November 21, 2023 • 36 mins
At just 7 years old, Alisha was diagnosed with plaque psoriasis - a condition that manifested in overwhelming flare-ups, covering nearly 90% of her body. Enduring both the physical toll and the harsh judgment of ignorant peers and their parents, she became so self-conscious about showing her skin. She would wear long sleeves in the middle of summer, would never go to the beach, and even feared she would never again be able to feel rain on her skin again. Alisha goes on a long, desperate journey to find a treatment for this disease, seeking not only physical relief but also respite from the mental and emotional trauma of living with psoriasis.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
How can I prevent people from seeing this condition?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You're always overthinking.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It's not her, it's them and their insecurities that show
when they don't understand or care to ask questions.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
The biggest misconception is that it's contagious. It is in
no way contagious because it is a genetically transmitted disease.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I stopped going to the doctor, I stopped trying to
find treatments.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Nothing was working.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm going to have this condition for the rest of
my life and there's nothing that I can do about it.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
How terrifying would it be to fight an unknown enemy,
one you didn't recognize and didn't see coming. What if
that enemy was coming from within a disease that even
doctors couldn't identify. Nearly half of all Americans suffer from
some chronic illness, and many struggle for an accurate diagnosis.
(01:12):
These are their stories. A Lauren Brage Pacheco and this
is symptomatic. Alicia Bridges is an undeniably charismatic person brimming
(01:39):
with creativity. She's not afraid of exploring most creative outlets,
from writing a book to performing stand up comedy. But
behind her unstoppable personality is a long battle with a
very stifling and painful medical condition, one she's had to
challenge by cultivating self love and mental fortitude.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I love to meditate.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I got into meditation about two years ago and I
did a challenge for myself where I meditated every day
for a year and it absolutely changed my life. I
love hiking and nature, comedy, hanging out with friends.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I love lo Fi.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I swear to you, the older I get, the more
a good instrumental can just like make my entire day.
I have a low fi playlist that I take with
me when I go to the park to meditate.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Oh my gosh, I need you to send it to
mat Or.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
On the same page, I would describe Alicia as super outgoing,
a big ball of energy, and an active participant in
controlling the room.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
She has a lot of personality.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
That's Alicia's ex husband Alan. They met while at college
at Alabama State, where they were both quick to notice
each other. Well, there's another reason that you guys could
make eye contact. You're both tall.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yes, I am six ' two and he's six '
five sixty six.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
He's very tall.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
It's not very often that you see an attractive six
foot two person this woman. So I was immediately like, yo,
who is that?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
And you're still friends today?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, we have a very healthy friendship. You know, I
always have to tell people i'm dating. I'm like, I know,
it's weird, but it's like we're family. Like I've been
knowing him since I was nineteen, and in a sense
we've grown up together.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
A partnership that would be instrumental along extremely tough parts
of Alicia's twenty year journey in search of proper treatment
for her chronic illness. The first signs of this life
altering disease started when she was very young. When was
the first time you remembered having a symptom where you
thought something was different or something was wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I remember when I was young, I had very flaky,
dry knees and elbows, but we did not realize that
that was the precursor to a chronic illness. We just
thought that I had really dry skin. And it wasn't
until I had chicken pox. And after the chicken pox
(04:19):
went away, my grandmother kind of noticed that the sores
or the scarring that you typically get when you have
chicken pox seemed to be manifesting into something else. And
my grandmother took me to the doctor. They surveyed my
skin and determined that I had psoriasis.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
While many people struggle to find a diagnosis, the journey
to find a treatment can be just as tricky and troublesome,
and that was the case for Alicia. Getting diagnosed with
severe plaqusoriasis at just seven years old was actually the
easy part of her journey. Now she had to try
to find a treatment that would bring her some relief
(05:01):
from both the physical and mental strain of living with
her condition. Were you afraid? What did you think was happening?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I think at seven years old, it was hard for
me to comprehend exactly what was going on because I
remember being that age and still wearing short sleeves and shorts.
I was about ninety percent covered at that point, and
even though I knew that I was different, it hadn't
hit me.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
How society would view me.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
And I remember becoming aware of that in the fifth
grade when I was ten, because that's when I started
covering up. That's when I started wearing long sleeves, pants,
and one hundred degree weather, and that was the first
time I started to really feel shame and what that
meant sir risis really started to impact me emotionally, my
(05:56):
self esteem and self value and how I viewed myself.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
People with pariasis and other conditions like it feel like
they are fighting the battle alone, and people may not
know you're suffering with it. A lot of times it's
in a hidden area.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
That's doctor Jonathan Weiss, an adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of
Dermatology at Emory University and the co managing partner of
Georgia Dermatology Partners. He and Alicia have formed a strong
bond from their overlapping advocacy work for sariasis. What would
be your most concise definition of whatsoriasis.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Is to the average Individualsariasis is a red scaly skin
condition that affects people with the genetic predisposition to the disease.
It can have various symptoms including itching, burning, stinging, or
it can just be disfigurement that some people have to endure.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Is it on a spectrum in terms of its severity?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Psoriasis severity can be defined in several ways. There is
the objective severity what we see, and there is the
personal severity that someone experiences, and the two can be
totally incongruous. There's also with an objective severity two types.
There's lesional severity. How red is it, how scaly is it?
Speaker 7 (07:28):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:28):
How itchy is it? How is it symptomatic? The other
part of severity is extent, and that's how people have
always looked at it. Only people who had extensive psoriasis
had severe psoriasis. But to me, you have to strike
a combination of those that even the person with a
small extent of psoriasis can have severe disease if it
(07:49):
is in the wrong area and it is affecting their
quality of life.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Can you describe what it looked like, what you remember
it looking like at seven.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Having no real clear skin except on my face and
my neck, my entire body was covered with itchy, flaky, brown,
crusty patches of dry, inflamed skin. It cracked, it bled,
(08:22):
It sometimes felt like my body was being attacked by ants.
These little feelings of like itchiness all over your body,
and there's nothing that you can do to relieve it.
