My South African story

25 Oct 2022

By Gadija Adams

My name is Gadija Adams. I am 41 years of age and have suffered from psoriasis over the last 5 years.

I thought that after my Caesarian section, the skin irritation at the folds of my skin at my lower stomach area and my panty line area were due to overweightness or a fungal infection. It was most irritable at night and the itchiness became so unbearable I just kept scratching myself open. I then had my last baby who was born prematurely and developed a red patch behind her head. As she grew older, the red patch just became scaly and itchy and after trying numerous creams and ointments, a specialist informed me that it could be psoriasis. I then met up with someone who had the same symptoms, and I used the virgin coconut oil and pure natural products until my baby grew to 3 years old and the dryness and itchiness stopped. Things are much better for her. However, I must buy cortisone creams, coconut oil and dovate creams to maintain my psoriasis. Not being on medical aid and not being able to take off to sit at a day hospital as I would like to treat this, I find it extremely difficult to control the stress I have with my psoriasis. I started smoking during Covid due to the financial and other stresses that came during the hard days of Covid. My smoking went from 2 to 3 a day to 10 if not 15 a day. I didn’t realise that this as well has added stress and impacts on your psoriasis. Not being able to go to a specialist or having it treated correctly, my psoriasis spread from a small 50c size by my C- section cut to an area of 15cm diameter area. My inverse psoriasis by my panty line and upper thigh/lower buttocks area also became worse and I have scratched myself open a few times so I constantly use coconut oil and aloe vera gel to keep the inflammation down. When I get paid, I then buy some dovate cream or a cheap antifungal cream too just to tame it a little. However, it doesn’t go away. I find that the more I stress and the more I smoke, it just doesn’t help me either. So this feels like a constant skin battle I have that I must deal with for the rest of my life.

So my combination of aloe vera gel, coconut oil and antifungal cream with dovate cream seems to work. I also belong to the psoriasis support group chat on WhatsApp that gives really good advise and people share their personal experiences so I don’t feel bad for what I experience. I even met a kind gentleman in this group who shared his prescribed cream with me to help my inflammation at one stage when I was really bad. My skin is not as scaly as it usually is and it appears to be clearing up but not really gone. If I stop using any of these creams, it starts again and the scratching until it opens starts as well. I really wish there is something I can use to just remove the skin disease so and avoid it from spreading so far. There probably is something but unfortunately, I won’t be able to afford it due to financial reasons.

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