Stress....

As most of us know, stress is one of our biggest enemies when it comes to Psoriatic disease.  Whether you have only skin involvement or it has gone on to the arthritis phase, you can guarantee that stress will bring out the worst in your disease.

In the last few weeks I've been noticing some improvement in my skin.  I think the Simponi is finally working it's way out of my system and the Arava is fighting the good fight.  Though the psoriasis is continuing to spread to new and never before explored areas the severity of the scales and frequency of fissures is declining.  My fingernails have almost all grown completely back to full attachment.  I still have a few toenails hanging on for dear life and my pink and pointer finger on my right hand are not totally better, but everything is improved in the nail bed area.  I also have only had a few pustules on the soles of my feet in the last week and my hands are nearly totally healed.  I realize I'm tempting fate by announcing this, but it is what it is.

All that being said the last few weeks have had, and continue to have, a lot of familial stress.  I won't get into details because most of it is very private to other family members, but none the less it is stressful to be so far away while my family is going through struggles.  I fully expect a full on flare to be arriving in the next 48 hours.  My hips and knees have already started the all too familiar swelling with pain.  I also developed a new fissure on my left middle finger this evening that yesterday was just some minimal flaking.

Sometimes there is just no avoiding it, but it is especially important for immune responsive disease patients to learn good stress minimizing and coping techniques.  It can make the difference between having a short flare and becoming overwhelmed and trapped in a viscous cycle of the flare causing even more stress which then worsens the flare and so on.

Just as it is important for us to live the physically healthiest life possible it is important for us to take ownership of our mental health and well being as well.

I'm off to bed in hopes of getting some sleep tonight.  Thursday I FINALLY have my Dermatology appointment to see if Stelera is an option for me.  I'm leaning to waiting until I move to Phoenix to start it if it is an option as my move is about 60 days away and I don't want to find out I have a severe adverse reaction to it and be unable to focus on my move.  Sweet dreams and happy thoughts all!