Seeing in color

This is Monday and I started the Celexa last Friday. Although I don't feel it has improved my mood at all, I have been sleeping which is so wonderful by itself. When you can't sleep and you haven't slept, its like you look at the world in black and white. You see everything in front of you but you're not experiencing the full effect of life. When you finally get the sleep you have been deprived from it's like seeing the world in color for the first time. Yes My mood is still depressed but I have only been on this medication for a very short time. I need to give it a chance to bring my mood up. If it doesn't, Ill have to let my doctor know I need something better than this.

Tonight I have to fast and tomorrow I go into town to have my blood drawn for cholesterol, A1C, Thyroid and whatever else she wanted to check on me. I have been controlling my diabetes with diet but the last A1C test I had was a 7. I need to bring that down a little so I need to be on medication again for it. Its a big deal in the way I don't like taking medications at all. But I realize I need to if I want to get healthy again.

On a lighter side, tomorrow is my husband's 41st birthday! For the next 2 months I can rub it in that he is older than me. My birthday is rapidly coming though this November. I hate getting older! Oh well I guess its part of the whole cycle of life. He doesn't know it but I'm throwing him a surprise party. He thinks we are just going out to eat with his parents but his whole family is going to be there, it will really give him a 'pick me up' and put a smile on his face. He deserves it. Last year on his 40th birthday we were in a crappy Motel 6 in Waco Texas. We had to evacuate the day before for a hurricane. In fact we evacuated twice that week because of hurricanes and it was part of the reason we decided to move to Michigan, besides that he is from here and his family still resides here. So today Ive been just tidying up the house here and there. I painted a butterfly and some flowers on the new mailbox. We have to put a new one up because the snowplow hit the one that's up this last winter and just recently the door decided to fall half off lol.

Alright well I better get off of here to finish my other blog and then continue getting the house ready. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

A new day

Well today is a new day. After my doctor appointment yesterday I was well... rather upset. I wanted to be on a different anti depressant than what I was put on. I cried last night. I talked to my mom on the phone, I miss her so much. I listened to what my mom had to say. Then I had the rest of the night to think about things. I'm going to give this medicine a chance to work. Even though I have been on much stronger in my past, this is what the doctor chose so I'm going to give it a couple of weeks and if it doesn't help things or doesn't at least help my sleeping situation like she said it would, Ill tell her I want to try something different. So for now, I'm on the weakest off all antidepressants. She also didn't give me Xanax, she gave me Ativan instead which I didn't do any research on Ativan and when I had my panic attack last night I didn't take the Ativan for it because I didn't know anything about it and therefore didn't take it, I just rode the attack out, all 3 hours of it. I have to have blood work done on Monday. I couldn't do it yesterday because I have to fast for one of the tests, cholesterol, so instead of drawing blood for my thyroid and A1C test on one day and cholesterol on another, they're doing it all Monday. So Sunday Ill be fasting and have my blood drawn Monday. I see the doctor in 2 weeks, on the 16th I think, Ill have to double check that though, it may be the 18th. Then I should have all the medications I need. At this point anyway. Unless of course she makes me continue the antidepressant to give it more time. But if it doesn't help my sleeping... OK I think I went over that already.

So last night I was able to get a little bit more sleep than I have in the last 2 weeks but I did wake up 4 times. We were supposed to go to a graduation party for my son-in-law but being on the new med, not sleeping well and just the way I'm feeling in general, we felt it wasn't the best idea for us to go. Its a 2 hour drive one way, then a ton of people I don't know and a whole bunch of children, I just don't think I could deal with that today. Plus I have this major headache which I don't know if its caused from the medication or just one of those things. I do feel bad because my step daughter is upset with us now for not coming. But I hope in time she will understand why we didn't.

Well on another note, its just another rainy icky day outside today. It was cold yesterday, cold enough for sweatshirts and long pants. Yes its summer in Northern Michigan. Today its chilly enough we are sort of bundled up and I'm thinking about what type of soup Ill make for dinner. Maybe Ill make cream of potato but I'm also thinking of making Saturday soup too. But cream of potato sounds so good doesn't it? Well whatever I decide to make for dinner Ill be sure to post it on Kel's Kitchen along with the recipe for you. The link to Kel's Kitchen is on this blog, you should check it out sometime.

