Getting My Mojo Back

Good Day Everyone,

I hope you've all had a great start to 2016. I am pleased to say that I am finally starting to feel like myself again. In fact, I feel like I'm getting my mojo back :o).

The last couple of months of 2015 were very difficult. My arthritis flared up severely and there were days where I felt like I couldn't carry on living with the excruciating pain I was experiencing. In addition, both my scalp and body psoriasis were also flaring and I was suffering from more migraines than usual, all whilst living in what felt like a building site! The despair that I felt at the end of 2015 was reminiscent of the despair I felt back at the end of 2011, when I made the difficult decision to give up my career so that I could work on my health full time. I felt like I was living under a dark grey cloud surrounded by a thick fog - I couldn't see where I was going, there was no shining light in the distance, and I could feel myself heading into a downward spiral of depression. If you've read my previous blog post (read here), you'll know that I slowly but surely started to take positive steps to move forward during the last few days of 2015.

Juicing again :o)

Over the past few weeks I have continued to make good progress with small positive changes to my daily life. I am now in a place where I'm starting to feel happy about my life again. My health is starting to improve and whilst I am still struggling with my arthritic shoulder, I have seen small improvements. I feel like I now have a better understanding of what I need to do to help my shoulder get better and accepting that it is going to be a long slow battle is easing my frustration.

Having a fully functioning kitchen has been a huge contributor to me getting my mojo back. I always feel better when I have greater control over what I eat, as I know from experience that what I eat greatly affects my arthritis. Living in a caravan for six months with a restrictive kitchen meant that we were eating foods that didn't take long to cook as the cooker wasn't particularly powerful, and foods that were convenient to store as we had a very small refrigerator. Basically, we lived of a lot of processed carbs like pasta and bread. We were eating some fruit and vegetables, but it wasn't as much as we would typically eat, and there were a few too many treats. My hubby is a sugar junkie and would often snack on chocolates and biscuits, whilst I relapsed on my crisp addiction (although to be fair, I think I was comfort eating as I was unhappy with my whole living in a caravan situation). Whilst hubby would burn of the calories from his vice due to all the physical work he was doing, I on the other hand, developed a rather rounded midsection due to my sedentary lifestyle ;o). However, all that is now changing. We have a fully equipped kitchen and a dining table with chairs, which means that we actually have something to sit on, other than our bed, and that has made the world of difference.

 Below are some of the steps that I have taken over the past few weeks that have resulted in me getting my mojo back;

• Exercising daily: I have made a conscious effort to get back into the routine of exercising daily. Exercising really helps with my arthritic pain and joint stiffness which in turn helps my mobility. Some days I will go for a brisk 40min sea front walk, other days I'll hula hoop or do yoga based stretching exercises at home if I'm too tired for a walk or if it's raining (which it has been a lot!).
• Baths: One of the side effects of suffering from chronic pain is insomnia so I am trying really hard to take regular bath soaks in the evenings to help me sleep better and help with my joint pain.
• Bedtime: To help with my insomnia, I am trying to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning, even on weekends, so that I can condition my body and mind into a sleep routine.
• Food: Now that we have a functioning kitchen, I am cooking from scratch and we are eating healthy, nutritious food again which makes me incredibly happy, oh and there are no crisps in the house! Breakfast toast is now replaced with smoothie bowls and we juice most days so I get a good chunk of anti-inflammatory ginger into my overly inflamed body.
• Cooking in bulk: Because I never know how bad my body is going to be from one day to the next, I have started to cook in bulk. I will often cook enough food to last us for two days and if it's freezable I will make enough so that a couple of batches can go in the freezer. This way there is healthy home cooked food in the fridge / freezer so that we don't resort to ready meals / takeaways. Plus, it means I don't have to cook every single day, meaning I can use that energy to write blog posts like this one :o).
• Medication application: To deal with my flaring scalp psoriasis I have resorted back to a routine of applying my scalp medication daily (read more here). This means having to wash my hair every single day which is an incredibly exhausting task when you suffer from chronic fatigue and exhaustion, but I am seeing such great improvements that it's keeping me motivated to continue. Hopefully, soon my hair will no longer look like someone has emptied a snow globe on it and I can temper the medication application down to just a couple of times a week. I am also doing the same with my body psoriasis.
• Drinking more: To help with my migraines I am making a conscious effort to drink more water. Aside from food / scent triggers, I know that being dehydrated can cause me to experience more migraines and lets just say that having to use a caravan toilet for six months wasn't the greatest incentive to drink more!
• Silence: This is slightly more on the meditative side but I am consciously taking time out of my day to simply be in silence. I sit without the radio or laptop on (we have no television and you can find out why here) and just listen. It is incredibly calming. Being surrounded by trees and public gardens mean we get a lot of birds around our house, especially at the back and sometimes I just stand and listen to / watch them. We also have squirrels at the back of our house and they are always fun to watch.
• Acceptance: I am actively accepting the things that I cannot change and learning to let go of the negative emotions they cause me to feel. One half of our house still looks like a building site and walking through it used to really upset me. The other half, whilst it's progressed significantly, it still isn't finished and not having a single room that is finished really grated on me, but no more. I have accepted that this house renovation is taking a lot longer than we ever anticipated and being upset about it doesn't actually change the situation. There's no point in wasting valuable energy in being upset. I just have to ride it out whilst appreciating all the things that are working, like the kitchen and having a regular toilet and bath. I am also accepting that getting my health back on track is going to be a long journey, but at least I am moving in the right direction now. 