My skin felt rough. I really did not have any
type of healthy skin. Sariasis was literally all over my
(08:44):
body except my face at the time.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Given the way in which it presents. You know, there's
a lot of fear and misunderstanding about the disease. Can
you explain the most prevalent misconceptions you hear about psoriasis?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
The biggest misconception is that it's contagious. It is in
no way contagious because it is a genetically transmitted disease.
A family where like a mother or a sibling may
have psoriasis and another member of the family has led
to some of the misconception that it's spreading within a household,
which it absolutely is not.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Just seven years old and diagnosed with something she had
no clue how to control, let alone truly understand. As
Alicia moved up in elementary school and gained a bit
more self awareness, the impact of her condition quickly started
to feel even heavier. Can you just talk to me
about how your friends and your classmates reacted to you.
Speaker 7 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I remember being in the fifth grade and I started
lying about having psoriasis. I would tell my classmates that
I had eczema because I found when I would say sariasis,
nobody knew what that was, and so it would force me,
as a ten year old girl, to have to explain it.
(10:08):
And I hardly knew exactly what was going on with
my body throughout my experience of like elementary and high school.
I remember one time I was in the tenth grade
and I was sitting in a humanities class and I
guess my shirt rised up a little bit and I
(10:28):
heard a classmate behind me say, ugh, what is on
her skin? That is absolutely disgusting. And I remember sitting
there trying to determine whether or not I was going
to speak up or let it go, and I decided
to let it go.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Alicia started treatment soon after being diagnosed, embarking on a
long journey to find relief from pariasis as the condition
increasingly spread over her body. She was willing to try
anything the doctors prescribed. What were the different lines of
treatment that you remember going through as a kid from
the age of seven and did anything work?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Absolutely nothing worked for me. Since I was under eighteen,
there were lots of treatments that I was not allowed
to use because of my age. But during that time,
I use phototherapy. Photo therapy is like when they put
you in something that looks like a tann In booth.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And they use uv B light, and that UVB light is.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Supposed to slow down the progression of your skin cells
by producing like vitamin D. I did that for years
with absolutely no results. I also did something called occlusion,
where they put like tar or steroid all over your body.
They put you in pajamas, they wet the pajamas, and
(11:56):
then they put you in a plastic suit like people
work out in and when they want to lose weight.
And I had to sit in that for eight hours
a day for about four weeks, Monday through Friday. It
did absolutely nothing for my skin. I've done almost every
topical that you can think of forsoriasis. I took oral
(12:16):
medication and then as soon as you stop, your psoriasis
could come back almost worse than it was when you
started the treatment.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 8 (12:26):
So on top of having this uncomfortable, embarrassing, painful condition,
treatment for it became a full time.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Job at points of your life, for.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Sure, especially for my grandparents.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Like my grandmother was the one who was taking me
to my light therapy treatment forty five days a year,
you know, to a hospital that was miles away. It
took money, gas, it just it and then depending on
the insurance issues, sometimes we had to go an hour
and a half away, two hours away for it to
(13:02):
never worked.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
I'm sure that there's a huge need for more research,
particularly within skin of color and how it reacts to
different conditions.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
For many, many years, dermatology has been focused on white
skin and disease states in Caucasian individuals. The other issue
is the symptoms that bother people with different skin types
are totally different.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
And were there ever any lulls? Were you always having
some kind of flare up or another.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I was always flaired from seven years old up until
about twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I was ninety percent covered with the rises.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Oh my lord, what did that do to you? Emotionally?
Did it isolate you?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It always made made me feel like I wasn't good enough.
Sometimes I think it had an impact on me being
my true and full self, because it's like, yeah, I
would love to play sports, but I don't want to
wear the uniforms. Yeah I would love to be a
(14:20):
part of this school pageant, but I don't want to
have to wear the gowns or the swimsuit that goes
with it in front of all of my peers. So
it definitely impacted how I viewed myself, my self, value,
my self, love, Sometimes I felt like nobody else would
(14:41):
love me. Sometimes I felt like a burden.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Yeah, did you feel at times like it was a curse.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
There were definitely times where I felt like I was cursed,
where I would ask what did I do to deserve this?
You feel out of control because it's like, this is
my body, why is it doing this to be I
(15:13):
just gave up on finding treatment because I said, you
know what, I'm just going to be like this for
the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I just got to get used to it.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Having treated siiasis for nearly forty years, doctor Weiss is
sadly all too familiar with the emotional and mental toll
of this very visible disease.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
It is a condition that is truly emotionally devastating for some,
especially for those where the plaques of psoriasis are visible
to other people and in a society that is so
conscious of appearance. It is totally devastating to somebody and
(15:57):
can really affect your inner action with the rest of
the world, out of embarrassment, out of other people's misconceptions
that you should be doing more.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I remember I had got into an argument with some
girls in my neighborhood and they started a rumor that
my grandparents were burning me with cigarettes. At that age,
I didn't know how to advocate for myself. But it's
moments like that that I've had to deal with.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
It's impossible to fully comprehend the toll of such stress
on a young child. But proving her unimaginable resilience, Alicia
simply continued to live with her painful plaques. She would
eventually find powerful acceptance along the way and a teller
of support when she met Alan. He didn't change his
perception of her or their relationship when he found out
(16:55):
about her ongoing struggle.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I remember when him and I first started dating. I
did not want to show him my skin, and I'm like,
how am I going to tell him that I have soriasis?
And this is probably the first serious dating situation I
had been in, And so I played a question game.
I asked a question like, if there's something you would
(17:19):
change about yourself, what would it be? You know? And
he said his answer, and then I said poriasis.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And then that's kind of how I brought it up
to him.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It was really a non factor to me. It meant
a lot for her to just address it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And then I kind of saw how he responded, which,
you know, he asked a couple more questions, but it
was not a big deal to him at all, and
so it was his reactions to me sharing little things
like this that made me feel more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
She had then kind of told me stories about other
instances dealing with young people and whatnot at the time.
