00:00My name is Johnny, I'm living in Tallahassee, Florida, I'm 62 years old, and I have psoriasis.
00:08I got it all the way from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.
00:13It's all over my arms, all over my head, my stomach here, it's on my legs, it's on my foot,
00:21it's everywhere.
00:26My skin feels real dry, and it's cracky all the time, it's itchy all the time, and I might scratch
00:33my leg for three, four minutes just digging.
00:37If I scratch myself raw, I have to sit there and let it cool off.
00:45My psoriasis started with a pimp on my head in 2002.
00:50I busted, and some green stuff came out of it, and it's kind of scared me, so I went to
00:57see a nurse about it, and she gave me a bottle of holy water.
01:02That didn't work.
01:04So, I finally seen the dermatologist in 2017, and he told me that I had psoriasis.
01:12He gave me these two little mini-tools to clean.
01:15I gave it a try, but it seemed like it didn't slow nothing down, so I didn't get to see
01:22the dermatologist no more.
01:27Angela is my 12-year-old daughter.
01:30I'm scared. I got this.
01:34She's my reason for trying to do better, to get better.
01:39Because of the psoriasis, I can't spend time with my daughter like a woman moving around, because it's painful, you
01:47know.
01:47I would love for you to go hang out with me at the mall.
01:52Hmm.
01:54Yeah, I need to get better, but then we can go to the mall or whatever, you know.
01:59Sometimes, like, when you don't come on the weekends, I feel like you just sit in your car all day
02:04and, like, just scratch all over your body.
02:07And it's kind of hard because, you know, I need a dad in my life.
02:10I want you to understand that if I don't be around much, it's not because of you.
02:17It's because psoriasis got me trapped somewhere, you know, scratching or whatever.
02:22You mean everything to me.
02:24Every day.
02:25All day, I be thinking about you.
02:29Wishing that I could do things first.
02:33Psoriasis just crippling me more and more.
02:40Before I ain't able to.
02:43I, as a man, I feel weak because when you can't do something for somebody that you love, you know,
02:52break your spirit.
02:54Yeah, the last 12 years of my life, you being my sunshine, I really wish that I was able to
03:03do more, but...
03:08Like I say, I'm crippled.
03:11My dad is unique and, like, fun.
03:13But, like, I watch my dad, like, scratch and bleed.
03:17And it makes me feel like he's in pain a lot of times.
03:21I want my dad to get better because, like, I want him to be able to go out and have
03:25fun like he used to be able to.
03:27And not have to worry about, like, his skin condition.
03:34Well, hello, sir.
03:36How are you?
03:37Hi, I'm Dr. Lee.
03:38It's really nice to meet you.
03:40Welcome.
03:41You came a long way?
03:42Yes, ma'am.
03:43I'm from Florida.
03:44Well, it looks like you got some chalk on you.
03:46I got psoriasis.
03:48When did it start?
03:49In 2002.
03:50Okay.
03:51There was a pimple right there.
03:52I kept scratching it, so I got tired of scratching and squeezed it.
03:56And then it just started to go other places?
03:58Everywhere.
03:59Does it hurt?
04:00Oh, yeah.
04:01It's either itchy, stinging or burning.
04:03Every time I scratch a pile of flakes on the floor.
04:06Probably pretty frustrating.
04:08Yeah.
04:08This is one of the worst cases of psoriasis that I've ever seen.
04:12I mean, he's got plaques as white as snow.
04:15So, Johnny did have a spot on his forehead that he thought was the start of the psoriasis.
04:22It may have been the start of psoriasis, or it might have just been a plain old pimple.
04:26But I'm gonna have to take a close look to know for sure.
04:29Let me see your hands first, your fingernails.
04:32See, you have these little, like, pokes in them.
04:35And then you have these plaques that are covered with this kind of white or gray scale.
04:40We call it micaceous scale on top of it.
04:43You have a little bit that you scratched off so hard that there's blood there.
04:47Yeah.
04:47And I can see this one's real thick right here.
04:50Yeah.
04:50On your back, do you have anything going on?
04:53It's down here.
04:54I see.
04:55Yeah.
04:56You have it on your tush.
04:57And let me see your chest here.
04:58All this is where you used to have it?
05:00Yes, ma'am.
05:00Really?
05:02And how are your legs?
