I thought it best to do a little bit of an intro before I got into the tale of my lifetime of dealing with psoriasis (Pso) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) so that you folks reading this know a little bit about me.
I'm a mum, wife and I work full time. I have a degree in Microbiology and have worked in antimicrobial drug development for the past 2 years, before that I worked in cancer diagnosis research after graduating from university in 2009. Before I went to uni (in my late 20's/early 30's) I worked in accounts, working in everything from accounts payable to management accounting and payroll. I enjoyed the jobs I did but there was always something missing from them which is why I made the decision to return to university as a mature student.
I have a number of hobbies and interests including photography, baking, cooking, jewellery making and reading (both books and graphic novels/comics/scientific journals). I love listening to music and trying to play instruments (more on that later). I like going to the cinema with my husband on our "date nights" and am basically a geek girl who loves horror gaming (both computer and role play gaming), horror, fantasy and sci-fi fiction but I have an intense dislike of Star Wars. I used to be a pretty decent cross country runner and martial artist in my teen years, I was also a pretty good figure skater and Latin/Ballroom dancer too. Some of these hobbies have fallen by the wayside as life has intervened... it's pretty difficult to keep up the things you enjoyed as a teen when you have to work and run a home.
I've been living with Pso for pretty much the whole of my life, I was diagnosed at the age of 4 and am now in my mid 30's. Over the years the condition has changed, flaring and dying down as my body has gone through different phases of development but always present. It has shaped my relationships with people, my outlook on life and my attitude to the challenges I have faced over the years.
PsA became a reality for me in my late teens, but it wasn't until after having my daughter in my early 20's that I finally found a GP who would believe the symptoms I was having were not a case of growing pains or a psychosomatic condition. I am still awaiting a rheumatological diagnosis 12 years after first being diagnosed by my GP and will discuss the problems surrounding getting a diagnosis at a later point. The past couple of years have seen a marked deterioration in my joints and mobility/dexterity and the medications that can be prescribed by my GP have done little to really help, treating the symptoms rather than the condition.
I have called this a survivors guide because I refuse to be classed as or called a "sufferer", that word says to me that I am defined by the condition and am limited by it, something that I refuse to accept. You can only really suffer from something if you allow yourself to be defined by it and my hope is that people will read this blog and realise that the condition does not define who you are as a person.
My hope for this blog is to give support and advice to others who are surviving with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis. I plan to use my scientific background to discuss the biological processes that are believed to be responsible for the condition in a way that makes it easy for non-scientific folks to understand. I aim to be open and frank about my experiences, both good and bad, and the interactions I have had with people over the years and stages of my life that have determined the person I have become and my attitude to my condition. I hope that this will help those who have just been diagnosed to deal with what can be a very life changing diagnosis... maybe not physically but certainly psychologically.
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