And you know, people are weird. It's not her, it's
them and their insecurities that show when they don't understand
their care to ask questions.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I remember watching a movie with him and I was like, Okay,
I'm gonna wear a short sleeve shirt, like that was
such a big deal.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
So I went in the bathroom. I was so nervous.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
I put my short sleeve shirt on and I came
back in the room and you know, he kissed my
arm and he was like, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Seven years old. Through college, looking back, you guys never
stopped trying to find the next thing that could be
the cure, could be the answer. How many things do
you think you tried.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I tried so many treatments. I mean, off the top
of my head. From then until now, I've probably been
on fifteen different treatments. Yeah, topical oral topical oral injections.
(19:04):
Then you have you know, the phototherapy, the occlusion which
doesn't go under those umbrellas, and even diet change. It's
just like, why is my skin being so stubborn? And
here you are talking to other people with ciasis and
they're like, I've done this and I've done that and
it's helped me, but you still haven't found something that
helped you.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Tell me the point where you hit rock bottom in
terms of thinking that you could ever be cured. How
old were you and what happened.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I was twenty one, twenty two years old, and I
had finally got my own health insurance, so I had
a little bit more control than what I had in
the past, and this doctor ended up putting me on
my first injection. I was just so hopeful because my
whole time in high school, I was like, if I
(19:56):
can just get on this injection and get rid of
my crisis, life will be great. And I was on
that injection for about nine months and it did absolutely nothing,
and at that point I was like, I'm over this.
I remember breaking down in the doctor's office crying.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Alicia was exhausted from relentlessly searching for any treatment that
would help her alleviate her symptoms and bring her more
comfort in her own skin. She'd gone from desperate for
answers to discouraged and unsure if they would ever come.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
I stopped once to the doctor. I stopped trying to
find treatments. Nothing was working. I'm going to have this
condition for the rest of my life and there's nothing
that I can do about it.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
We'll be right back with Symptomatic, a medical mystery podcast.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
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Speaker 5 (21:52):
Now back to Symptomatic a medical mystery podcast and being
diagnosed with severe plaquoriasis at just seven years old, Alicia
tried every treatment available. Seeing it spread to nearly ninety
percent of her body, She was desperate for a little
reprieve from both the physical symptoms and more importantly, from
(22:16):
the shame she felt when people would see and judge
her condition. Now over twenty years into her journey to
find a treatment, she was ready to give up on
the idea of ever seeing her skin plaque free. Alisha,
(22:38):
it must have been so demoralizing fighting a constant, persistent condition.
Was it something that was just always in your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Even when I went shopping for clothes, I would literally
have to navigate the way I put on my pants
because I didn't want people well to look at the
bottom of the dressing room and see my soriasis field legs.
You always have to live with, Like, how can I
(23:11):
prevent people from seeing this condition? You're always overthinking.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Alicia had reached a point of almost accepting plaque soriasis
as a major part of her life. She began going
to soriasis community events in order to meet other people
going through similar struggles and hope of finding support. Little
did she realize that the longing for connection would lead
her to doctor Jamie Weisman, whose Karen advocacy would start
(23:38):
an entirely new chapter in Alicia's life. So you mentioned
that you do know doctor Jamie Weisman. Can you tell
me just a little bit about doctor Weisman, how your
paths crossed, and how would you categorize her as a dermatologist.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Doctor Weisman is one of the smartest, most talented dermatologists
I know. I'm the adjunct faculty at Emory. She was
a resident and she wanted to get into research, and
she has been an amazing researcher and thought leader in
helping develop the treatments we have now for soriasis, for
(24:16):
a topic, dermatitis, and several other conditions.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
A doctor entered your life who gave you hope. How
did you first cross paths with doctor Weisman?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was around twenty six years old.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I have been a volunteer with the National Soiriasis Foundation
since twenty eleven. I think around twenty three, twenty four
and so there was an event in Atlanta, Georgia, a
National Soiriasis event, and I went. I can't even remember
what the event was about, but I do remember meeting
doctor Wiseman. So we started having a conversation and she's like, yeah,
(24:53):
I'm a doctor here in Atlanta. I showed her my
skin and she was like, I can get you cleared up.
She was like, come see me, I can take care
of that.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Wow, I'm so happy that you guys crossed paths. What
did you think when she first told you I can
take care of us?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
The hope started to come back because I had never
met a doctor that was so confident, you know, Like
she was so confident with saying she could clear my skin.
And so I just remember saying, Okay, I'm married through
the National Crisis Foundation.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
She does a lot of research.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Let me let my guard down a little bit, let
me be vulnerable, and let me go see what she suggests.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I think that Alicia, when she started seeing doctor Wiseman,
I think she felt that doctor Wiseman really had her
best interest in mind in getting better, and then just
look at her as another patient, right that concern of, hey,
this person really is looking to me for help.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So I went to the appointment. You know, she surveyed
my skin. Of course, She's like, you have a very
severe case of plaxrisis. She started talking about the different
clinical trials she was working on at the time. I
think it's very special when you have a doctor who
does clinical trials because they get to see the behind
(26:19):
the scenes of what's going on with these treatments, through
the testing and through the clinical trials. She was just
very well versed in different skin conditions, dealing with different
genders and different types of people. And so she gave
me my first biologic. It cleared me up about eighty percent.
(26:42):
And let me tell you, I was as happy as
can be. I only had some patches on my legs,
you know, my skin was kind of discolored, but that's
because the plaques are there for so long, so when
they go away, you have a lot of discoloration that
has to come back over time.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
But I was so happy not to be ninety percent.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Covered, eighty percent cleared. That was a huge win. Just
after the first treatment with doctor Weisman, these newly created
and cutting edge biologics were finally alleviating in a significant
way Alicia's symptoms. Can you define and explain exactly what
(27:23):
biologics are what that means.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
Biologics are medications that are produced by other living organisms,
and so they have to go through a very complex
process to be produced, and they target specific chemicals in
the cascade of immunologic changes that occur in soriasis patients.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I go to see her from my check in and
she's like, that's.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Good, but I can get you clearer than that, and
she starts talking about another another injection, and I was like, no,
I think I'm okay right here. So after a while,
the injection was not working as good as it was
when I first started, so I went back to her
and she's like, we can put you on something else.
