Dovobet Therapy Disappointing
from Vix

Hi Ed.  I thought I'd update you on my progress with Dovobet — good & bad.  [See Dovobet in England –Ed]

Well, most of the big patches have cleared up, unfortunately they seem to have broken up into small patches and distributed themselves around, so I now have P in places I never had (or wanted) it!

I've gone back to the good old Polytar shampoo & my scalp P is at last calming down thank god.

And to top it all I think I've had my first bout of PA: my right knee & 1 knuckle on right hand have been very red, stiff and swollen, but are calming down now.  I'm loathe to go to my GP 'cuz he suggested Methotrexate when I was only 2% covered.  Believes on hitting it hard this Doc!  Oh yeah, while we're on the subject of my Doctor, I've got one for your 'don't say this' section: Doc to me - Psoriasis doesn't itch.  Me to Doc - Have you got Psoriasis?  Doc: No.  Me: Well how the bloody hell would you know?   (Doctor sheepishly prints off yet another prescription.)

I don't suppose you have any idea when Enbrel or Amevive will be making their way to the UK? This is really beginning to get me down! –Vix

*****

Ed’s Response:  By my reckoning, Vix, you’ve been using Dovobet for 7 to 8 months now [based on posting linked above].  Am I right?  Surely that’s enough time for you to assess just how your case is going to respond to this medication.  Rearranging the lesions is not my idea of a satisfactory outcome.

You so remind me of myself in the early 1990s, when my P was still in its “emerging phase” and I was combating it — but perhaps helping it along — by trying different meds and therapies in my desperation.  I ended up concluding that when P is in its “emerging phase” it’s most resistant to most treatments. 

It’s as though your P were saying to you, “I know I’m making you uncomfortable, but before you kick me out, please let me show you the full measure of what I have in mind....”  Rather like a stubborn interior decorator.  You slag around the house behind this person, weeping bitter tears inside while she rips down old curtains and puts up pastel-colored miniblinds, pastes gaudy sea-shell patterned border paper beneath the ceiling on your walls, strips one room down to bare wood and cold brick and accents it with a single concrete park bench she bought at art prices because it functions like a tea table and says “I like this just like this, let’s not add another thing!” and in another place after showing a thousand grimaces blurts out “Do we really think this wall is necessary?  No, we don’t, do we.”  When we can, we say things we think are dissuasive:  “I’m rather low on funds right now.... My mate hates border paper.... My mother made those curtains.... Isn’t that an old park bench? etc.”  To no avail.  Yes, P in its “emerging phase” is rather like that.  And we’ll pay interior decorator prices fighting it, too, before all’s said and done.

In my case, P finally stopped emerging.  Whether it would have done this without any palliative measures on my part, I’ll never know.  Fact is, I did carry on an active fight since the initial diagnosis, and I still fight.  Now, though, it’s been several years since anything “new.” in terms of my P symptoms, has emerged. 

I surfed to a few web sites in an attempt to find information on biologic drugs for P under consideration in the U.K. and was unsuccessful.  But mine wasn’t a thorough search.  You might want to get in touch with a psoriasis organization in your part of the world and ask them if permissions for these drugs are in process (remember that the counter names Amevive, Enbrel, are probably U.S. only names for alefacept and etanercept, respectively).  If you do obtain information, please let us know, too.

As always, Vix, it’s a delight to hear from you.  –Ed

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