Psoriasis

Savannah has always had dry skin, ever since she was little.  She's been to the dermatologist more times than I can count, and has been on steroid creams on and off for years.  Usually it's her feet that are dry and cracked.  She has had cracks so deep that she has gotten infection and had to use antibiotics to clear up the infection.  We've tried every lotion and cream there is.  Earlier this year her lips started cracking and peeling and we had to get a special lip balm that has a low dose of steroids.  Then her scalp started to build up really thick dandruff.  We bought every dandruff shampoo we could find.  But when she would scrub her head in the shower, her scalp would bleed as she scraped off the dead skin.  I decided it was time to go back to the dermatologist again to see if they had a stronger dandruff shampoo she could use.  The dr took one look at her scalp and said, "I don't think this is dandruff, I think it is Psoriasis."  My heart sank at those words.  It was the diagnosis that I had suspected was coming for years, but one that I was dreading.  Psoriasis runs in Scott's family, I and knew it was hereditary.  The doctor explained that we would need to do a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis (medications can get really expensive and insurance will only cover them if there s a proven diagnosis).  So we scheduled Savannah's biopsy.  They took a chunk of her scalp to send off to be tested, and then cauterized the cut.

It looked pretty good right after they did it, but that night it was looking a little more sore.

 The next day.

After a week.

Eventually her scalp healed.  But then we got the call saying that the biopsy confirmed that it is Psoriasis.   We had already scheduled a follow up visit in June, and they said they would talk to us about treatment options when we came in for that appointment.  In the meantime, they gave her a steroid solution to use on her scalp.  After a couple weeks of using that, her scalp cleared up.

When we got the call saying that it was Psoriasis, I apologized to Savannah for passing on crummy genes to her.  Then we ordered the $90 swimsuit that she'd had her eye on that I had been putting off buying because it was so expensive.  I told Scott that if we were going to pass on a life long autoimmune disease to her, the least we could do was buy her something special.  And a sweet friend in our ward brought Savannah some yummy ice cream to help cheer Savannah up.