Well I hope everyone has a good day today. Im off to find something to do and maybe grab a snack before getting dressed and going to the store. Until next time...

New doctor!

I FINALLY got myself a new doctor! I am so relieved! I have to give praises to God today because this is something that I desperately needed to happen. So my appointment is on Friday, I'm so excited, I need to get on medication for my diabetes, thyroid and half a dozen other things lol Plus I am going to ask whether or not she can try to manage my psoriasis instead of my derm because my derm is just good for about nothing. She prescribes me a couple topicals and is like, go on your way. I want to have my vitamins checked too and I think I might have a chronic sinus infection, if not I have really really bad allergies and maybe I can get a script for that too because the OTC stuff just isn't doing it. In fact the Zyrtec I took plugged my sinus's up so badly I couldn't breathe. I thought it was just allergies but when I took the pill the next day they plugged right up again. So needless to say I'm not taking them anymore. I need something better.

So today is a good day! I'm thinking of making something for dinner that involves pork chops... Going to have to dig through my magic box and find a recipe :)

I hope everyone has a great day!

Continuing forward

I have one faithful follower on my blogs and I have 4 of them. I just realized I failed at doing something. I failed to put the "Subscribe to" button on here ugh!

I had started to think, well maybe my blog really isn't that good. Maybe the thoughts that come rushing through my little head are just simple ramblings from a madwoman. No, I just forgot to make it complete. I was going to give the blog up until I noticed that today. Maybe Ill get some followers now.

Anyhoot, I have had the biggest headache today. I did sleep ALL NIGHT in my own bed though yay! Ive been having some panic attacks during my sleeping hours and bouts of insomnia so it was really nice when I woke up to find myself still in bed! :) I still have not heard back from that doctors office. If I don't hear from them by tomorrow afternoon I'm going to call them again. I sent my application to them over a week ago so I know they should have it by now. If they don't tell me by Friday Ill drive to their office and ask them in person lol maybe they will get the point that I NEED to see a doctor right now, not next month.

I have another eye exam on the 31st, just a checkup to see how the surgery went from last month. I know as we get older we get tiny floaters in our eyes. But lately Ive been noticing some in my good eye. Not a lot like my left eye (I have retinopathy in my left eye) but I seem to have one tiny spot that's annoying the crud out of me. I just want him to take a look, even though the retina specialist looked last month too.

Almighty, you all have a great day and please Subscribe now that I have a button for it! LOL Ill subscribe back too!

Going for the visit

So my husbands brother is going to their parents house and were going down to take our nephew Ian back home so figured we would visit.

Anyway, we always love it when our nephew comes to visit. My sister in law actually has five children, but its the middle one we have somehow connected with the most. The oldest two kids, in their teens, have singing clubs and church functions theyre involved in and summer is just so busy for them. Theyre wonderful kids to get to know, if they could slow down for five seconds lol then the youngest two arent so busy but arent quite self sufficient yet. So until Ian gets to the age he is doing singing clubs and church clubs, we get to spend a lot of time with him. He is a breath of fresh air really. I cant tell you how much enjoyment my husband gets from playing video games with him. Plus hes laid back, sort of quiet, hes so much like us. He's been here for a week and it will be sad to take him home but they only live a couple of hours away and he comes up to stay pretty often.

So I better get to bed, have a long drive tomorrow. Hope you all have a great day!

And the tire saga continues!

So we went through going to get the new used tire 30 miles from us and he got it put onto my van. At this point I've needed to go to the grocery store since Saturday so we loaded up into the van and pulled out of the garage. I say to my husband, "the steering wheel is still jerking". He says no its not, its the road (I guess my saying this irritated him) so I pulled onto the "smooth" road and let go of the steering wheel. It jerked back and forth. This is the third bad tire and now I'm not letting him forget that I did not want these tires, he did. After having a couple of words with each other over it I finally said, "it's my van, it's my call and my choice from now on and I'm getting new tires on my van this week". So next time I'm in town I'm going to go get a couple of new tires on it so that all the tires he got from his dad are off my van.

Husbands, I ask you to LISTEN to your wives. Listen to what they say. They may not be "men" they may not be "mechanics" but we are very smart and if you listen you just might learn something. You are the brawn, WE are the brains, take us seriously! That's all I have for today :)

Men and used tires grrr!

