Extreme close up

I got myself a cheap and easy to use microscope for my computer.  Since getting it my skin hasn't been too flakey, so here are some scalp & eyebrow shots. Enjoy :-)

Another update

It's been a while since my last update. Since then I had a week where I was really itch and flakey all over, but that passed before Christmas. I saw my dermatologist on Christmas Eve and he advised me to stop the neotigason but continue with the methotrexate and folic acid. He also said that while it looks like it's breaking up and doesn't look as bad, it will probably be at least another six months before it starts to properly go. 

Merry Christmas 

Update

Feet:  Not bad at all, often a little sweaty/clammy (this is a good thing).  Last week my soles were a little dry and dusty but they seem fine now

Legs: Red but not hugely dusty although there is always a layer of fine dust on the inside of my jeans

Chest & stomach. Red with lots of islands of sparing (clear spots). 

Upper chest, neck & Cheeks: Itchy patches of peeling flakes

Arms. Red with pealing flakes.  Big patches of peeling flakes across forearms. Also some islands of sparing

Face.  Red with Islands of sparing, particularly on forehead and spots under eyes.  Flaky skin on forehead.  Constant band of fine dust around eyes.  Although my face is generally dry, I sometimes get a clammy nose.  Eyebrows often seem full of tiny flakes.

Ears. Ears and around the ears, constantly itchy and flaky.  

Scalp.  Constantly full of flakes

Back: always itchy and flaky (from what I can see), particularly at the top near the shoulders. 

Regeneration

It been a while since I wrote a blog post, not including the photos and map. You haven't missed much. I'm still red and flakey. The cyst was horrible and made me so tired and drained, but after lots of antibiotics and some revolting squeezing sessions, things are a lot better now.  A big thank you to Simon for squeezing. 

But back to the Prp, I don't think there are any changes.  One of the things I read when I first researched Prp was how much it can effect your mental Heath. This year I have been very low, and although I can't blame it all on the Prp, it has been so depressing living with this everyday. I have tried not to use this blog as a way to wallow in self pity, I'm not sure I have always succeeded. This is only a temporary condition for me. I have to keep telling myself this. There are others that have this condition since childhood and for their entire lives, and of course there are so many more that have to suffer so much more. 

I'm a Doctor who fan, and a good friend of mine once joked that what I am going through is a regeneration. Maybe it's true because when I do come out the other side of this I don't think I will be the same man I was going into it. 

My PRP Photos

We are not alone

Thank you to Meagan Watts who is one of the members of the PRP facebook group. She has set up this map of PRPers around the world using a webiste called diseasemaps.org click on the map below to get an updated view

Cyst

There are a couple of things I didn’t mention in yesterday’s post because I didn’t think they were linked to the PRP.  Now I’m not so sure.   First I have a big old painful lump growing on my back.  It’s been there for months but it’s only the last few days that it’s become big and painful. It’s some kind of cyst which looks like it has become infected.  The doc said the cyst could be filled with all kinds of unpleasant things, including skin cells, which is when I thought it could be related to PRP.   Anyway it’s a week of antibiotics for me before going back to the Docs to see if they can do anything with it.   Over the last week I have also been really tired all the time.  Not sure if this is a something to do with the cyst or the PRP or the combined effect making me feel drained and worn down.   

It's not easy taking a selfie of a lump on your back 

Still nothing to report

This blog has definitely become difficult to write over the last few months because there isn’t anything to write about. I am still having flaky/dusty days.  But not that often. My scalp and hair are still constantly covered in little flakes.  My chest and stomach are still red with islands of sparing.  One change I noticed a week or two ago was I had some islands of sparing on my arms as well.  The only other thing I can think of saying is that the weather has turned cold.  For this reason I am avoiding putting much emollient on.  I don’t want to be walking round in a wet t-shirt in this weather.  I am getting through lots of cotton buds clearing the flakes out of my ears several times a day.  I know you are not supposed to put cotton buds in your ears, but It really is necessary.
I was flicking through all the photos on my phone over the last year.  They are full of ‘selfies’ of my face, arms, legs and chest at various stages of redness/flakiness.  One thing I did notice, in all these photos I could only fine two of me smiling since February.  I know its still November, but already im hoping 2016 will have some more smiles.

Glasses

Flakey skin and glasses, not a good combination 

Am I getting any better?

Time to take a step back and ask if I'm getting any better?   Well I'm definitely past the really really bad phase that lasted until late July-ish. That was when I was waking up with a face covered in flakes and my limbs were constantly peeling. Since since then it's difficult to say. I went for a few weeks, going from July into August where I was getting a big patch of clear skin on my stomach. I also had a patch of clear skin on my left calf.  Since then the clear patch in my stomach has gone and the clear patch on my calf has shrunk.  Having said that I now have clear spots (islands of sparring) on my chest and a blotchy face made of clear spots. So am I getting better? I don't know, if I am it's not happening quick enough for my liking. 