Over the years that I've lived with Arthur (aka arthritis), I've been forced to learn (and accept) that things are just going to go at a much, much slower pace for me, compared to others. Having a mind that is fully functional, but a body that is not, causes a great deal of internal conflict and frustration. I have so many ideas of blog posts that I want to write, content that I'd like to create for my YouTube channel and photographs that I want to take, but alas I barely have enough energy to shower and cook most days. My life now is so different to before Arthur invaded my body. I often reminisce of when I used to have a career that led me to travel the world (well Europe and the US), work crazy hours and always be on the go socially. My world has shrunk so much, as has my identity, but nonetheless, I have learnt to treasure the days when I can cook and shower for I have experienced days when I haven't even been able to do that. Having an attitude of gratitude (and acceptance) is definitely key in learning to be happy whilst being chronically ill.


Love Sheen xxx

This Too Shall Pass

Good Day Everyone,

For the last few weeks I have been struggling more than usual with Arthur (aka arthritis). I don't know what's made him so angry that he's flared up this badly, but I do know that he's not happy and he's not shy in letting me know. One of the hardest things about living with this autoimmune disease is not knowing what my trigger is. If I knew what was causing my body to react in this manner then I could work to reduce, ideally eliminate it. As with most autoimmune diseases, the trigger could be anything from a chemical that I am exposed to which could be in my makeup, toiletries, food or environment to a genetic component or even stress... there is simply no knowing. And that is one of the most frustrating things.

The pain in my neck/spine, shoulders, collar bones and hip joints is driving me crazy. It leads to many sleepless nights and living with chronic pain is sooo much more difficult when you're constantly sleep deprived. Seriously, when I've had a decent night's sleep I'm like Mary Poppins on Pro Plus, the high is so great that I feel like I could conquer the world (even if in reality I'm still in bed by 8pm ;o)). The difference in my mood and personality is profound...just ask my hubby.

Its no wonder that people living with chronic pain and disease are more likely to suffer from depression. I know from experience how easy it is to fall into a downward spiral of depression, negative thoughts and self sabotage. The battle is not only physical but mental too. There's this little voice inside my head that questions the value of every good, yet difficult, thing that I do when doing it hasn't stopped this disease from progressing! It hurts to exercise but I need to exercise daily to maintain my mobility and flexibility because if I don't, my joints start to seize up and my movement becomes restricted even further. It takes an awful lot of mental strength and will power not to give into that voice and just spend my days lounging on the sofa in my pjs. It also takes a lot of (mental & physical) energy to be positive and happy when I'm in such severe pain.

Chronic ill health is like a full time job and more. I have to work at it constantly, every single day of the week. So even though I'm in pain and particularly fed up at the moment, I still work hard to eat as cleanly as possible, I still try to exercise daily, and I still try to actively manage my mental health. A positive mindset has a huge effect on one's physical health, and vice versa. I don't do all of this to make Arthur better, (although I live in hope), rather I do it to not make myself worse, to avoid that downward spiral that I feel is always calling my name.

Hope is something that I will never give up. After spending a decade of my life living with the most awful scalp psoriasis, fearing I'd never know what it is like to have a normal scalp again. Feeling complete and utter despair at having to spend hours each day treating and managing this affliction, I now have a scalp that is 95% clear. It took 10 years but I finally got there and that is why I will never give up hope... some things that we want so desperately do come to us, it just takes a while!