So this is the story which started about a month ago. We had old tires on our van, but they were decent enough to get us another 4 or 5 months as little as I drive. Well you know men, my husband just didn't like those tires at all, oh no, I had to have new USED tires!

So we're at his dads house and he asks his dad about used tires. All the while Im saying, just wait and we will buy all new tires. His dad has 4 used tires that he took off of his pickup because "they're not any good anymore" = THEY ARE BAD. Hello!!! This is your indication that the tires aren't good anymore dear! So against my protesting he has the tires put onto my van.

On the way home, yes ON THE WAY HOME, the cables in one of the tires give out and we still have another 80 miles to drive on a now very bad and dangerous tire. The tire is so bad at this point, its rocking us back and forth. If you have ever seen those childrens toys its a clown car with wobbly wheels, you pull it on a string behind you, THIS is what our car looked like! My arms ached so bad when we got home. Then the next day we have to call all over the countryside to find another used tire because our old ones didnt come home with us, oh no, they stayed at the other tire place. So we finally get another used tire put on.

So the month goes by, I really dont drive that much at all unless its to pick up groceries or go to a doctor appointment. The reunion was this last weekend and we went to that, had a good time and lots of fun.

On the way home... SIGH! The same thing happens to another tire. Except this one is worse, but we spend the whole trip home wobbling like a clown car, not being able to go over 50 mph. Then we get about 10 miles from the house and it stats falling apart and let me tell you, at this point I am very unhappy with the situation. I have to drive 30 mph for the next 7 miles, then the tread comes loose on half the tire and Im driving 20 mph the last 2 miles. Get the car into the garage go in the house GAH this is saturday night, no one is going to be able to do anything until Monday (today).

So today Im calling around all over the countryside AGAIN to find another used tire to put on until we can buy all new tires. Apparently they dont make the same tire that my husband had put on my van anymore. Like they DONT MAKE THAT TIRE ANYMORE *head smack*. I had to find out what was comparable to it and then search for used one. Well I finally found a guy who has a tire. Of course its 30 miles one direction from us, but hey, when you live in the middle of nowhere you drive 30 miles for used tires. So my dear sweet husband who I do love very much is on his way to get another used tire.

If men would just listen! Why is it they think we are dumb? I used to work on cars all the time with my dad and with friends, I took shop in high school because it was where all the cute guys with hot cars were at... He should listen to me :)

Moral of the story? The woman is going to be right so just go with the flow, listen to your wife to begin with and you wont have to go through all this trouble!

Into the calm again

Well we have had a very busy couple of days. Yesterday we had our yearly family reunion. As usual it was tons of fun. It's so nice to get to see the people in your family that you don't see everyday. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews who come from far away places and even some near places too. We eat and talk, the kids play games and even the adults too! We have an auction each year where we bid on things we have grabbed from here and there. I spent $21.00 this year! Got myself a vase with hand painted flowers, water globes to water plants, a blue lava lamp, a Christmas photo album and some friendships bracelets one of the cousins made. We have the auction each year and use the money to pay for the next reunion... pay for the pavilion, for food and so on. Its a pretty cool idea :)

I had a lot of fun. It was fun for Dennis too but it was very hard on him physically. He tried being in the swimming pool afterward but it proved to be too painful and hard on him. He did end up sitting on the edge and occasionally putting his feet into the water when the kids weren't near him and allowing them to splash him now and then. When we got home he was exhausted though. He took his pain medication and he said it just wasn't cutting it for him tonight so when he dozed off on the couch I allowed him to just sleep for a while thinking that might help him and I think it may have. When I woke him up he went on to bed, was just in general a rough day for him.

One of our nephews, Ian came home with us for a week. He enjoys coming up and we love having him with us and being able to spend time with us. Dennis' kids are grown, well almost and I couldn't have children so in a way its almost like having a kid for a few days.

I thought I was having a flare with my psoriasis yesterday possibly from the pool but today I'm nearly 100% better. This disorder is proving to be a pain in the butt!

