Inflammatory Disorders X 3, Olux and Dovonex
from RMD

Hi Ed.  I've been browsing your site for a while now. I was reading about P and other autoimmune diseases and decided to write in.

I am 29 years old and have had P for 17 years. I’ve also have Rheumatoid arthritis and iritis (inflammation of the eyes) for about 25 years. I have found that when my eyes are inflamed, my P and my Arthritis are better. When my P is bad my eyes are better, etc. And the P first showed up about 3 months after a remission from arthritis and iritis. I am under care from 3 different doctors a derm, primary care, and eye doctor.  I wish there was one "inflammation" doctor that I could go to.

Anyway, for the P, I was prescribed Olux foam to use twice a day for 2 weeks and Dovonex to use at night forever. The results were great until I got lazy on the Dovonex, but it’s under control again.

Maybe somebody will find use of this information. –RMD

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Ed’s Response:  I hear you.  The more we learn about P and other malfunctions of the immune system — like inflammation in general — the more it seems our medical specializations need to be revisited. 

The other day I was prognosticating with a friend about the medical profession in the future.  I was arguing that medical specialties may be rearranged in less obvious ways:  Instead of skin doctors, bone doctors, foot doctors, etc. etc., we may have doctors that specialize in systems (which is happening in some respects already).  An “inflammation specialist” might be a subset of practitioners under some new order of “immunologists.”  (Mind you, the only thing that was missing from this conversation was the two of us seated at a bar enjoying several stiff drinks.)

My friend countered at one point by saying that he did not think the specializations would change; they would hang around because of tradition and entrenched thinking.  Just like we must now look up what the word “psoriasis” means and where it came from, someday we may have to do the same to understand why a certain kind of doctor is called a “urologist” and where that scatological name came from.  My friend went on to say it wouldn’t matter because the original reason for specialization won’t exist anymore.  He said specialization resulted from too much information for any “generalist” to keep up with, but that was before “information technology” meant all knowledge was ubiquitous to those who possess the passwords.

It made sense to me.  My GP decided it was time for me to take a blood pressure medication, not because of high blood pressure (I’m taking another drug for that) but because the drug was known to mitigate kidney damage done by diabetes, but any new drug poses a potential threat because I’m taking so many drugs prescribed by different physicians.  No problem.  He whipped out his Palm Pilot and poked away with his stylus.  When I asked he told me, “I have the drug interaction encyclopedia in here.”  That’s right, in his Palm Pilot.

The Olux/Dovonex combo therapy is catching on.  I hope your good luck continues — just don’t get lazy anymore!

Stay in touch, RMD.  -Ed

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