As well as hope and prayers, I also have certain motos/mantras that I remind myself of when going through a tough time such as the title of this blog post. I know from experience that bad times will pass, I just have to be patient. Time doesn't stand still for anyone so if things are bad, never give up hope because they will change... time will bring that change. Likewise, if things are good then treasure and value them because it could all change in the blink of an eye.

So in a bid to keep my sanity through this bad patch, I've been getting up each morning and going for a walk along the seafront. This not only forms part of my daily exercise but I find being outdoors very therapeutic. Seeing the morning sun glistening on the water with the birds chirping in the background is very calming. Everyday I notice different trees budding, new flowers blooming and that gets me excited for spring, it gets me excited for the change that I know is around the corner, it gets me excited for when I will feel better :o).

Love Sheen xxx

Living With Scalp Psoriasis

Good Day Everyone,

A quick disclaimer to say that I am not a medical professional and that you should not make any changes to your scalp psoriasis treatment without discussing it with your doctor first. Whilst I will be mentioning the treatments that I have tried, I am not recommending that you try them too. This is simply my personal experience of living with scalp psoriasis.

Today I wanted to follow up from my post about Living With (Body) Psoriasis and talk about my experience of living and dealing with scalp psoriasis. I have suffered from body psoriasis since the age of 17 and thankfully, even at its worst, it was never as bad as it could have been (although it felt really bad at the time) and I feel I got off pretty lightly compared to many people that suffer from this condition. However, scalp psoriasis was the complete opposite and I suffered extremely badly with this condition. I developed scalp psoriasis in my early 20s and it truly was the bane of my life! It totally ruled and dictated my life for way too many years and not in a good way!

Scalp psoriasis is the skin condition psoriasis but on your scalp (obviously). Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin condition in which the affected skin cells turnover at an abnormally high rate, resulting in the build up of skin plaques or scales which become very dry, itchy and crusty. Eventually these scales will peel / flake off, leaving behind very thin, red, sore layers of new skin the can easily break and bleed. It can be a very uncomfortable, even painful condition, which often leaves the sufferer feeling incredibly embarrassed and self conscious thus affecting sufferers emotionally, socially and psychologically, as well as physically.

For me, having this skin condition on my body was bad, but bearable as I could hide it with clothes, but when it spread to my scalp, it was so much worse because I have very dark brown / black hair. This means I constantly looked like I had severe dandruff. Every time I washed my hair, the scales of skin would soften and when I brushed my hair, the scales would start to peel and get caught in my long hair. I hardly ever went out after work as my evenings consisted of applying various smelly coal tar ointments and shampoos, leaving them on for a couple of hours, then washing them out. I would then spend the best part of an hour drying my hair and then picking each individual flake of skin out of my hair that had become loose. If there were any thick psoriasis patches on my scalp that felt like they were going to peel very soon, I would peel them using my nails (I know very gross!) just so that I could eliminate the possibility of them coming away from my scalp and sitting loosely in my hair whilst I was at work or out and about. By the time I finished, there would be so much skin on the floor that it looked like somebody had emptied a snow globe! I kid you not! But this was the price I was willing to pay to hide this embarrassing condition from as many people as I could. For years I never went on girly holidays or stayed over at a friend’s house because I didn't want them to find out about my scalp psoriasis.

Having scalp psoriasis was incredibly stressful because I found it much more difficult to conceal than my body psoriasis and it was much more time consuming to manage. Stress is known to make it worse and the worse it got the more stress it caused me - it became a vicious circle! . I felt incredibly embarrassed by the condition because I feared that if people could see flecks of skin in my hair they would think that I had dandruff, worst still, someone would realise that I have psoriasis. Whilst it’s not a contagious condition, not everybody knows that. I think I was also scared that people would think that my hair and scalp were not clean and that’s why I have this affliction. To avoid this embarrassment and humiliation I devoted most of my evenings to ‘clearing’ my scalp and hair of any signs of flaky skin. I also didn't get my hair cut for many years as I avoided going to the hairdressers (again due to embarrassment), although I have to say having short hair definitely makes it easier to deal with this affliction. This avoiding the hairdresser thing meant that the process of clearing my scalp took a long time as I’d have to peel flakes of skin from my scalp and pull it through the length of my hair. Sometimes the flakes of skin would be as large as say the size of a pea or even a cherry!