I'm at this point for biologics in but every biologic
(28:18):
that she has given me has worked up until about
two years, and then sometimes what happened is your body
creates a resistance to it. I'm happy to say this
current biologic that I'm on, I've been on it since
twenty twenty and my skin is one hundred percent clear,
and I would say it took about a year before
(28:38):
I saw complete clearance.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I'm just so grateful for.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Her due diligence, her willingness to stay educated on people
of all colors, and for fighting for me to get
the treatment that I needed.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Do you remember the first time you saw her with
clear skin?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, I sure do. And she was so happy, just
the way she talked to people who wanted to go
out more. You know, she was wearing short sleeves and
those things mattered to her right and you could just
see the confidence that she would walk with, and she
just had this glow about her, and I was just like, Wow,
look at her. God, that's what's up.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Since the age of seven, Alicia had been searching for
a treatment to help with the debilitating burden that psoriasis
had placed on her life. It felt like every day
was consumed by her efforts to hide her skin. But
now she found a new doctor and a new treatment
that brought her near instant relief and was allowing her
(29:41):
to take back her life piece by piece.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I remember getting an emotional thinking to myself, I'm never
gonna experience what the rain feels like on my bear skin,
or what it means to go to the beach and
get into the water in peace.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
So I cherish those moments now.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
If it starts raining and I'm outside, I don't rush
it because I remember the past me that never thought
something as simple as feeling the rain on your skin
without shame.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Could ever happen.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And so what that moment taught me is self love
cannot be based on if this happens or that happens.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Self love has to be unconditional.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
It has to be compassionate, It has to be empathetic.
It can't be deals in bargains because you change so much.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
The biologics not only help treat her psoriasis symptoms, but
also allowed Alicia to be more at peace with herself,
and she's channeled that into advocacy for others with zoriasis.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
When I was growing up, there was nobody I could
pinpoint that has Torina like me, and so once I
got old enough, I made it a goal and a
duty to make sure that another little seven year old
Alicia would not have to fill alone. I have worked
to tell my story so that other people who are
(31:20):
like me can know that they're not alone, so that
the people who don't have to risis can learn empathy
and compassion, but also to change what's happening in research.
We need more African American voices in these spaces. When
I first started advocacy, and this is no lie, sometimes
I would be the only Black person in the room,
(31:41):
and that is a problem. We need different types of voices,
We need different experiences and stories because when we gather
all of that information, we can provide better treatment and
better access to care to people. So it is definitely
my life.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I don't want.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Another seven year old to feel like there's nobody like her.
I want her to be able to come on Instagram, Facebook,
online and say, oh my gosh, that woman can relate.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
To me because she's had this experience too.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
What do you want people to take away from your story?
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I want people to understand that we all have struggles,
said and Unseid and to treat people that you may
not understand, whether it's through their actions or through their
physical body. Treat people with empathy and compassion and just
(32:41):
know that there is an inner story, there's a life
that everybody is going through that they're dealing with, and
to just be kind.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
I think her life is going to be so fulfilling
because she is doing what we all hope to do,
and that is making an impact for a large group
of people. And I really feel she's leaving a legacy
for many, many years for patients with psoriasis.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Alicia is a prime example of you never ever ever
give up, no matter how you feel, no matter what
the situation is, there's always light at the end of
the tunnel. She's been on the cover of magazines, she's
a growing comedian, now, she's writing a book. She's doing
so many great things, and I believe that she would
(33:33):
not be where she is today if she would have
given up.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
So take a step back, give more compassionate empathy, and
judge people less because you just don't know what a
person is going through.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
If you want to find out more information about plaque psoriasis,
go to the National Psoriasis Foundation's website. At psoriasis dot org.
You can also find helpful resource is through the Global
Healthy Living Foundation at GHLF dot org.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I am Alicia Bridges. I was diagnosed with psoriasis at
seven years old, and it took me a little over
two decades to find an effective treatment.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
On the next episode of Symptomatic, doctor Maria de Leone
goes from doctor to patient as she rushes to get
a diagnosis before she loses all of her motor skills.
Speaker 10 (34:27):
I started noticing that I was not always able to
put on my shoes because I were trying. I tried
to put on my shoes, my foot would get cramped
and distorted and I'll.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Fall, Like what in the heck?
Speaker 10 (34:41):
I was having a hard time turning the keys of
my door, you know. I was like fumbies, Like I
could not put it in and turn it.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
The mystery ailment turns out to be something Maria should
have seen coming from the beginning. That's it for this
episode of Symptomatic. Thank you for listening. What did you
think of this episode? We would love to hear from you.
Send us your thoughts or share a medical mystery of
your own at Symptomatic at iHeartMedia dot com. And please
don't forget to rate and review this podcast wherever you're listening.
(35:13):
Symptomatic and Medical Mystery Podcast is a production of Ruby
Studio from iHeartMedia. Our show is hosted by me Lauren
bred Pacheco. Executive producers are Matt Romano and myself. Our
EP of post production is James Foster. Our producers are
Sierra Kaiser and John Irwin. And this episode was researched
(35:33):
by Diana Davis. Hi, I'm Cindy Laufer.
Speaker 9 (35:44):
My scalp was covered with psoriasis, which could lead to
soriatic arthritis, but Cocentics treats both.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Cocentic sech you.
Speaker 11 (35:52):
Kenyon mab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe
black siris as three hundred milligram dose and adults with
active soriatic arthritis one hundred and fifty milligram dose.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Don't use if your allergic to cocentics.
Speaker 11 (36:00):
Before starting, get checked for TB serious allergic reactions, severe
skin reactions that look like eczema, and an increased risk
of infections. Some fatal have occurred. Cocentics may lower ability
to fight infections, so tell your doctor if you have
an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscleleggs or cough.
