Middle Age

This is part 3 of the narrative around my disease development. Links to my childhood, young adult, and disease development during menopause as well as a bullet list of the disease progression and where I fall in the generational family history of this disease.

Psoriasis

It wasn’t until I saw a new dermatologist in 2011 that I really got help for my Psoriasis. The most obvious recommendation was the easiest…I stopped using soap! Psoriasis is your skin replenishing at 4 times the natural rate so, in some ways, you don’t need soap because you are exfoliating enough!

My dermatologist recommended no bleach on my underwear and to avoid synthetic underwear (now you are getting the picture as to why my psoriasis was not visible to the public). All these things helped, and I was gradually able to get psoriasis under control without steroids. While recovering from foot surgery in 2018 I tried Borage Oil applied directly to my skin and that seemed to provide some relief as well.

Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

The first blessing in stumbling towards my diagnoses was that my kids wanted me to go on a trip with them to Africa, to a place where there would not be running water or toilets. It was the mental preparation for this trip that made me realize I had abnormal bowel movements. It had become my normal, but the realization that I might not be able to travel with my kids made me start my search for a solution. I started with a gastrointestinal disease specialist. We tested me for lactose, sucrose, glucose, gluten and all turned up unremarkable. He was ready to call me Diarrhea Predominant IBS but was willing to do one more test if I was able to pay for it. I had met my deductible, so I said yes and got my first clear diagnosis.

I had Bacterial Overgrowth, which is now referred to as SIBO.

Believe it or not, I wasn’t able to find much on this in 2011. He had no idea how it could have happened and in his professional experience, he mostly saw this in patients who had a bacterium introduced into their system via surgery or something like that. A simple antibiotic of Xifaxan got rid of diarrhea in a matter of days. At that time, his advice was to keep an extra prescription of Xifaxan on hand and to take it when chronic diarrhea returned.

Pelvic Pressure

As I reflect on this period in my life, I notice another symptom that was a constant in my life until I changed my diet. Around age 40 I was told that I had a uterine prolapse. The doctor that told me that thought I should have a hysterectomy. I got a 2nd opinion and I STILL have my uterus almost 15 years later. But what I think is relevant to psoriatic arthritis is that I felt constant pressure on my pelvic floor. I thought it was possibly the uterine prolapse, but now I believe it was the bad gut bacteria run amuck. Pelvic floor pressure was a constant in my life as far back as I can remember. It kept me from wearing tampons in the early days, it may have contributed to my hemorrhoids during pregnancy, but the amazing thing is I do not feel it now (in my 50s) and I think it is because my gut bacteria has changed.

The First Supplements

Coincidentally, my general practitioner had noticed low TSH results for several years and she decided it was time to get me under the care of an Endocrinologist. The Endocrinologist couldn’t explain the low TSH (T3 and T4 and other thyroid markers were fine) but she did discover that I was low in B12 and Vitamin D.

The gastroenterologist also recommended low dose iron supplements to restore my iron levels. I was constantly chewing on ice and that should have been a big flag that I was low in iron, but no one caught the connection.

I didn’t know it at the time but was enjoying a brief period of stability and what might have seemed like an ending was just the beginning.