Did I mention that I have gutate psoraisis? I ended up diagnosing myself, after the 3rd all over my body breakout in sores. My sores looked more like red dry spots and I itched all over. I am not going to go into the full history, but what has happened in the past several weeks.
I woke up the Wednesday after Thanksgiving with extremely swollen hands. I could not bend my fingers at all. At first I though both my hands were asleep. As the day wore on, they got no better. I had been taking a statin two times a week and they are known to wreak havoc on your ligaments, so I thought maybe they had caused me to have carpe tunnel. I know I am probably exaggerating or making non-medical suppositions, but just my first thoughts. I called the doctor and he told me to stop taking them for a few weeks, see if my hand swelling subsides, take some Advil if there is any pain, and then start the statins up again and see if they swell up again.
Well, I took some Advil thinking it would help with the inflammation, but it did nothing. Also note, I drink at least 80 oz of water a day. So, I ditched the Advil an subsequent days because no reason to pump NSAIDS into my organs when they don’t work anyway.
I found that using some ice at night on my hands before I went to bed helped a bit in the morning. I also put my hands under my infrared heating pad. Nothing really worked.
I had read several years ago that psoriasis can morph into arthritic psoriasis and although I did not bother to Google this til today, I see the photos of some of the hands match what mine look like.
At almost two weeks into this, I went to red light therapy on a Tuesday and Thursday. The machine says it is full body, but it is a bed that is really only the front. So on that Friday, I went to another facility and did a full body red and infrared light therapy standing up for 20 minutes.
I didn’t mention that I was itching really bad all over my body and this time the psoriasis decided to attach my scalp, my ears, my face and chest. It would not be visible, then I would start to itch all over, then I could see the spots flare. At this time, I decided to try to add the cryo therapy and combine it with the red and infrared full body.
So, almost 3 weeks in, on the Monday, my hands, wrists and arms were inching into the 8 of 10 pain level. Before this, as the day would go on, the swelling would subside a bit and if I bent my fingers into the best fist I could do, my knuckles would be uncomfortable or a bit of pain there. I had already booked appointment to try the the cryo machine for 3 minutes at around -150F. The tech told me that it was developed in Japan in the 70s to help with rheumatoid arthritis with amazing results. I was hopeful it’d help with my issues. Immediately afterwards, I stood in the full body red and infrared light therapy. No change on that day. On Tuesday, I felt like my legs were heavy and later that day, both of my hamstrings started to cramp so bad I was screaming. Turns out, even though I had been drinking water, I needed to drink even more because the humidity level here at the moment is 10% or less, and it is cold outside too. Then, I woke up on Wednesday, and my hands were less swollen. My wrists are a bit achy but I had a tremendous, all over headache. And I had an appointment with my network spinal doctor so I went and while there, my headache subsided. Then it came back. So, I took two Advil because it appeared I was headed for a migraine, which I rarely even get headaches but know these symptoms from when I was pregnant. About 40 minutes later, I felt so good! I had not felt that good in three weeks!
Update about a seven weeks later: Been consistently going to a combo of -211 Frigid Cryo and Red Light/Infrared at least 2x a week. First time I could fit my rings on my fingers on both hands. My fingers are still not super happy to be straightened all the way, but the swelling is down significantly, even when I wake up in the morning. I haven’t had the aches and pains in my hands, wrists and going up my arms either. I’ve also been trying to make sure I drink at least 80 ounces of water a day. I have not taken any pain medications since I had the headache mentioned earlier. My psoriasis flares along my face, neck and ears is a lot less than it has been but I am not as itchy as I was before.