05:03Are we able to see any that you can see the flaking?
05:06Scratched up?
05:07Yeah.
05:08Dead edges morning.
05:10Seeing Johnny's skin up close, this does indeed look like plaque psoriasis.
05:14He has a good number of these plaques, and they're really flaky.
05:18But you also see areas that are a remnant of the psoriasis that he's had before.
05:24Subtly dark or shaded areas.
05:27You know, when you have trauma to an area, you can have a little darkening.
05:32Also, one of the things that I check with people when I'm suspecting psoriasis is to look at their nail
05:38plates.
05:38Because if they have something called pitting, it's like little ice pick kind of pokes in your nail plate.
05:44And that also helps to kind of solidify the diagnosis here.
05:48Okay, so the good thing about psoriasis is it's not threatening your life in any way.
05:53This is not contagious.
05:55I can touch it with my hands.
05:56I'm not afraid of catching it.
05:58You know, it's not like something that you can pass on to somebody else.
06:01Right.
06:01But it can cause you to be really itchy and miserable and also affects your well-being.
06:07Right.
06:07You know?
06:07What we have found is that there are these medications that can be used to treat psoriasis.
06:13They're actually injections that can calm down your T-cell system, which is your immune system that is used to
06:21fight off conditions.
06:23So the medication I'm thinking about using is called ustakinumab.
06:27That sounds like a foreign language.
06:29Yes.
06:29Hopefully you should start seeing a difference even in a month or so.
06:33But you got to continue doing it.
06:35Because if you stop, you'll probably start to go back to where you were.
06:39What do you think about that?
06:41It's worth it.
06:41That sounds great to me.
06:43Yeah.
06:43Stop!
06:44Don't scratch it!
06:45You're the first doctor to even sit down and talk to me this long.
06:49All right.
06:50So you think you can give yourself an injection?
06:52Oh, yeah.
06:53All right.
06:54I will see you in a little bit.
06:55All right.
06:55Appreciate it.
06:56Of course.
06:57This is the best doctor I ever had because Dr. Leah, she took her time and talked to me.
07:04Explained my situation to me.
07:06All right.
07:07So this is the ustakinumab.
07:10I'm going to show you with one injection today and I'm going to let you do it.
07:15Because you're going to need to do this like every few months or so.
07:18This medicine, it works really well with many cases of plaque-type psoriasis.
07:23Some injections are self-administered in the abdomen or on the thigh area.
07:28And there's a cushion there.
07:30There's a little layer of fat there to protect yourself.
07:32So you're not going to just inject that right onto the bone.
07:35Take an area here.
07:37And you just go like that.
07:38Just go right there.
07:38Right there.
07:39Go.
07:39There you go.
07:40And now push it in.
07:41That's it.
07:41You did it.
07:42Look at that.
07:43There's no guarantee with these medications.
07:45But in a couple of months, we should know whether this is working for Johnny.
07:49Here's your prescriptions.
07:50And then we'll see how you do.
07:52All right.
07:52I appreciate it.
07:53Of course.
07:54I look forward to seeing you getting better.
07:56I feel like a miracle.
07:59I feel like somebody paying attention now, you know.
08:02So, yeah, I'm leaving here with a lot of hope and confidence.
08:06Because, you know, I believe that in a month or so, we'll be able to tell the difference
08:11in knowing that that medicine is working.
08:19It's been two months since I seen Dr. Lee.
08:23Dr. Lee gave me a real magic potion.
08:30And my skin looks great on all the different parts of my body.
08:34It feels almost like regular skin.
08:38And compared to, it used to feel like a concrete.
08:42Now I'm not leaving flakes of skin everywhere.
08:45And I can actually work instead of scratching.
08:48Hey, Dad.
08:50What that you broke?
08:51Ice cream.
08:52My daughter Angela is my sunshine.
08:55And she's the main reason I want to get better.
08:57Do you look like a different man?
08:59Yeah.
09:00That's a good thing.
09:01Yeah, that's a good thing.
09:02I don't see anything on your face.
09:04You look good.
09:05Mm-hmm.
09:06And that means we can go to the mall.
09:08Yeah.
09:09You can buy me some shoes.
09:10Paper stuff.
09:11Yeah.
09:13Woo!
09:22We decided to go we were Charles!
09:31We made a dime.
09:31What did you do?
09:32Merci.
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