At its worst approximately 85% of my scalp was covered in psoriasis. It also spread from my scalp to behind my ears and the edges of my hair line (luckily it never spread to my forehead or face). This was the main reason why I never liked to tie my hair up but wearing my hair loose meant I had to spend ages clearing it of any sign of this damn disease – it felt like a no win situation.  When the majority of my scalp was covered in psoriasis I would have this constant tight sensation, like a ball made completely of elastic bands, all around my head. It was incredibly uncomfortable. There were times when I felt complete and utter despair but yet I never talked to anyone, not even my doctor, about how this condition was ruling my life. That is one of my biggest regrets :o(

By the time I developed scalp psoriasis I was no longer under the care of a dermatologist (skin specialist) but was instead seeing my GP (family doctor) for repeat prescriptions of various skin ointments as my body psoriasis had improved following light therapy. So it was my GP who prescribed various treatments for my scalp psoriasis. These mainly consisted of smelly shampoos / ointments. However, none of them seemed to work. I went back and forth to my GP a few times, but because I was so embarrassed by it all, I never took active control of my treatment (another one of my regrets). Also, I felt like my GP never really cared about my condition because he didn't ever ask me how it was affecting me, my life or making me feel and he didn't refer me to a specialist, he would just simply refer to his MIMS (medical drug list) and churn out another prescription. In hindsight, I wish I had pushed for a referral to the dermatologist, instead of going back and forth to the GP trying various ointments. It got to the stage where I was so disheartened that I just started to get a repeat prescription for whatever treatment the GP had prescribed and didn't even bother going to see the GP when I felt it wasn't working. I guess I had kind of accepted defeat and come to the realisation that I was stuck with this condition for the rest of my life! What also didn't help was the fact that I moved towns every few years (due to work) and didn't really build much of a rapport with any of my GPs.

I tried sooo many different treatments both prescription and non-prescription to treat my scalp psoriasis. Treatments I tried included, Neutrogena T/Gel Therapeutic Shampoo, Alphosyl shampoo, Elocon scalp lotion, Bettamousse, Diprosalic scalp application, various coal tar preparations and shampoos (these smell so bad), Dovonex... and the list continues. I've spent many nights sleeping with a towel on my pillow wearing a shower cap, hoping that this particular treatment will work, devoting all my time outside of work to trying to calm this disease down to a more manageable form. I even tried dandruff shampoos like Nizoral, even though it wasn't dandruff that I was suffering from, but I used them in the hope that they would relieve the itchiness. 

I've read lots of literature about how fish oils are thought to help with psoriasis, as well as eating a healthy diet, exercise and managing stress levels. For me, I've never been a big fish eater but I did start to take fish oil capsules. My diet has always been reasonably healthy being a lover of fruit and vegetables and not naturally having a sweet tooth. There are lots of theories about certain foods aggravating psoriasis and other foods which seem to be more beneficial and I will touch upon this in a future post that I plan to do. The part where I guess I struggled the most was managing my stress levels. When I look back at the times when my scalp psoriasis was at its worst these times typically correlated to stressful times in my life be it due to relationships, work, money worries, big life changes etc and I never used to be particularly good at managing my stress levels. The fact that I had a career which had me working long hours with lots of travel where I would often end up skipping meals and not getting time to relax and chill out didn't help either.

The turning point for me, came partly when I met my hubby and partly with age. With age came confidence and with confidence came inner strength that enabled me to take more control of my life and address the things that caused me stress. I changed jobs, I walked away from people and relationships that were doing me more harm than good. I also found ways to relax. I started to go for regular hot stone and Indian head massages that not only helped with my migraines but helped me to de-stress.  I started going for walks which I find mentally very calming and started replacing TV programmes with listening to relaxing music. I invested my time in relationships and friendships that I felt were more sincere and true, rather than trying to get along with everyone.

When my hubby and I first met, I never used to let him touch my hair (or come anywhere near it for that matter). I hid my affliction for as long as possible. When I did eventually tell him about my (scalp) psoriasis he was incredibly supportive and reassuring about it. Being in a positive, loving relationship did wonders for me. I finally felt like I had a best friend that was with me always, someone I could talk to about anything anytime. You see I’d never had that kind of closeness before. I've never been hugely close to my parents (as much as I love and respect them, I would rarely discuss my feelings with them), being the only girl, I never had that sisterly bond and I wasn't close to my brothers. Being with my hubby gave me immense peace of mind which in turn made a hugely positive difference to my stress levels and the way I dealt with stress. He was a much needed calming influence in my life.

