I didn't qualify for this study since I haven't used a biologic medication to treat psoriasis. If you have and don't mind participating in a telephone interview, this one pays $125. (Disclosure: I have done previous studies with Schlesinger at their Dallas location; they're very professional and pay promptly.)

( Read more... )

Note to self: spraying Bactine on the psoriasis flareup on my arm was a Bad Idea.

Son of a biscuit, that stings.

A few days after trying moist burn pads on the patch of psoriasis on my arm, the overall constant itching is down, but I'm keeping my arm wrapped to prevent unintentional scratching. It seems to have accelerated the loss of a couple layers of plaques (scales) as the itching spikes periodically then, when I unwrap my arm, it sheds like varnish flaking off an old piece. It's weird, but the wrapping is helping the broken skin heal.

I finally got my wireless headphones tuned back in after retrieving them from the study a few weeks ago, but there's still a very narrow high-pitched tone, similar to the noise a TV makes, that's annoying the dickens out of me. (I unsuccessfully tried to tune them back in after I retrieved them before I figured out that if I have the audio splitter switched to the headphone jack, it cuts off the signal to the wireless headphones since they're plugged in as my primary speakers. Duh.)

My sleeping schedule has been borked for over a week now. Vogon has been sleeping in the study since he was sick last weekend and I have trouble falling asleep in the master bedroom on my own. It baffles me because the idea of having an entire queen-size bed to myself is an amazing luxury, but I can't seem to fall asleep alone there unless I've run myself so down I start nodding off sitting up. I've been alternately running myself down like that, which I know isn't good for me, and sleeping on the couch, which irritates him. I think I'll start taking melatonin at bedtime again after vacation. For now, I'm sufficiently run down enough to sleep. 'Night.

The patch of psoriasis on my left arm has been a lot more frustrating than usual the past few weeks. It's not only increased in size, covering about a 3x4.5" oblong instead of its usual 3" circular shape, it's responding less to rich emollients and has been itching like a son of a gun -- scratching in my sleep bad.

Vogon told me I was welcome to try anything in the medicine cabinet, so I placed two medium (2x3") Spenco 2nd Skin Moist Burn Pads side by side, taped 'em down and wrapped my elbow unflexed to get the most benefit from the moist pads and holy crap, the relief was so intense it make me light-headed for a few seconds. I'd like to pick up some of the large moist burn pads later.

(I've used Spenco's other 2nd Skin products for years. Their sport dressing and blister pads are the best thing to happen to blisters since duct tape.)

The high pollen count lately has me feeling crummy and my psoriasis decided to get in on the act too, but this upcoming week is Laurel's spring break so I hope she'll enjoy sleeping in.

I'm looking for indoor activities we can do within walking distance this week. So far I've come up with drop-in playtime at our local Pump It Up and going to Nickelmania, but the latter may be rolled in with a den activity this week. (Can you tell we had a meeting this weekend?)

I was invited to a planning meeting for Laurel's school's Family Fun Night on Saturday. I think the lady planning it may have been briefed about me before we met, since I was asked to coordinate decorations.

Later on Saturday we stopped by Dallas North Aquarium, where I wanted to look at Bala sharks (Balantiocheilus melanopterus) and Vogon wanted to get more shrimp and plants for our freshwater tank. I think he's trying to tempt me into getting the saltwater tank in the living room going. If we keep going there, it won't be a hard sell. (:

After Laurel and I looked at the fish, we left Vogon to wait for his turn to get his picks bagged and went up front to see the cats and dogs Paws in the City had there. Laurel wanted to adopt them all, especially a little brown dachsund and a vision-impaired Husky/Shepherd mix from New Orleans (her picture and story are about halfway down their Adopt A Dog page), but we don't have a yard for a dog and Biko's a one-cat-household girlie so I distracted her from being upset that we can't adopt a pet right now by getting her to concentrate on threading a bill through the lid of their donation jar. Heh.

As the weather warms and I wear short-sleeve tops more often, friends and strangers alike will notice my psoriasis and ask me if it's contagious (it's not, although it does run in my family) and whether it hurts or itches (sometimes).

I like to catalog things, so here is a head-to-toe inventory of my psoriasis:

( Written on my skin, as it were. )

Yesterday was our birthday. caffeinediary, digitalusrex, greenisgood, tinder and I all reached our fifth fifth year, which I hope will be fruitful since I like square numbers. According to my Friends view, kafkadreams, storyofherlife and bugfish celebrated other-numbered birthdays as well.

Vogon took the midget and I to lunch at La Madeline, which was an interesting new experience (too noisy inside for my taste, especially with a cold) and I had a chocolate-filled éclair. That was good.