How to vaccine or plan to or if ibed symptoms
develop or worsen. Learn more at cocentics dot com or
one eight four to four cocentics.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
Cocentics works for me.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Ask your doctor about concentics
How can I prevent people from seeing this condition?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You're always overthinking.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It's not her, it's them and their insecurities that show
when they don't understand or care to ask questions.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
The biggest misconception is that it's contagious. It is in
no way contagious because it is a genetically transmitted disease.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I stopped going to the doctor, I stopped trying to
find treatments.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Nothing was working.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm going to have this condition for the rest of
my life and there's nothing that I can do about it.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
How terrifying would it be to fight an unknown enemy,
one you didn't recognize and didn't see coming. What if
that enemy was coming from within a disease that even
doctors couldn't identify. Nearly half of all Americans suffer from
some chronic illness, and many struggle for an accurate diagnosis.
(01:12):
These are their stories. A Lauren Brage Pacheco and this
is symptomatic. Alicia Bridges is an undeniably charismatic person brimming
(01:39):
with creativity. She's not afraid of exploring most creative outlets,
from writing a book to performing stand up comedy. But
behind her unstoppable personality is a long battle with a
very stifling and painful medical condition, one she's had to
challenge by cultivating self love and mental fortitude.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I love to meditate.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I got into meditation about two years ago and I
did a challenge for myself where I meditated every day
for a year and it absolutely changed my life. I
love hiking and nature, comedy, hanging out with friends.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I love lo Fi.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I swear to you, the older I get, the more
a good instrumental can just like make my entire day.
I have a low fi playlist that I take with
me when I go to the park to meditate.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Oh my gosh, I need you to send it to
mat Or.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
On the same page, I would describe Alicia as super outgoing,
a big ball of energy, and an active participant in
controlling the room.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
She has a lot of personality.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
That's Alicia's ex husband Alan. They met while at college
at Alabama State, where they were both quick to notice
each other. Well, there's another reason that you guys could
make eye contact. You're both tall.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yes, I am six ' two and he's six '
five sixty six.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
He's very tall.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
It's not very often that you see an attractive six
foot two person this woman. So I was immediately like, yo,
who is that?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
And you're still friends today?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yes, we have a very healthy friendship. You know, I
always have to tell people i'm dating. I'm like, I know,
it's weird, but it's like we're family. Like I've been
knowing him since I was nineteen, and in a sense
we've grown up together.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
A partnership that would be instrumental along extremely tough parts
of Alicia's twenty year journey in search of proper treatment
for her chronic illness. The first signs of this life
altering disease started when she was very young. When was
the first time you remembered having a symptom where you
thought something was different or something was wrong.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I remember when I was young, I had very flaky,
dry knees and elbows, but we did not realize that
that was the precursor to a chronic illness. We just
thought that I had really dry skin. And it wasn't
until I had chicken pox. And after the chicken pox
(04:19):
went away, my grandmother kind of noticed that the sores
or the scarring that you typically get when you have
chicken pox seemed to be manifesting into something else. And
my grandmother took me to the doctor. They surveyed my
skin and determined that I had psoriasis.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
While many people struggle to find a diagnosis, the journey
to find a treatment can be just as tricky and troublesome,
and that was the case for Alicia. Getting diagnosed with
severe plaqusoriasis at just seven years old was actually the
easy part of her journey. Now she had to try
to find a treatment that would bring her some relief
(05:01):
from both the physical and mental strain of living with
her condition. Were you afraid? What did you think was happening?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I think at seven years old, it was hard for
me to comprehend exactly what was going on because I
remember being that age and still wearing short sleeves and shorts.
I was about ninety percent covered at that point, and
even though I knew that I was different, it hadn't
hit me.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
How society would view me.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
And I remember becoming aware of that in the fifth
grade when I was ten, because that's when I started
covering up. That's when I started wearing long sleeves, pants,
and one hundred degree weather, and that was the first
time I started to really feel shame and what that
meant sir risis really started to impact me emotionally, my
(05:56):
self esteem and self value and how I viewed myself.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
People with pariasis and other conditions like it feel like
they are fighting the battle alone, and people may not
know you're suffering with it. A lot of times it's
in a hidden area.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
That's doctor Jonathan Weiss, an adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of
Dermatology at Emory University and the co managing partner of
Georgia Dermatology Partners. He and Alicia have formed a strong
bond from their overlapping advocacy work for sariasis. What would
be your most concise definition of whatsoriasis.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Is to the average Individualsariasis is a red scaly skin
condition that affects people with the genetic predisposition to the disease.
It can have various symptoms including itching, burning, stinging, or
it can just be disfigurement that some people have to endure.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Is it on a spectrum in terms of its severity?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Psoriasis severity can be defined in several ways. There is
the objective severity what we see, and there is the
personal severity that someone experiences, and the two can be
totally incongruous. There's also with an objective severity two types.
There's lesional severity. How red is it, how scaly is it?
Speaker 7 (07:28):
You know?
Speaker 4 (07:28):
How itchy is it? How is it symptomatic? The other
part of severity is extent, and that's how people have
always looked at it. Only people who had extensive psoriasis
had severe psoriasis. But to me, you have to strike
a combination of those that even the person with a
small extent of psoriasis can have severe disease if it
(07:49):
is in the wrong area and it is affecting their
quality of life.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Can you describe what it looked like, what you remember
it looking like at seven.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Having no real clear skin except on my face and
my neck, my entire body was covered with itchy, flaky, brown,
crusty patches of dry, inflamed skin. It cracked, it bled,
(08:22):
It sometimes felt like my body was being attacked by ants.
These little feelings of like itchiness all over your body,
and there's nothing that you can do to relieve it.
My skin felt rough. I really did not have any
type of healthy skin. Sariasis was literally all over my
(08:44):
body except my face at the time.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Given the way in which it presents. You know, there's
a lot of fear and misunderstanding about the disease. Can
you explain the most prevalent misconceptions you hear about psoriasis?
