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