Oh look at this! I went out to the garden when I let the dogs out this morning and found my tomato's are FINALLY turning red! I only had 2 cherry tomato's that were ripe for picking, had I left them on they wouldn't be good in another day or two so I plucked them off. Waiting for Dennis to wake up this morning to let him try one with me. It better not be sour I'll be mad! lol




Pretty big for cherry tomato's huh? They'll taste good anyway! :) Well I have a few things planned for today so I better get on with it! I hope you all have a wonderful day and that you enjoyed the read today! :)

So happy today!

Today was my 9th wedding anniversary. Im so happy! I'm as in love today as I was 13 yrs ago when I met him and 9 yrs ago then I married him. He is my everything. He holds me together at the seams.

Thats us!

We met when we were both truck drivers in a small truck stop in Georgia. When I first saw him I was like "Holy crap that guy's hot!" lol He left, but he returned after a few minutes and proceeded to spend the next 5 hours picking on me for being a "rookie" driver. (A rookie is someone who's been driving less than a year.) So the next day came and we ended up having breakfast together. The next weekend we both ended up laid over in the same place again. Same for the following weekend and every weekend after that for 3 months and finally we decided to just team up together. He stopped hauling houses and came to haul freight with me.

Spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with someone can be pretty hard sometimes. It doesn't matter how much you love someone when you're in a 8x10 foot area for every waking moment of your day. Most couples spend 6 or so hours a day today during the week. Try 24 hours! But you get through things, work out any issues, hang in there for the long haul. I have been to every state in the US except Hawaii and Alaska, been to Canada and Mexico with him. I've seen things being held in his arms that most people could only wish to see in their lifetime.

Without him I am nothing, held together only by his undying love for me. He is my best friend. My soul mate. My world.

I am so glad I married him. He has made my life incredible. Absolutely incredible! If I could give you one piece of advice, I'll tell you what my parents told me when I got married. Never go to bed mad. Always give your spouse a kiss and tell them how much you love them. Doesn't matter who's wrong or right, it only matters they know how you feel.


So with that being said, here are some pictures from out trip to Manistee Mi today :)

This is in the Manistee National Forest, it's so beautiful!

Pretty neighborhood decoration on a round a bout.

Uh yea, must be nice to be so rich you have to park your yacht out back of your house!

Manistee Lighthouse. It wasn't as big as I had thought it would be.

Manistee lighthouse just after sunset.

The lighthouse is on a long cement pier. It even has ladders so if you fall in you can climb out!

I love watching the sunset. Its so hard to get good color in pictures on my camera!

I could have just stayed here all night too, but then the bugs came. lol

Quack quack! I love duckies!

You could see the bottom nearly all the way out to the end of the pier. I love the patterns the water makes in the sand with the current.

I'm telling you I would move just so I could hang out here everyday.

I love beach grass, it's just so pretty.

Manistee Mi Elevation 606 ft. I learned something today!

Just a weather worn bench on the beach I thought was cool looking.

Last but not least my all time favorite sign in the state of Michigan! However, I've never seen a bear here!

Well that's all for now. Be good to each other, whoever you are :)

Im very happy today!

Today is my 9th wedding anniversary!! I'm very happy and I'll update later tonight or tomorrow on where we went to celebrate :)

My first Kitchen post tonight

Tonight Ill be cooking Mom's Corned Beef Casserole and posting it on my kitchen blog. It's a recipe my mom made as I grew up. It was a recipe that she created herself and I will even be posting photos as I go along so I'm quite nervous! I don't even know if anyone will notice it. I don't know if anyone has noticed this one with exception to my one follower, which by the way you might really like the recipe I'm going to be posting, for your family. I love it when I was young, still do!

Well I'm off to go grab some fresh ingredients from the store so I can get home and start cooking!

My garden

This year I decided to have a garden. In my garden I would have cucumbers, beans, tomatos, corn, potato's and bell peppers. Righttttt! lol My corn grew some, it still has a couple months to go. The tomatos, well you can see in the pics they're actually doing quite well. I have 3 types of tomatos. But everything else just didn't seem to do anything. My bell pepper plants are alive, but no fruit on them at all. Besides those 3 the others just didn't grow at all. Well this only has me more determined to have a fabulous garden next year. Oh I almost forgot the onions! I did plant onions thinking they wouldn't grow and I cant believe it but they're growing!


I planted Big Boys, cherry and big yellows. The cherry tomatos really have taken off like wild fire! They're super tall, I had to put stakes in to keep them from laying on the ground. They have tons of tomatos on the plants too.


