I’m always looking for ways to soothe my psoriasis at home. Although psoriasis is no laughing matter, there have been a handful of times when attempting to treat my disease at home has gone hilariously wrong.
Check out these times in my life where I had to laugh to keep from crying about my life with psoriasis.
It was 2010, a few months before my wedding. Psoriasis covered 90 percent of my body at the time. One of my biggest fears was having to walk down the aisle covered in scaly, dry, and itchy deep brown plaques.
I was working at a call center, and one of my coworkers shared that she also lived with psoriasis. I was whining to her about the stress I faced while planning my wedding and dealing with psoriasis. My dream was to be psoriasis-free for my wedding.
She told me about a product that did wonders for her psoriasis with daily use. She said it was expensive, but I should try it. I told her due to the costs of my wedding and with everything else I had going on, I wouldn’t be able to buy it.
A few days later, she surprised me with the secret psoriasis concoction. For some reason, she had the product stashed neatly in a McDonald’s bag. I took my newfound hope home and placed it on the dining room table.
The next evening, I was ready to try my new psoriasis potion. I went to grab the McDonald’s bag with the product in it, and it wasn’t where I left it. I immediately bit my lip in an attempt to hold back my tears, and my heart began racing as if I was in a 50-yard dash. I felt consumed by panic.
I went to my fiancé, who was in the other room, and asked him if he’d seen the McDonald’s bag that was sitting on the table. He said, “Yeah, I was cleaning up yesterday. I threw it away.”
The tears I’d been holding back rushed down my face. I went to the kitchen and frantically began to search through the trash can.
My fiancé, still unaware of what was wrong, told me he took the trash bag to the dumpster. I broke down crying and explained to him why I was so upset over what was in the bag. He apologized and asked me to stop crying.
The next thing I knew, he was out in the neighborhood dumpster digging through the trash looking for that McDonald’s bag. I felt so bad, but at the same time, it was hilarious.
Unfortunately, he didn’t find the bag and he came back smelling like hot garbage. But I still thought it was sweet that he went to those great lengths in an attempt to retrieve my lotion.
A few years ago, many of my friends with psoriasis were telling me to use a mixture of olive oil, honey, and beeswax to help soothe my symptoms. Beeswax and honey have anti-inflammatory properties, which can help tame psoriasis flare-ups.
So, I found a YouTube video that provided instructions on how to combine the products. I melted the wax and combined it with the honey and olive oil. Then, I chilled it in a clear container in the refrigerator.
I wanted to show my results off in a video to share on YouTube. But when I grabbed the mixture from the fridge, the three ingredients had separated within the container. The honey and olive oil were at the bottom of the container, and the beeswax was solid on the top.
The beeswax was so stiff that I could hardly move it at all. I pressed down on it several times, but it stayed in place.
Still, I set up my camera, hit record, and began my review on the failed mixture. As a way to prove how solid and unusable the mixture was, I opened the container and turned it upside down.
Within a second, the thick wax slid out of the container, and the honey and olive oil followed — right onto my laptop’s keyboard.
My computer was ruined. I ended up having to buy a new laptop.
Dealing with the physical and emotional aspects of psoriasis is rarely humorous. But there are some situations, like trying home remedies to treat your condition, that you simply have to laugh at. Sometimes it can be helpful to find humor in your own life during moments similar to the ones I experienced above.
Alisha Bridges has battled with severe psoriasis for over 20 years and is the face behind Being Me in My Own Skin, a blog that highlights her life with psoriasis. Her goals are to create empathy and compassion for those who are least understood, through transparency of self, patient advocacy, and healthcare. Her passions include dermatology, skin care, as well as sexual and mental health. You can find Alisha on Twitter and Instagram.