About 6-7 weeks ago I started my second attempt at uv therapy. After several extreme long lasting and actually physically painful flares I had truest felt fed up. Up until the end of September I thought I'd get through anything my dermatitis had to throw at me. After getting through Easter of this year with my "monster face" phase, the only way I know how to describe it- I truly felt I'd be fine.
That was until the dermatitis spread. Spread onto my tummy, my back, my shoulders and the crevices of my wrists. And once again like my toddler years behind my knees. It was sore. I would wake up in the morning unable to move my arms without discomfort and fear of tearing open cracked skin. I wouldn't be able to move my neck to the left or right for several days without wincing. My hands would be stuck in a claw or fist form until o heavily moisturised them. The worst to me was that I felt like it was coming back on my face, no matter how much protopic I was putting on I would wake up still feeling as if it was getting worse. I felt like I had taken a thousands steps backwards without an explanation or warning that it was going to happen.
After one morning waking up commenting to my parents I wish I could go to A&E knowing they'd wrap me up in moisturising bandages and place me in a cocoon of comfort, we all felt something real had to be done. So I began to attend an immunologist in blackrock. They did every test they possibly could on me, but to no avail revealed any information we didn't already know.
The events that followed resulted in a lengthy conversation with my consultant about immunosuppressants. The only, and final approach, to relieving my body and mind from the dermatitis. ( I'll discuss the immune suppressants in another post ) after discussing my options, I didn't feel mentally or emotionally ready for such drastic drugs, especially since at the time the weeks to come were hellish and stressful with deadlines , with the end of a project in college. I wouldn't have been able to cope. So a course of uv therapy seemed the best option.
x