I am going to have to find me a good sauce recipe. I want stew some and make sauce with some for canning. Since my cucumbers too a dive, I'm going to be buying pickling cucumbers and canning some homemade sweet and dill pickles. I'm also going to buy string beans and pickle some of those too. If anyone has any good recipes please feel free to leave them in the comments.

I'm already starting to think of ways to make a better garden next spring. One thing is Ill be starting some of the plants way ahead of time, indoors. Ill also be buying some plants, so I don't have all of one vegetable not come up. I'm going to have built raised beds, probably a foot off the ground and Ill have dirt brought in for filling them in. I dont want to fight with the grass and weeds and I think this will be one way I can avoid that.

I honestly don't think this is a bad first attempt. I cant hardly wait for the first ones to be ripe enough to pick :) So how many of you keep gardens? Does anyone even read this? lol

Long day today!

We drove down to the middle of Michigan for my husbands grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. Spent most of the day down there, it was so crowded!

I got to thinking about 60 yrs of being married. The average marriage these days lasts about 3-5 yrs and then people throw in the towel. It got me wondering about whether it was real love, soul mates or was it just that people from their day and age just didn't get divorced? People get divorced for many different reasons of course, but Ive never met anyone who was married for that long. My parents have been married for 48 yrs and my dad was married before he met my mother. Theirs was the longest I had known until I got married. I think it's incredible to spend that many years with someone.

For me, I know I found my soul mate, although I would love to lock him in a closet on occasion and forget he's there lol But all in all he's been a great husband. Loving, caring, supportive, all the things a good husband is supposed to be. I was married twice before I met my husband. Long story short, husband #1, married too young, he was abusive, I made it out alive. Husband #2 thought I was trying to not have children when I actually had cancer and didn't know it, he left me for a stripper who turned out to be a drug addict and now she has the kid and he pays for her drugs (child support). This is my husbands second marriage. He was unhappily married for 10 yrs and decided in the end that having children was not a good enough reason to stay in misery and they divorced. Age was a factor for them, he was 17 and she 18 when they got married.

It just seems that people give up on marriage so easily. Sometimes there are other circumstances that prove you should get divorced, everyone has a reason, but Ive seen friends give up after just a couple of years. For superficial reasons at that. Had they stuck it out, they could have become a perfectly happy couple together for the rest of their lives, who knows? They sure wont, they gave up.

So in the end I'm left with a question to ponder over. What factor is it that makes a marriage work out and last a lifetime? I may never know the answer to that. I don't know that anyone really has the answer.

People are so frustrating...

I honestly believe that Michigan is a different country. I have been going in circles with my doctors office for the last 5 months now, trying to get a female physician. For some unknown reason, when people who have the health program I have, go to this doctors office, which has 12 doctors, you only get to see the one. Well, I don't want to see him again. Hes an ogre. Literally. Hes like 7 foot tall, about 350 lbs, his hair is unkempt, his clothes disheveled and sloppy, this guy is a walking nightmare. It doesn't help that I have a problem with male doctors either. The thing is, this office could put me with anyone but they refuse to. The health plan I'm on allows me to go to anyone who will accept it. This is mean I could see a female doctor in one of their other offices! Its a special circumstance case and they just aren't trying to work with me at all. Besides this guys appearance, he is a moron. He took one look at my hands and told me I did not have psoriasis. Which I DO have and was diagnosed with having psoriasis by a dermatologist. Hes a physicians assistant. Also, I'm very concerned about the fact that I have diabetes and I haven't been on medication, just controlling it with diet. I did take medication at one time but I had bad side effects from it and stopped taking it. That was several years ago now. Anyway when I tried talking to him about my diabetes he didn't seem to really want to hear about it. He had not ran any tests and had not done a a1c test to check my 3 month average. He tells me he will give me a script for Metformin and I tell him I wont take it because that's the drug that gave me all the side effects. So he leaves the room and comes back, hands me a few samples of Actos and a script for that. Hellooooooo! He hasn't done any tests and has no idea if this medication would be good for me or if the dosage is going to be right! He literally could put me into a diabetic coma just giving me medication without checking me. Besides the fact that with my medical history this medication would be bad for me to try taking. So I ask him, aren't you going to check my a1c? He says yes but you can take this until we get the results. Um NO! So I leave. I'm mad as all get out. I walk across the building to have my blood drawn. Almost 2 weeks later he calls me and says "I got your test results back and well, YOU'RE A DIABETIC". O M G I swear this is exactly what the guy said to me. I said Um yea, I know, that's why I came to talk to you. What was my a1c number? He says "I don't have your records in front of me right now but I can get your file and call you back". So I ask about my thyroid, he says he didn't have that checked. I said to him that was one of the reasons I came to him, because I need a refill on my thyroid medication and I haven't had it checked it a while. Gah! So I get off the phone because I'm just so mad at this point I want to reach through the phone and rip the guys head off his body. He calls me back 3 days later. 3 days... it took him 3 days to get my file and call me back! He says, that my a1c is fine. I'm thinking, alright, I know I try to control it with my diet but whats my number? So I ask him, whats my a1c number? He says "I don't have your file right in front of me but if I remember right I think it was about a 6" OMG! I just go completely off on him. This guy says he is a professional but hes unable to give me my a1c, hes unable to get my file and put it in front of him and unable to give me answers to my questions. What kind of a PA is this guy?? Did he even go through any type of medical school, medical training at all?? Im think this guy did his training in the toy department at Wal-Mart.

