I’ve talked about my healthcare anxiety before. I have a pretty hefty list of things I need to contact the GP about, but I just keep putting it off.

For example, my scalp… I had psoriasis years ago. October 2014 according to my GP’s online system. I had patches on my scalp, face, and arms. I was in a bad pouchitis flare at the time. One of the joys of having an immune-mediated condition such as Inflammatory bowel disease, is the increased risk of secondary/related conditions and extra-intestinal manifestations. 🙄 I was prescribeda shampoo and a couple of creams for different areas of my body, and it cleared up pretty quickly.

I had the same issue in February 2017. In March 2017, I had my steroid-induced rosacea drama…

After that, I managed it myself. If my skin became dry I’d smother myself in E45 or Diprobase. I found lavender essential oil in an argon oil carrier useful for controlling my scalp psoriasis. Whenever it began to flake, I’d start applying.

In 2020, my scalp was annoyed and the lavender wasn’t helping. As usual, I was avoiding the GP. I tried everything I could from the supermarket shelves, and over the counter. Vosene, Head & Shoulders, T-gel, Nizoral, and some baby shampoos.

Eventually, I called the GP. I requested the shampoo that had helped in the past. A 2% Ketoconazole treatment. That didn’t help either! I should have gone back to the GP, but me being me, didn’t.

I ordered some more shampoos online, including Aveeno, and even a shampoo for cradle cap! I have really greasy hair anyway, and the Aveeno obviously didn’t help with that. Sometimes, it even dried looking greasy. Routinely, I’d wash my hair every other day and have to use dry shampoo on the day in between, but, my scalp would itch like crazy if I used dry shampoo. If I washed it every day, there were less flakes, so I just continued doing that for a while.

I didn’t realise how long it had been since I tried the shampoo from the GP, but when I finally spoke to them again recently, it turns out it was 17 months ago! I am lucky that it hasn’t got worse over time. It just hasn’t got better either.

She has given me the same shampoo, and an additional “gel” treatment, to be applied once a day for the next four weeks. I had said I didn’t want to use steroids again if I could help it. The drama with the steroid-induced rosacea still has me scarred until this day! Turns out she’s prescribed me a treatment containing the steroid, betamethasone, anyway.

I’ve been using them for less than a week, and I thinkI’m looking less flaky already. I’m still a little itchy though. I have to put the “gel” on at night because it’s the consistency and texture of Vaseline. This is why I keep putting  “” around the word gel. It’s like no gel I’ve ever seen before! So, I have to wash my hair every morning.

I am hopeful, as always. Eternally hopeful, that I can soon wave goodbye to my inflamed and flaky scalp, and daily hair washing!