The other thing that changed more recently (I’m talking the last 2-3yrs) was that I finally found a treatment regimen that seemed to work for my scalp psoriasis. Today, I still have scalp psoriasis, but only in about 10% of my scalp and it’s not particularly thick / built up - that I can live with!!! The treatment regimen that worked for me was using something called Cocois ointment which I apply to the affected areas of my scalp, leave it on for an hour or two and then wash it out using the medicated shampoo, Ceanel (followed by my regular shampoo and conditioner). Last year, once I’d given up work, I applied this treatment religiously almost every single day for about 5 months and it did wonders to calm and clear up a lot of my scalp psoriasis. Now I've got to the stage where I only need to apply 3-4 times a week. In Singapore I can buy the Cocois ointment without a prescription (in England it's a prescription treatment) but I've never been able to find the Ceanel shampoo so I always stock up when I go back home where I can buy it from Boots pharmacy without a prescription. I've never actually tried to wash out the Cocois ointment with just regular shampoo and if I'm honest I couldn't tell you whether it's the Cocois ointment that's working or the Ceanel shampoo or whether it's the combination of the two. I've always used the two together and that combination works for me.

In addition to the above combination, almost every Sunday I massage pure coconut oil onto my scalp and hair and leave it a for a few hours before washing it out. A lot of psoriasis treatments contain some form of coconut compound as it shown to help plus it’s a great natural treatment for your scalp and hair generally as it relieves itchy and flakiness. It’s also very nourishing for the hair and leaves mine very silky, shiny and smooth. I've also been going to the same hairdresser for the last ten years or so who knows that I suffer from scalp psoriasis and is incredibly reassuring about it so I never feel embarrassed. If a hairdresser makes you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about your scalp psoriasis then take your money and spend it elsewhere.  Call up a hairdresser and explain over the phone about your scalp psoriasis and if they are reassuring about it then go for it but if they don’t even know what it is then I’d recommend staying clear of them.

Whilst things are the best they've ever been on the scalp psoriasis side of things, I’m pretty convinced that this improvement isn't just down to finding the right treatment regime for me but also other aspects of my life. It maybe that previous treatments didn't work for me because I had so many other factors that were aggravating my scalp psoriasis, like working crazy hours, not getting enough rest, being stressed and always worrying about things. Perhaps those treatments never had a chance until all the other factors calmed down. Nowadays, if I get stressed my scalp psoriasis (more so than my body psoriasis) does start to spread and flare up again as I find new patches forming. When this happens I make a more concerted effort to manage my stress levels, eat and drink more healthily and follow the above treatment regimen more strictly and regularly.

If you suffer from scalp (or body) psoriasis then my advice to you would be not to suffer in silence like I did for I would never want anyone to feel that kind of complete and utter despair. Make sure you seek medical advice. Go and see your GP / specialists and talk to them about how it’s affecting your life and making you feel. If your treatment isn't working then go back to see your doctor again and again, as many times as you need to. As well as the medical side of things, try to evaluate and pinpoint what aspects of your life might be contributing to your psoriasis. Managing stress levels was a huge thing for me and stress is known to make psoriasis worse. Look at your diet, do you need to take fish oil supplements which are known to help, do you get enough sleep and time to rest and chill out. Do you have someone to talk to? Bottling things up will only cause you stress. Believe it or not, you can be stressed without actually realising you are stressed – I can’t remember which doctor told me this but he/she said that you may think you’re not stressed and that you have nothing to worry but you could actually be ‘subconsciously’ stressed where your mind is refusing to let you acknowledge or admit to yourself that there is in fact something worrying you because you will then have to deal with it. It’s sort of like mental denial.

Below are some links to websites and organisations that you could turn to for support and advice and you know that you are more than welcome to drop me an email if you just need to talk to somebody who understands what it’s like to live with this affliction. Whatever you do, please don’t suffer in silence because I’m sure there’s something out there that can help you in some way, even when you think nothing is ever going to work.

Love Sheen xxx

Online community of psoriasis sufferers:

http://www.inspire.com/groups/talk-psoriasis

http://www.psoriasispatients.com/home.php

In the UK, channel 4’s Embarrassing Illnesses series feature scalp psoriasis:

http://www.channel4embarrassingillnesses.com/conditions/scalp-psoriasis/

UK: https://www.psoriasis-association.org.uk/

UK: http://www.psoriasis-help.org.uk/

US: http://www.psoriasis.org/in-your-area

Singapore: http://www.psoriasis.org.sg/

Living With...

