P Statistics and a Sole Story
from Mike B.

Hi, Ed and all:  There's various things I've seen here lately I'd meant to comment on, but I never seem to get to them.  And here we are almost into another month's update — unless, of course, Ed needs a breather and holds off for another bi-monthly one.  One of these days I really will get that application in to Procrastinators Anonymous, I swear! <g>

There was a question raised two (maybe three?) updates ago, about whether P seemed to be more common these days — I went looking in the archives, but couldn't for the life of me remember the title, or who posted it.

Ed (and maybe others) can probably provide a better handle on this from the medical angle, but I suspect that at least partly, the answer is not really, it's just that more cases are being reported.  Sort of the same effect as the "massive" increase in things like teenage pregnancies and certain kinds of diseases and crimes.  There may have been some real increase but the main difference is they're being reported more accurately and openly.

It's possible, too, that diagnosis is better now — but I'm under the impression that diagnosis of P, at least in my lifetime, has been pretty straight-forward even if docs often don't know how to even guess at trying to treat it.

(Segue to ...)

I'm not sure if this falls into “Jargon,” or if it's just an interesting observation I don't recall seeing here before.

By way of background, I've had that incredibly thick, almost armor-plate, buildup under my heels and toes that (at least in my case) typically accompanies a flare-up.  In the past, when I was hospitalized it would at some point decide it was ready to come off, and did so in almost a single solid piece, sort of like a leather sock.  This time was the result of the flare-up after coming off the Anti-CD11a last year, and for whatever reason it never did come off clean as it has in the past.

Anyway, apparently it's finally giving in, and is starting to show cracks and loose edges.  With those edges, when I walk on the carpet there's a fascinating human-Velcro effect, complete with very realistic sound effects <g>.

Best to all, -Mike B.

*****

Ed’s Response:  I’m inclined to agree that stats indicating a growing percentage of the population with P may suggest, instead, a growing awareness of P.  Heaven knows the derms themselves are often not confident in their diagnoses, so there are probably hundreds of thousands of people sporting lesions that wax and wane and are never identified as P.

I’ve had the psoriatic callus build-up on my feet several times, once severe enough to send me to a podiatrist who used scalpel and electric sander to grind my hide back down to a skin-like finish.  I’ve never had the huge pieces separate slowly like you describe — though from your language I can see how the process might be quite delicious (not in the gastro-intestinal sense, but in that sense only a flaker in the peeling stage can understand).  I have had several large chunks come away after being worried by my fingernails for a few hours.  One of these looked so like a guitar pick I was compelled to save it.  It still dwells in a desk drawer.  Every now and then I check to see if it’s hardened to a state where I might dare try plucking something with it.  (I think it’s going to require a polymer topcoat before it will finally achieve its purpose....  Lord.  I can’t believe I’m actually confessing this.)

So when you walk around the carpet with your psoriatic sole in the sloughing stage you tend to crackle like Velcro being pulled apart.  That is an image, Mike, that’s worth more than a moment’s contemplation.  Thanks for it!  -Ed

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