Learning to Live with Psoriasis

Photo by Anastasiia Ostapovych on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post}

Psoriasis is a little-known and sometimes taboo disease to suffer with, and I think that until you or someone close to you has it, your understanding on the profound impact it can have on a person's life is severely limited. 

About three or four years ago my son started to develop some red patches on his upper back and on his face, slowly they got bigger and then the skin started to thicken and it would look like he had white scales on him. This, of course, prompted a visit to our GP, who thankfully was wonderful and prescribed some steroid cream. After a couple of months without progress, she referred my son to a dermatologist to get an expert opinion.

After a few months wait we saw the dermatologist and he recommended that JJ wash with an emollient, moisturise twice a day and use more potent steroids on his patches of psoriasis, by this point, it had also spread to his upper arms. He also had to stay on the lower potency steroids for his face and make sure he had adequate breaks so his skin did not thin too much in this delicate area.

A skin biopsy was taken to check what type of psoriasis it is that my son has and it was thought that as he had skin damage (such as his teenage acne) the body was responding with rapid cell growth and he was ending up with psoriasis plaques (patches). Sadly over the last couple of years, it has progressed quite a lot and he now has psoriasis covering most of his body. Thankfully he doesn't seem too worried by it, but I know that as a 17-year-old lad it will only be a matter of time before he will wish it wasn't there!

Review of our Day Spa at Bannatynes, Hastings, East Sussex

Image Credit

I wanted to get my husband something different for Christmas, he’s the kind of guy who never wants anything and doesn’t appreciate people spending money for the sake of it. So I decided that I’d book for us to do something together and enjoy a day or a night out. We often go to the cinema, out for a meal or enjoy the theatre. I’d already bought us some comedy gig tickets with money from his Grandma, so I was racking my brains for something different.

As I was browsing a marketing email from Wowcher, I saw loads of great deals for spa days and I thought that might just be perfect. He works hard and his job can be stressful, so I figured a massage might be just the ticket. Without telling him why, I got him to take a day off in January and I booked for our local Bannatynes in Hastings, East Sussex.

I’d definitely recommend checking out both Wowcher and Groupon if you want to book a Bannatynes spa day for two as they have some great deals. There were a few different options I could have booked, starting from £69 for two people, but I wanted the option with the most treatment time, so I spent £95 for the two of us to have 4 mini treatments each (55 minutes of treatment time), and full use of the spa, leisure facilities, gym and classes.

To be honest we only spent a half day there, as we headed off to enjoy a late lunch elsewhere, but I’d definitely go back and would spend more time next time. I wanted to share my experience with you, so if you book, you’ll know what to expect.

Spa reception - Image credit