Speaker 4 (09:03):
The biggest misconception is that it's contagious. It is in
no way contagious because it is a genetically transmitted disease.
A family where like a mother or a sibling may
have psoriasis and another member of the family has led
to some of the misconception that it's spreading within a household,
which it absolutely is not.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Just seven years old and diagnosed with something she had
no clue how to control, let alone truly understand. As
Alicia moved up in elementary school and gained a bit
more self awareness, the impact of her condition quickly started
to feel even heavier. Can you just talk to me
about how your friends and your classmates reacted to you.
Speaker 7 (09:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I remember being in the fifth grade and I started
lying about having psoriasis. I would tell my classmates that
I had eczema because I found when I would say sariasis,
nobody knew what that was, and so it would force me,
as a ten year old girl, to have to explain it.
(10:08):
And I hardly knew exactly what was going on with
my body throughout my experience of like elementary and high school.
I remember one time I was in the tenth grade
and I was sitting in a humanities class and I
guess my shirt rised up a little bit and I
(10:28):
heard a classmate behind me say, ugh, what is on
her skin? That is absolutely disgusting. And I remember sitting
there trying to determine whether or not I was going
to speak up or let it go, and I decided
to let it go.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Alicia started treatment soon after being diagnosed, embarking on a
long journey to find relief from pariasis as the condition
increasingly spread over her body. She was willing to try
anything the doctors prescribed. What were the different lines of
treatment that you remember going through as a kid from
the age of seven and did anything work?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Absolutely nothing worked for me. Since I was under eighteen,
there were lots of treatments that I was not allowed
to use because of my age. But during that time,
I use phototherapy. Photo therapy is like when they put
you in something that looks like a tann In booth.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And they use uv B light, and that UVB light is.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Supposed to slow down the progression of your skin cells
by producing like vitamin D. I did that for years
with absolutely no results. I also did something called occlusion,
where they put like tar or steroid all over your body.
They put you in pajamas, they wet the pajamas, and
(11:56):
then they put you in a plastic suit like people
work out in and when they want to lose weight.
And I had to sit in that for eight hours
a day for about four weeks, Monday through Friday. It
did absolutely nothing for my skin. I've done almost every
topical that you can think of forsoriasis. I took oral
(12:16):
medication and then as soon as you stop, your psoriasis
could come back almost worse than it was when you
started the treatment.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 8 (12:26):
So on top of having this uncomfortable, embarrassing, painful condition,
treatment for it became a full time.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Job at points of your life, for.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Sure, especially for my grandparents.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Like my grandmother was the one who was taking me
to my light therapy treatment forty five days a year,
you know, to a hospital that was miles away. It
took money, gas, it just it and then depending on
the insurance issues, sometimes we had to go an hour
and a half away, two hours away for it to
(13:02):
never worked.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
I'm sure that there's a huge need for more research,
particularly within skin of color and how it reacts to
different conditions.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
For many, many years, dermatology has been focused on white
skin and disease states in Caucasian individuals. The other issue
is the symptoms that bother people with different skin types
are totally different.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
And were there ever any lulls? Were you always having
some kind of flare up or another.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I was always flaired from seven years old up until
about twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I was ninety percent covered with the rises.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Oh my lord, what did that do to you? Emotionally?
Did it isolate you?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It always made made me feel like I wasn't good enough.
Sometimes I think it had an impact on me being
my true and full self, because it's like, yeah, I
would love to play sports, but I don't want to
wear the uniforms. Yeah I would love to be a
(14:20):
part of this school pageant, but I don't want to
have to wear the gowns or the swimsuit that goes
with it in front of all of my peers. So
it definitely impacted how I viewed myself, my self, value,
my self, love, Sometimes I felt like nobody else would
(14:41):
love me. Sometimes I felt like a burden.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Yeah, did you feel at times like it was a curse.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
There were definitely times where I felt like I was cursed,
where I would ask what did I do to deserve this?
You feel out of control because it's like, this is
my body, why is it doing this to be I
(15:13):
just gave up on finding treatment because I said, you
know what, I'm just going to be like this for
the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So I just got to get used to it.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Having treated siiasis for nearly forty years, doctor Weiss is
sadly all too familiar with the emotional and mental toll
of this very visible disease.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
It is a condition that is truly emotionally devastating for some,
especially for those where the plaques of psoriasis are visible
to other people and in a society that is so
conscious of appearance. It is totally devastating to somebody and
(15:57):
can really affect your inner action with the rest of
the world, out of embarrassment, out of other people's misconceptions
that you should be doing more.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I remember I had got into an argument with some
girls in my neighborhood and they started a rumor that
my grandparents were burning me with cigarettes. At that age,
I didn't know how to advocate for myself. But it's
moments like that that I've had to deal with.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
It's impossible to fully comprehend the toll of such stress
on a young child. But proving her unimaginable resilience, Alicia
simply continued to live with her painful plaques. She would
eventually find powerful acceptance along the way and a teller
of support when she met Alan. He didn't change his
perception of her or their relationship when he found out
(16:55):
about her ongoing struggle.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I remember when him and I first started dating. I
did not want to show him my skin, and I'm like,
how am I going to tell him that I have soriasis?
And this is probably the first serious dating situation I
had been in, And so I played a question game.
I asked a question like, if there's something you would
(17:19):
change about yourself, what would it be? You know? And
he said his answer, and then I said poriasis.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And then that's kind of how I brought it up
to him.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It was really a non factor to me. It meant
a lot for her to just address it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And then I kind of saw how he responded, which,
you know, he asked a couple more questions, but it
was not a big deal to him at all, and
so it was his reactions to me sharing little things
like this that made me feel more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
She had then kind of told me stories about other
instances dealing with young people and whatnot at the time.
And you know, people are weird. It's not her, it's
them and their insecurities that show when they don't understand
their care to ask questions.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I remember watching a movie with him and I was like, Okay,
I'm gonna wear a short sleeve shirt, like that was
such a big deal.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
So I went in the bathroom. I was so nervous.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
I put my short sleeve shirt on and I came
back in the room and you know, he kissed my
arm and he was like, it's okay.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Seven years old. Through college, looking back, you guys never
stopped trying to find the next thing that could be
the cure, could be the answer. How many things do
you think you tried.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I tried so many treatments. I mean, off the top
of my head. From then until now, I've probably been
on fifteen different treatments. Yeah, topical oral topical oral injections.
