How My Daughter Responded to My Psoriasis Outbreak
Chicken pox, rheumatic fever, hives, poison ivy…just a few of the guesses I heard in a two week span during one of my worst psoriasis outbreaks. As someone who has dealt with chronic psoriasis for a long time, I had gotten used to stares, questions and comments. However, my skin had been clearer for a little bit. I kind of forgot what it feels like to have to reinstate the thick skin (pun intended) it takes as to not be defeated by what your body looks like. Then, this outbreak came and I was having a really hard time looking at it without thinking how bad I thought it looks. Plus, the itchiness factor. Oh, the itchiness! It’s indescribable how perpetually itchy a bad psoriasis outbreak is.
The only beautiful part of this situation was my daughter. At 3.5 years old, self-proclaimed “Dr. Seana” asked to put lotion all over it, hugged my psoriasis spots, gave me a checkup and diagnosed it as improving. She also would say, “I’m sorry you have your psoriasis rash.” Every single day for about a month she kept this sweet behavior up. Now, four months later, she still chooses to come with me for every single photolight therapy treatment, which occur every other day.
It has reminded me that we aren’t born seeing things as gross. Life shapes us to form those thoughts. My daughter can see my psoriasis, and only thinks of how she can help me. She literally does not see it as gross.
This has been eye-opening in a refreshing way that’s been so helpful in dealing with it. I mean, how important is it to love yourself under all circumstances? To seek out beauty in all situations? To choose to focus on the positive instead of the negative? To think about how our world shapes these conceived notions of beauty? The answer is simple: it’s beyond important. Society talks about improving kindness, but yet it is the very same society that perpetuates ideas of contrived notions of beauty, thus in itself making the world we live in a constant state of judgment. We could all benefit to look at our world through the lens of a child like Seana.
Gettyimage by: Lisa5201
Kate was diagnosed with psoriasis at nine years old, and has tried a multitude of treatments to contain it. Refusing to let the outbreaks discourage her, she strives to focus on the positive and keep an open minded perspective during this wonderful journey called life. A lover of sports, friendship, plain foods, and adventures, Kate lives in Connecticut with her husband and their two children.
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