April. A.K.A. Spring ‘99.

Where I live they're forecasting the worst allergy season of the decade. Pollen and mold counts are already breaking records. My kids and grand-kids are already starting to suffer. My normal spring P-flare got upstaged this year by an unanticipated end-of-winter flare that's still hanging on. What's P got to do with climate-related allergies? That's a good question.

My P's proper diagnosis was probably delayed by a year because the initial docs I went to thought my skin rashes and lesions were allergic reactions. I thought they were, too. This was probably one case of the patient misleading the doctor. The deal was, I had just moved from Colorado to Kentucky. All my doctors were new. All they knew about my history of skin problems is what I told them. I hadn't been to an allergist or dermatologist since the 1970s. But back then I had inexplicable rashes that would come and go, lesions that would come and go (much quicker than typical psoriasis lesions) and we were all convinced this was allergy-related skin trouble. I took prescription antihistamines and, for awhile, hyposensitization shots, and the rashes and the lesions quieted down. Diagnosis validated!

Never mind that in ‘89, when my scalp erupted, and in ‘90, when my face erupted, it was all slightly different than anything I had experienced before. In Colorado my allergies had been moderately active, but I was told central Kentucky, which is at the bottom of the Ohio Valley, is one of the worst allergy-aggravating climates in the country. I braced myself. And (sure enough) there came the scalp explosion, then the face explosion. Why should I be surprised? Yes, Docs, this is all allergies.

About a year later, after I was properly diagnosed a flaker, all that really changed was the treatments. Where I had been taking "allergy medicine," now I was taking "psoriasis medicine." All the allergy stuff had been systemic (taken orally or by injection) but all the P-stuff, at least initially, was topical. Everybody simply stopped talking about my allergies and started talking about my P.

I've had eight allergy seasons here in central Kentucky, and this spring marks my ninth. I haven't been to see a doc at all about my allergies (knock on wood). I've occasionally gotten stuffed up, watery eyes, or what have you, and purchased OTC stuff that quieted whatever right down. Nine years ago I would have been taking something additional for my allergies, something intended to palliate my skin symptoms. But now we know those are all psoriasis problems, so we don't broach them in the allergy camp any more.

It's as though psoriasis has superceded my allergies. Or, I always had a sort of psoriasis but it was never diagnosed before ‘90.... Or, psoriasis is a kind of allergy and everybody is lying about it.... Or.... (Ah, Ah, Ahhh, Ahhhhhhh CHewwwww!) -Ed

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