Health
The advice you need
COVID-19 brought my skin problem back
Michelle Waldridge, 38, Felixstowe
True-life CASEBOOK PATIENT
I leant toward the mirror to scrutinise my face before school.
Couldn’t resist picking at the flaky skin on my forehead.
‘Stop scratching,’ my mum Lin, then 35, said. But it was impossible. It was 2000, I was 15, and the skin around my eyes had recently become flaky and red. ‘It’s itchy,’ I groaned. Embarrassing, too. In lessons, I shrank into my seat every time a thick, white flake of skin came away from my scalp.
‘It’s psoriasis,’ the doctor explained.
Prescribed me steroid cream to reduce the itch, and a special shampoo.
‘It runs in the family,’ my dad Steve, then 36, said.
Despite my skin, I passed my GCSEs – but psoriasis became my annoying sidekick. Stuck with me into my 20s. Then, in June 2009, while doing DIY, I felt exhausted. Could barely lift a paint roller without having to rest.
The following April, I woke up with swollen fingers, ankles and feet.
The more I researched, I realised the swelling could be linked to psoriasis.
‘Go to the doctor,’ my partner Will, then 25, said.
Three months later, I was referred to rheumatology and diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis.
My psoriasis was causing inflammation in my joints. ‘I’m too young to have arthritis,’ I said in despair.
We were planning to start a family, so docs prescribed steroids as they were the safest option for pregnancy.
In November 2011 I gave birth to our first child, then had our second child in September 2015. From then on, I was prescribed immunosuppressants before changing to a biologic medication made from living microorganisms, plants or animal cells.
After years of trial and error, my arthritis symptoms virtually vanished.
My psoriasis flare-ups became rare, too, and I mana