I found out later that afternoon that wanderingrogue, who I met last summer at a party ass_ hosted, was celebrating her birthday too, so I resolved to have another dessert for her. I had hoped to find some creme bruleé, but I wasn't quite brave enough to make it myself so I had some raspberry fudge from Knott's Berry Farm for her instead. Mmm.

I screwed up my birthday karma this year by spacing my sister's wedding anniversary, which I am now trying to absolve by finding something both tasteful and paper-related. Right now I am torn between two luxurious but practical items, so I hope Vogon's taste can help me decide that tonight.

As noted in past entries, my psoriasis was mostly in check before we went on vacation, but I forgot to pack the OTC treatments I was using in my bag. I've been alternately applying Psoriasin gel and Flexitol Heel Balm since getting home, but it's officially worse now. There were several clear breaks in the skin around my eyes today, so I've applied triple antibiotic ointment and am hoping for the best. It hurts to blink so much that I'd lie down and nap if Laurel had actually taken a nap today instead of playing quietly in her room.

On that note, we made a chart for the refrigerator marked with each time Laurel has to sleep before school starts. She puts a sticker over each number after she wakes up, so right now she could peek in and tell you she has to sleep nine more times (five nights and four naps) before the first day of school. It's helped a lot since "When do I go back to school?" seemed to be every other sentence from her after we finished school registration on Monday.

And since I forgot to blog it over the weekend, Biko ate people food for the first time in the several years she's lived with Vogon this weekend! After I finished a bowl of grilled peaches and ice cream, Biko was sniffing at the empty bowl so Vogon suggested I coat the back of the spoon in the mix of juice and melted ice cream in the bottom of the bowl and offer it to her to sniff (she sniffs the majority of what he and I eat at home). She sniffed it as I expected her to, then licked the back of the spoon clean. Weird.

Hashing out my travel journal from my notes and photos is taking longer than I expected; comment if you'd like to see something specific sooner. I've got the directory of photos that will eventually be a Gallery album down to 72 photos. I think that's a bit much, so I'm not looking at them for a few days, then I'll go back and hopefully pare them down further.

I'm still getting back on track from the usual side effects of vacation:
- I'm almost back in sync with local time after a week. I hope the extra sleep this weekend helped, too.
- After spending a few days taped up, my foot feels much better. I definitely wasn't thinking when I wore strappy heeled sandals to go out dancing our last night of vacation.
- My psoriasis flareup is slowly easing off after I used Psoriasin gel again. I took a 'before' picture this time so you can see what a difference it makes. (The flareup was partly due to me forgetting to pack the Flexitol Heel Balm. I don't know what else played into it, but I know it was more than that because I had patches show up on my arms, which I haven't seen in a long time.)

Today's moment of Zen: while Vogon was changing the water in the fishtank, the fish kept swimming up to the siphon hose and stopping it from draining when they got too close. Vogon finally resorted to gently smacking at the fish to shoo them away from the siphon hose, which we will now refer to as "smacking my fish up." [cue The Prodigy]

Susie Bright's recent entry Make Mine "Crappy" is funny. (NSFW if adult-content words are blocked, but it's not visually explicit.) After reading an erotica compilation, would you fill out the feedback survey at the end of the book to complain some of the stories were downright "smutty" (quotation marks the original author's)? Heh.

revme wrote a post for Owl-Stretching Time in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure last week that I found wildly entertaining.

I bookmarked the article "Training the Brain: Cognitive therapy as an alternative to ADHD drugs" in the latest issue of SciAm for future reference.

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I finally got around to preparing an update for the photos section of oddharmonic.org, which will now be going up in quarterly chunks (and I'll retroactively edit the older sections... eventually). I'm working on Q1 2005 as of this post.

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A swing and a hit with psoriasis treatments: Vogon picked up two products earlier this month I've tried, Psoriasin and Flexitol Heel Balm.

Psoriasin gel's active ingredient is 1.25% coal tar, smells like mothballs, and the combination of smell and burning sensation made my eyes water for several minutes after application. Vogon assured me that the patch I was applying it to looked like it was healing (he noticed a difference a few hours after the first application), but it hurt to use under my eyes and didn't appear to make any difference behind my ears.

Flexitol Heel Balm's active ingredient is 25% synthesized urea. It's in a lanolin base, so it smells like sheep (not a smell I mind, but others might). It stung slightly for a few minutes after application to the most sensitive parts of the psoriasis around my eyes, but a week later the plaques (scales) that I've been trying to beat back all year are gone except for a small patch below my left eyebrow that's been there for years. It healed up the cracks in Vogon's feet, too -- which is why he originally bought it.