(19:04):
Then you have you know, the phototherapy, the occlusion which
doesn't go under those umbrellas, and even diet change. It's
just like, why is my skin being so stubborn? And
here you are talking to other people with ciasis and
they're like, I've done this and I've done that and
it's helped me, but you still haven't found something that
helped you.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Tell me the point where you hit rock bottom in
terms of thinking that you could ever be cured. How
old were you and what happened.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I was twenty one, twenty two years old, and I
had finally got my own health insurance, so I had
a little bit more control than what I had in
the past, and this doctor ended up putting me on
my first injection. I was just so hopeful because my
whole time in high school, I was like, if I
(19:56):
can just get on this injection and get rid of
my crisis, life will be great. And I was on
that injection for about nine months and it did absolutely nothing,
and at that point I was like, I'm over this.
I remember breaking down in the doctor's office crying.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Alicia was exhausted from relentlessly searching for any treatment that
would help her alleviate her symptoms and bring her more
comfort in her own skin. She'd gone from desperate for
answers to discouraged and unsure if they would ever come.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
I stopped once to the doctor. I stopped trying to
find treatments. Nothing was working. I'm going to have this
condition for the rest of my life and there's nothing
that I can do about it.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
We'll be right back with Symptomatic, a medical mystery podcast.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
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Speaker 9 (21:09):
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(21:31):
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Speaker 7 (21:35):
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Speaker 5 (21:52):
Now back to Symptomatic a medical mystery podcast and being
diagnosed with severe plaquoriasis at just seven years old, Alicia
tried every treatment available. Seeing it spread to nearly ninety
percent of her body, She was desperate for a little
reprieve from both the physical symptoms and more importantly, from
(22:16):
the shame she felt when people would see and judge
her condition. Now over twenty years into her journey to
find a treatment, she was ready to give up on
the idea of ever seeing her skin plaque free. Alisha,
(22:38):
it must have been so demoralizing fighting a constant, persistent condition.
Was it something that was just always in your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Even when I went shopping for clothes, I would literally
have to navigate the way I put on my pants
because I didn't want people well to look at the
bottom of the dressing room and see my soriasis field legs.
You always have to live with, Like, how can I
(23:11):
prevent people from seeing this condition? You're always overthinking.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Alicia had reached a point of almost accepting plaque soriasis
as a major part of her life. She began going
to soriasis community events in order to meet other people
going through similar struggles and hope of finding support. Little
did she realize that the longing for connection would lead
her to doctor Jamie Weisman, whose Karen advocacy would start
(23:38):
an entirely new chapter in Alicia's life. So you mentioned
that you do know doctor Jamie Weisman. Can you tell
me just a little bit about doctor Weisman, how your
paths crossed, and how would you categorize her as a dermatologist.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Doctor Weisman is one of the smartest, most talented dermatologists
I know. I'm the adjunct faculty at Emory. She was
a resident and she wanted to get into research, and
she has been an amazing researcher and thought leader in
helping develop the treatments we have now for soriasis, for
(24:16):
a topic, dermatitis, and several other conditions.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
A doctor entered your life who gave you hope. How
did you first cross paths with doctor Weisman?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
So?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I was around twenty six years old.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I have been a volunteer with the National Soiriasis Foundation
since twenty eleven. I think around twenty three, twenty four
and so there was an event in Atlanta, Georgia, a
National Soiriasis event, and I went. I can't even remember
what the event was about, but I do remember meeting
doctor Wiseman. So we started having a conversation and she's like, yeah,
(24:53):
I'm a doctor here in Atlanta. I showed her my
skin and she was like, I can get you cleared up.
She was like, come see me, I can take care
of that.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Wow, I'm so happy that you guys crossed paths. What
did you think when she first told you I can
take care of us?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
The hope started to come back because I had never
met a doctor that was so confident, you know, Like
she was so confident with saying she could clear my skin.
And so I just remember saying, Okay, I'm married through
the National Crisis Foundation.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
She does a lot of research.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Let me let my guard down a little bit, let
me be vulnerable, and let me go see what she suggests.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I think that Alicia, when she started seeing doctor Wiseman,
I think she felt that doctor Wiseman really had her
best interest in mind in getting better, and then just
look at her as another patient, right that concern of, hey,
this person really is looking to me for help.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So I went to the appointment. You know, she surveyed
my skin. Of course, She's like, you have a very
severe case of plaxrisis. She started talking about the different
clinical trials she was working on at the time. I
think it's very special when you have a doctor who
does clinical trials because they get to see the behind
(26:19):
the scenes of what's going on with these treatments, through
the testing and through the clinical trials. She was just
very well versed in different skin conditions, dealing with different
genders and different types of people. And so she gave
me my first biologic. It cleared me up about eighty percent.
(26:42):
And let me tell you, I was as happy as
can be. I only had some patches on my legs,
you know, my skin was kind of discolored, but that's
because the plaques are there for so long, so when
they go away, you have a lot of discoloration that
has to come back over time.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
But I was so happy not to be ninety percent.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Covered, eighty percent cleared. That was a huge win. Just
after the first treatment with doctor Weisman, these newly created
and cutting edge biologics were finally alleviating in a significant
way Alicia's symptoms. Can you define and explain exactly what
(27:23):
biologics are what that means.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
Biologics are medications that are produced by other living organisms,
and so they have to go through a very complex
process to be produced, and they target specific chemicals in
the cascade of immunologic changes that occur in soriasis patients.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I go to see her from my check in and
she's like, that's.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Good, but I can get you clearer than that, and
she starts talking about another another injection, and I was like, no,
I think I'm okay right here. So after a while,
the injection was not working as good as it was
when I first started, so I went back to her
and she's like, we can put you on something else.
