The journey to a correct psoriasis diagnosis has been a long one, but one that has made me appreciate what people with skin diseases can go through.
I was living in America when I started seeing the first signs of psoriasis in 2004 when the skin on my wrists and scalp began to flake off. I went to the doctor who told me I had ringworm, although I was sceptical as I had never seen ringworm like this in Africa. The ringworm diagnosis traumatised me – I was living with relatives and had to take extra care to ensure that I didn’t give it to them.
I finally received the diagnosis of psoriasis a month later, but by then the ringworm medication caused the skin on my whole body to flake – I was no longer brown but yellow. The peeling skin led to an infection on my legs and I had to beg for antibiotics to treat it.
I was given medicine, but the ointments to treat my psoriasis stained my clothing: I had to buy a lot of clothes and throw them away when they got too greasy.
Now I am slightly better and am able to live a normal life with psoriasis but people do not understand when I say I have a skin problem called psoriasis because they don’t see it. I cover up with clothing when it gets worse.
I want people to know more about the disease and what a person with psoriasis has to face when they don’t know anything about the disease. I want to be involved because I have gone through a lot of unnecessary pain and now when I look back, I think if I had known more about my condition I would have not been so traumatised by the whole experience.