I've had panic attacks in the past. Nothing major, I had one in 1999, one in 2000 and maybe 2 others between then and the first of this year. But this year I have been under much more stress than normal. Ive been dealing with a lot of things with my husband and his health care, my own health care for my psoriasis, moving to what seems to be a different country, its been rough and lately Ive been having panic attacks fairly often. Maybe once a week from February to July and in July 2-4 per week. Usually when I'm going to bed trying to fall asleep and bam, panic attack. It's a horrible feeling having a panic attack and feeling like something horrible is just about to happen to you and knowing its all in your head and yet not being able to control it. I end up having to sit up in bed until I calm down and get tired enough to doze off or I get out of bed all together. Well today, I had a bad panic attack. I sat up in bed, I tried to calm myself down. I keep repeating in my thoughts, this will pass, this will go away. Its not stopping. I get out of bed and go to the living room, sit on the couch, turn the tv on and try to relax. Its just not working. I'm so upset I start to cry. So I go get a washcloth, get it wet, sit back down and watch tv. Eventually the feeling subsides and I fall asleep, on the couch. I wake up 5 hours later and oh my goodness I have a headache so bad it feels like my head is being compressed in a vice. I get migraines every now and then, but this wasn't a migraine, this was just a very bad headache. 6 Tylenol and 6 hours later its just now going away.

Well this brings me to today. I NEED to find a doctor I can feel comfortable with. This stupid health program is terrible as in most doctors don't want to accept it. The program is meant for people who have no health insurance but have an income and don't qualify for medicaid. Funny how things works out sometimes. Anyway, I've been trying to find a different doctor, a female because I'm more comfortable. Its bad enough I'm limited with who I can go to, its worse that anyone would not be given a choice whether to see a male or female doctor.

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), also called complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), is a chronic, painful, and progressive neurological condition that affects the skin, muscles, joints, and bones. The syndrome usually develops in an injured limb, such as a broken leg, or following surgery.

My PPPP Story (PalmoPlantar Pustular Psoriasis)

Pustular (pronounced Pus-tew-ler) psoriasis is an uncommon, but potentially very serious type of psoriasis. There are two main types of Pustular Psoriasis: Generalized and Localized. If it widespread over the body it is referred to as Generalized Pustular Psoriasis; if it is limited to just one part of the body, it is referred to as Localized Pustular Psoriasis. There are two types of Localized Pustular Psoriasis: Acropustulosis, which occurs only on the tips of the fingers, and Palmo-plantar pustulosis, which only occurs on the palms of hands and/or the soles of feet.

Palmo-Plantar Pustular Psoriasis

In general, Palmo-Plantar Pustulosis is localized to the palms of hands and/or soles of feet. It normally occurs in people between 20 and 60 years old, may be triggered by infection and/or stress. It has also been found to affect females more than males. As with Generalized Pustular Psoriasis, Palmo-Plantar Pustulosis occurs in a cyclical pattern, with new pustules occurring after a period of low-to-no activity.

