Positive Self Talk Helped Manage My Chronic Disease
Psoriasis goes more than skin deep.
“Have you been sick recently?” The doctor asked.
I stood in front of an elderly man, who seemed to be upset with me for showing up late to my appointment; he asked me to strip down to my bra and jeans. The nurse had her back turned to me, clicking things on a laptop and wondered why they hadn’t offered me some privacy and a paper robe to change into. I showed the doctor the dime sized red spots along my arms, abdomen and underneath my pant legs. He used his pen to lightly push away hair from my scalp and inspect the flaking skin and all but asked me to pull my left boob out of my bra so he could see the largest portion of the rash covering the left side of my chest. All the while, I silently berated myself for the way my body was spilling out over the top of my jeans.
After explaining to the doctor that I had self-treated what he determined, without any tests, to be strep throat he told me that I have Psoriasis, again determined without any tests. He gave me a prescription for both a steroid cream to use on my body and oil to use on my scalp, if it didn’t clear up in 6–8 weeks, I’d need to schedule another appointment.
The nurse followed up with a few questions, asking what I knew about Psoriasis. I knew it was a skin…