Good Day Everyone,

After my mini-series of ‘DIY Wedding’, I've decided to write about another mini-series based upon my personal experience. This one is going to be called ‘Living With...’ and in each post I’m going to write about my experience of living with the three chronic health conditions that I suffer from;

1. Migraines
2. Psoriasis (scalp and body)
3. Psoriatic Arthritis (including psoriatic nails)

I appreciate that this may not be of interest or relevant to all of you but I think that could be said for any post (and as this is my blog I guess I can write about whatever I like ;o)). I want to put my experience out there in case there’s anyone else that suffers from any of these conditions who wants to connect with / hear from someone that can understand what they’re going through.

I've never really had anyone to talk to who also suffers from the same health conditions as me, or rather, it may simply be the case that there is someone in my life who does suffer from one (or more) of these conditions but I just don’t know about it. You see, until a few years ago, I never used to feel comfortable talking about my conditions, not even to my friends, because I was so incredibly embarrassed by them, especially my psoriasis. I spent the best part of 10 years trying to hide my scalp psoriasis from the world as I was so ashamed of it, like it was some dirty secret. So I guess if I felt like that then it’s possible that others may feel that way too.

So you may be wondering what changed? Why am I all of a sudden willing to talk about it? Well, first of all, with age comes confidence and with confidence I've grown to be more comfortable in my own skin. I no longer care whether people know what I suffer from or not. Nowadays I don’t care if people I meet stare at my deformed fingers or discoloured nails or the psoriasis patches on my elbows. I no longer go out of my way to hide what I suffer from, partly because some things like my fingers and nails can’t be hidden but primarily because I’m comfortable with who I am and what I have.

Aside from confidence, I learnt to put things in to perspective because what I suffer from, as terrible and painful as it is at times, it isn't likely to kill me. This is quite a recent achievement because I did use to have a lot of thoughts along the lines of ‘Why me?’, ‘What am I being punished for?’ etc etc but then when I saw people I knew go through health issues that could kill them, it kind of put mine into perspective. For a while I swung the other way, thinking ‘Well why not me?’, ‘What’s so special about me that means I shouldn't suffer?’ or ‘If someone has to have this damn disease then why not me?’. Now I don’t have any of those thoughts, not the ‘Why me?’ or the ‘Why not me?’, now I just accept it for what it is and try to deal with it as best as I can – acceptance of things for what they are is something else that I've learnt to do recently and it’s amazing how much inner peace that has brought me. Acceptance doesn't mean that I've given up or that I’m not going to try to improve things, it simply means that I've re-focused that energy and voice in my head that was always asking ‘why’ towards a more constructive direction.

I've also redefined my definition of true beauty. To me, true beauty is no longer about what the eye can see but what the heart feels. This is not an easy concept given the superficiality of the world we live in and how ‘beauty’ is defined in our society. It’s certainly not a concept that I as a teenager or even in my early 20s would have got my head around. I wish I had because I might have been a happier person. In my 20s I spent so much time hiding any physical signs of my psoriasis that I missed out on a lot of 'living'. My psoriasis and arthritis may affect how I look, my outer beauty so to speak, but it doesn't change who I am as a person and it doesn't change the way I can make people feel or the way people can make me feel.

Over the last couple of years I've taken ‘active’ control of my health conditions. I must admit, this was primarily forced upon me with the move to Singapore and dealing with a completely different type of healthcare system. In addition, towards the end of 2011 I hit my lowest point ever regarding my health and realised that I could no longer carry on with the way things were and had to take control. One of my biggest regrets of my 20s was not taking active control of my scalp psoriasis and just letting my GPs (family doctors) fob me off with one treatment after another that made no difference and I eventually just gave up hope, hope of ever getting better. Looking back now, I know I should have been more proactive – hindsight’s a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Finally, I guess the other significant thing that changed was that I met my darling hubby and he gives  me so much support and encouragement and makes me feel beautiful despite my scaly skin, discoloured nails, wonky fingers and that really does work wonders ... for me, my confidence, my self esteem and especially my emotional health. Unconditional love and support can do amazing things!

So there you have it, those are some of the things that did change and I’m sure there are others but I’ll cover those in my posts on each condition over the coming weeks. For those of you not interested in this mini-series, don't despair there will be my regular mish mash of posts alongside this mini-series.

Apologies that this is quite a text heavy post and I imagine the ‘Living With ...’ posts that will follow will also be text heavy but I’ll try to include the odd pretty picture in there ;o)

Love Sheen xxx

Sunset on Langkawi island (Malaysia)

Sunset on Langkawi island (Malaysia)