How is Palmo-Plantar Pustulosis treated?

Palmo-Plantar Pustulosis often proves stubborn to treat. Topical treatments, such as corticosteroids, are usually prescribed first. PUVA, acitretin (Soriatane), methotrexate or cyclosporine (Neoral) sometimes must be used to clear this form. Combination treatment with PUVA and Soriatane (called RePUVA) may also be effective.

Notice that doesn't say "Cured". It only says "treated" because there is not yet a cure. I believe one day there WILL be a cure but until then, thousands of sufferers can only treat their psoriasis. Some will get their psoriasis to go into remission. Others like myself, battle it on a day by day basis.


My psoriasis story.

About 5 years ago I noticed that I had half a dozen small red spots and peeling skin on the soles of both feet. I thought it had something to do with my diabetes to be honest and since it didn't really give me any trouble I just kept putting moisturizer on my feet and ignored it. Not really a smart thing to do not just because I'm a diabetic but because when anything is going on with your body you should have it checked out by your physician.

So after moving with my husband to northern Michigan from Louisiana I came down with the flu, then I had bronchitis followed by the flu again and finally I ended up in the ER room with a case of strep throat. I had been running a fever of about 101 for 3 days at the time. The doctor gave me a shot of penicillin and although they couldn't get my fever to come down they sent me on my way. I ran that fever for another 2 days before it finally broke. That's when my PPPP went wild. At the time I had no idea what it was.

Well maybe 3 days later I start having little blisters pop up on the palms of my feet and hands. I'm like well this is weird and kind of painful. So everyone in my family says oh yea that's hoof n mouth, I'm like the COW disease? lol ok yes they're country folk. Anyway I end up going to the ER Room again where they tell me they think its Coxsackie Virus, (also called hoof and mouth which made me laugh) gives me an anti itch pill because at this point its really starting to itch, I go home, take the pill, fall asleep, wake up, OMG its worse. Like these blisters overnight completely covered the palms of my hands. There were blisters on top of blisters, skin is getting thick, old blisters turning dark red and I am freaking out.... FREAKING OUT! To make things really bad the anti itch pill which was Atarax. The only thing that pill did was make me sleep constantly.

So I go to the dr, my insurance doesn't cover a dermatologist, and he says, "I don't think its Coxsackie or it would be getting better not worse, I think its such and such Eczema (sp?) I'm like ok dry skin you're kidding right? So he gives me some steroid pills to take, alike a 5 day treatment to get the swelling down because my fingers looked like they were going to pop and a medium duty anti itch cream for the itching. Well the swelling came down dramatically, I only occasionally itch, but then my skin was thick like leather, my hands looked like they were rotting, literally, and new blisters coming up on top of the leathery skin which already still had blisters.

Anyway, I start talking to my brother after someone says something stupid to me "Oh that looks like Leprosy" lol Talk about freaking me out... he gets to looking on the web and finds pictures that look exactly like whats on my hands and they are pictures of palmo-plantar pustular psoriasis. NOW I'm freaking out. I frantically search the web, all I can find out? It cannot be cured. You get it you get stuck with it and your life is slowly taken over and ruined by it.... niceeeee! Just wonderful!

For 4 days I couldn't even pick up a glass to take a drink using my hands and now I'm thinking I have to live this way? So I finally find a wonderful website, The National Psoriasis Foundation. What did I find there? I found that no one there is freaking out as much as I am, so it cant be the end of the world if this is what I have.

So I go to the doctor again. He looks at it and says "No thats not PPPP that's coxsackie I'm positive." He gives me a script for some steroid cream and sends me on my way. At this point this had been going on for almost a month. I'm no fool, I knew there was something else going on and not what this doctor was suggesting.

I end up a week later at Urgent Care. The doctor looks and says he thinks that this is eczema and gives me Presidone 60mg a day for 7 days and a medium duty steroid cream to slather on twice a day. I clear up. Completely. But about 6 days later the blisters start coming back. So I go back to Urgent Care because at least that doctor made me feel he wanted to help. Well he is there but not working so he talked to the doctor who was on duty and she turned out to be very nice, very caring. She tells me that it 'could be Coxsackie' but she thought it looked like possible psoriasis. She gives me a super potent steroid topical. This worked great, although I havent been clear since I took the Presidone. She also went beyond what she needed to do and found a dermatologist who accepted my insurance.

