the roof. Did I mention the arthritis?

There's also the mental anguish of people staring at your sores, and the most well-meaning yet offensive people will offer some stupid remedy that involves burning sage and reciting incantations. Trust me, if the topical steroids I was prescribed weren't doing it, reciting Sim Sala Bim ain't going to work either. But people will also stare at you like you're unclean or have a flesh-eating bacteria, which you might suggest to the 10th person you encounter who decides to go out of his or her way to comment on your condition. In case you missed it, I wrote before this is a genetic autoimmune disease. So unless you're my child, you're golden.

Dating with psoriasis also sucks, because talking about it to someone you've just met feels like it's just a notch above disclosing that you have an STD. I'm not saying it's actually that serious, but to me it always felt like that. You know at SOME point she's gonna wanna know why you have a bright red line above your forehead like someone ordered a napalm strike across your hairline. After the first girl cringes at the word "disease," you find ways of prefacing it as much as possible in the future with assurance that they can't get it. Boy, are people relieved that they can't get it. I've been fortunate that everyone I've ever dated has been very outwardly understanding, and only ended up disgusted by my personality and not my disease.

Anyway, I've been on Taltz for only a month. In that time, it's nearly reversed the damage that 13 years of psoriasis has done. The arthritic pain is gone in all but a joint in my left thumb, and all I have left of the constant sores are just large scars. For once in longer than a decade, I feel somewhat normal, and it's nice.