I'm at this point for biologics in but every biologic
(28:18):
that she has given me has worked up until about
two years, and then sometimes what happened is your body
creates a resistance to it. I'm happy to say this
current biologic that I'm on, I've been on it since
twenty twenty and my skin is one hundred percent clear,
and I would say it took about a year before
(28:38):
I saw complete clearance.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I'm just so grateful for.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Her due diligence, her willingness to stay educated on people
of all colors, and for fighting for me to get
the treatment that I needed.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Do you remember the first time you saw her with
clear skin?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, I sure do. And she was so happy, just
the way she talked to people who wanted to go
out more. You know, she was wearing short sleeves and
those things mattered to her right and you could just
see the confidence that she would walk with, and she
just had this glow about her, and I was just like, Wow,
look at her. God, that's what's up.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Since the age of seven, Alicia had been searching for
a treatment to help with the debilitating burden that psoriasis
had placed on her life. It felt like every day
was consumed by her efforts to hide her skin. But
now she found a new doctor and a new treatment
that brought her near instant relief and was allowing her
(29:41):
to take back her life piece by piece.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I remember getting an emotional thinking to myself, I'm never
gonna experience what the rain feels like on my bear skin,
or what it means to go to the beach and
get into the water in peace.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
So I cherish those moments now.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
If it starts raining and I'm outside, I don't rush
it because I remember the past me that never thought
something as simple as feeling the rain on your skin
without shame.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Could ever happen.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And so what that moment taught me is self love
cannot be based on if this happens or that happens.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Self love has to be unconditional.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
It has to be compassionate, It has to be empathetic.
It can't be deals in bargains because you change so much.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
The biologics not only help treat her psoriasis symptoms, but
also allowed Alicia to be more at peace with herself,
and she's channeled that into advocacy for others with zoriasis.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
When I was growing up, there was nobody I could
pinpoint that has Torina like me, and so once I
got old enough, I made it a goal and a
duty to make sure that another little seven year old
Alicia would not have to fill alone. I have worked
to tell my story so that other people who are
(31:20):
like me can know that they're not alone, so that
the people who don't have to risis can learn empathy
and compassion, but also to change what's happening in research.
We need more African American voices in these spaces. When
I first started advocacy, and this is no lie, sometimes
I would be the only Black person in the room,
(31:41):
and that is a problem. We need different types of voices,
We need different experiences and stories because when we gather
all of that information, we can provide better treatment and
better access to care to people. So it is definitely
my life.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I don't want.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Another seven year old to feel like there's nobody like her.
I want her to be able to come on Instagram, Facebook,
online and say, oh my gosh, that woman can relate.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
To me because she's had this experience too.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
What do you want people to take away from your story?
Speaker 1 (32:20):
I want people to understand that we all have struggles,
said and Unseid and to treat people that you may
not understand, whether it's through their actions or through their
physical body. Treat people with empathy and compassion and just
(32:41):
know that there is an inner story, there's a life
that everybody is going through that they're dealing with, and
to just be kind.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
I think her life is going to be so fulfilling
because she is doing what we all hope to do,
and that is making an impact for a large group
of people. And I really feel she's leaving a legacy
for many, many years for patients with psoriasis.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Alicia is a prime example of you never ever ever
give up, no matter how you feel, no matter what
the situation is, there's always light at the end of
the tunnel. She's been on the cover of magazines, she's
a growing comedian, now, she's writing a book. She's doing
so many great things, and I believe that she would
(33:33):
not be where she is today if she would have
given up.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
So take a step back, give more compassionate empathy, and
judge people less because you just don't know what a
person is going through.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
If you want to find out more information about plaque psoriasis,
go to the National Psoriasis Foundation's website. At psoriasis dot org.
You can also find helpful resource is through the Global
Healthy Living Foundation at GHLF dot org.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I am Alicia Bridges. I was diagnosed with psoriasis at
seven years old, and it took me a little over
two decades to find an effective treatment.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
On the next episode of Symptomatic, doctor Maria de Leone
goes from doctor to patient as she rushes to get
a diagnosis before she loses all of her motor skills.
Speaker 10 (34:27):
I started noticing that I was not always able to
put on my shoes because I were trying. I tried
to put on my shoes, my foot would get cramped
and distorted and I'll.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Fall, Like what in the heck?
Speaker 10 (34:41):
I was having a hard time turning the keys of
my door, you know. I was like fumbies, Like I
could not put it in and turn it.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
The mystery ailment turns out to be something Maria should
have seen coming from the beginning. That's it for this
episode of Symptomatic. Thank you for listening. What did you
think of this episode? We would love to hear from you.
Send us your thoughts or share a medical mystery of
your own at Symptomatic at iHeartMedia dot com. And please
don't forget to rate and review this podcast wherever you're listening.
(35:13):
Symptomatic and Medical Mystery Podcast is a production of Ruby
Studio from iHeartMedia. Our show is hosted by me Lauren
bred Pacheco. Executive producers are Matt Romano and myself. Our
EP of post production is James Foster. Our producers are
Sierra Kaiser and John Irwin. And this episode was researched
(35:33):
by Diana Davis. Hi, I'm Cindy Laufer.
Speaker 9 (35:44):
My scalp was covered with psoriasis, which could lead to
soriatic arthritis, but Cocentics treats both.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Cocentic sech you.
Speaker 11 (35:52):
Kenyon mab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe
black siris as three hundred milligram dose and adults with
active soriatic arthritis one hundred and fifty milligram dose.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Don't use if your allergic to cocentics.
Speaker 11 (36:00):
Before starting, get checked for TB serious allergic reactions, severe
skin reactions that look like eczema, and an increased risk
of infections. Some fatal have occurred. Cocentics may lower ability
to fight infections, so tell your doctor if you have
an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscleleggs or cough.
How to vaccine or plan to or if ibed symptoms
develop or worsen. Learn more at cocentics dot com or
one eight four to four cocentics.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
Cocentics works for me.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Ask your doctor about concentics
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