Well I went to the dermatologist. I don't like her. But she diagnosed me right away with PPPP. She gives me a script for Halobetasol ointment which is a super potent steroid and sends me home.

I can only use steroids for 2 weeks at a time due to problems that can occur from it getting into the bloodstream and into my liver and kidneys. Occasionally you'll find me ranting and raving about how I'm feeling. That's part of why I decided to blog here. Although the National Psoriasis Foundation is a wonderful site for information and socializing, its a bit heavy with censorship. You'll know when I post things on my blog that I can't post on NPF's site lol Other than censorship, they're a great place and I recommend you checking them out if you have psoriasis.

That's all for now, sleep well!

Lets get started!

Well I don't think this blog is going to write itself so I guess Ill get started. How did I get here? (Explanation of the bat photo will follow lol)

Well, I'm 40 years old, I live in northern Michigan with my husband, 2 dogs and a cat. For the last 15 yrs Ive lived in Louisiana so this is sort of like culture shock. Especially with this crazy weather. They keep telling me its summer here but I keep having to put on a hoody and stay in long pants due to the chilly air. When we got here it was at the beginning of February and 3 feet of snow on the ground. Incidentally I ended up getting sick back to back for the next couple of months and it made my PPPP (psoriasis) go crazy which is another story all in itself. The snow finally stopped and warmer weather did come. We had 4 really hot days that even required use of air conditioning! Then it went away and its been cool ever since.

I don't know how much I really like living here. I'm definitely homesick. My grandfather passed away just one week after I left and I still feel guilty about not being there even though I spent a lot of time with him the days just before leaving. My parents are still in the south and I miss them so much. Ive always been a momma's girl lol

We had a bat incident the other night. We were sitting in the living room minding our own business, doing things on our computers when all of the sudden my husband says very calmly "Oh there's a bird". At first I didn't know what he was talking about and then I noticed this large dark bird like thing coming towards us. I'm thinking 'how did a bird get in? Did it break a window? Whats a bird doing flying around at 2 in the morning?' Then my husband yells "No its a bat!" Well, this changes EVERYTHING... Every living creature on the planet has a natural instinct called 'Fight or Flight'. I'm one of those who only have the 'Flight' part of this instinct. I commence to go into a pure panic. I start screaming, I'm trying to push my computer out of my way for a different path to safety all the while trying to duck down so the bat wont attack me. The dogs have no idea what in the world is going on and they both high tail it to the bedroom. Yea a lot of good those 2 would do if I was being attacked. My cat, he runs under the couch he's just terrified at this point. Im still screaming at the top of my lungs. My husband... omg my poor husband, who uses crutches due to RSD, I'm not even thinking about him, my ONLY thoughts at this point are BAT and OUTSIDE IS SAFE! lol I stumble trip my way to the door and go out onto the porch. My husband asks "What in the world are you doing?" I say, "I'm getting the hell out of dodge! What are YOU doing?" lol Well I end up having to go back inside, I dug the cat out from under the couch. Poor thing, I'm pretty sure he used one of his lives getting under there. I lock all the animals in the bedroom and I go back onto the porch where my husband now is. We look at each other and we're like 'what now?' lol So we end up calling a cousin who's wife works for a vet and they come over to catch the bat. My husband and I are still on the porch peering through the screen door and listening to our cousins who are now on the stairwell with blankets trying to catch this evil little bat. I hear him say "Oh look how cute he is" followed by "Ahhhhh" and a thump. lol They did in fact catch the bat in a blanket and brought it outside where we let it fly back off into the night. Then our cousins say "We only had 2 bats in 3 yrs that we lived in this house." ONLY 2 bats? ONLY 2 BATS?!? lol one is more than enough thank you very much.

So anyway, that was exciting. Now I'm back to doing crafty stuff. I'd currently doing some sewing. I've stopped going to my favorite forum which is yet another story for another day. I'm really enjoying some of the blogs I've found on here. I hope that someone, even if just one, enjoys mine as well. I will be tracking my Psoriasis on here. I will give updates on how my novel is coming along (another story for another day!). I will in general just update about life and life in Michigan.

Have a great day!