Ps. Although I said my limbs are no longer constantly peeling, I do have flakey arm days, the pic below was taken this week 

PPS. And this close up of my tat. Was also from this week 

update

It’s been over a week since my last post.  As usual at the moment there isn’t anything major to report.   My forehead and face seem particularly blotchy (to me, anyway).  I have mentioned stress before on this blog and this week has been the most stressful of my life, and this is likely to continue for the time being.  The reason I mention this is because I have had some flaky days and I think this is probably related to stress, also the stress I’m going through at the moment means I’m not really paying attention to my skin and what’s happening to it.  

A dull update

Yesterday was a day of flakiness, especially when I woke up. The shaking off of dust and waiting for my emoluments to dry meant I was almost late for my train to work.  

Today  I've had a headache all day. It feels like a hangover. Last night I had 1 glass of wine. No idea if the headache is related to the methotrexate, Wednesday's flu jab, stress, or just one of those things. Nothing else to report other than I weighed the amount of dust I've hovered up from my room over the last week. 45 grams. 

Visit to the Dermatologist

I saw my dermatologist today. I didn't put any emoluments on so he could see the skin in all its glory. It was a fairly flakey day so when I took my top off the small consultant room became a snowstorm. Having said that he was pleased to see the  many islands of sparing and blotchy skin. He thought it was heading into the recovery stage, we shall see. I know its slowly improving, far far too slowly for my liking.  

Not much to say

Another week with not much change. Flaking  is still there although it's definitely calming down. It's been months since I had a Daley face. I usually have some flakey/spotty things around the eyes. 

Also from this photo you can sort of see my blotchy forehead

Other peoples blogs

A couple of quick things to mention, first I am very pleased to see someone new blogging about their experience of having this disease. The Pityriasis Chronicles is shaping up to be a great blog.

When I was first diagnosed with this condition I did lots and lots of research.  There was a fair amount of clinical information available as well as the facebook group and the PRP Support Group website.  I also wanted to read a blog of someone with the condition to give me an idea of day to day life as well as a picture of how it develops and affects someone over time.  The only really good blog I could find was http://trevs-skin.blogspot.co.uk .While this was great,  it was also slightly depressing because the last post was from 20 November 2013, Trevs Week 33 and included the line:

 "I’m fed up of this and I want it to stop."

After a couple of badgering comments on his blog I am very happy to report he has responded with an update

“I am well, very well in fact and had largely recovered from most of the conditions by Aug 2014, the only problem that persisted for another 8 months was an ingrowing toenail. 

I will add to the blog to provide a more complete picture over the next few days but just to give you a bit more hope, recovery was rapid and I'm sure it was largely because I was fit and in good health beforehand and keeping well hydrated and active as much as possible (cycling mainly) was the key to this, if you don't cycle then get out walking preferably in the light.”

This really did cheer me up, especially as I am about to head into my own week 33 and like Trev I am fed up of this and I want it to stop.  Trevs update has provided a little light at the end of this tunnel

Update list

• Skin shedding.  Changes from day to day. There is always a cloud of tiny flakes around me.  There have been a few days this week of fairly heavy shedding
• Scalp. I am constantly putting a nit comb through my hair and dragging out a clump of white dust. 
• Hands. Today my palms are dry and a little bit peeling.
  

• Eyes. I don't seem to get the eye worms any more, which is good. The skin around my eyes is always dry and a bit flakey. Also my eye brows are usually full of flakes. It seems particularly uncomfortable when a flake of skin pulls away from below my eye brows. 
• Itchiness. Again this varies although not directly connected to shedding. I had one night this week where I was itchy as hell but not shedding 
• Skin colour. Blotchy on stomach , chest and face. 

Still shedding

Ok I'm no longer waking up with the flakey zombie face but I still have heavy shedding days.  This morning I woke up in this 

Today I have been continuously shedding on my chest neck and face. Although it didn't look really really bad it felt like this 

Blog word cloud

My 2015

Blotchy

Again not a great deal to report. My skin is blotchy.   Still pink all over apart from a clear patch on my left calf which hasn't changed in weeks. The clear islands of sparing are all over my stomach and chest. They are now on my face as well, cheeks and forehead. On my chest there are also a few dark red spots. 

My flaking varies from day to day. Some days it is minimal but on other days, like today, I feel like I'm drowning in dust. Today I woke with a thick layer of dust a cross my chest. I spent a long time scraping off the dust all over my body any putting emoluments on. Later I went out and every breath in was full of dust, I could feel the skin coming off my face,arms and neck, I looked in the mirror and my jaw and neck were white with dust. I used an old loyalty card to scrape off what I could and added more emollient. But I had to go back to the house as soon as I could.     

Mr B

Over the last couple of days there seems to have been an increase in the number of yellowish islands of sparing (spots) across my chest, neck and face.  They stand out against my deep pink/red skin

No change again

Not noticed any change this week. Here is a photo that shows some of the islands of sparing, the lighter spots about the size of a penny 

Not much to report, again

Another week with not much to report.  There were some fairly flakey days this week and a couple of not so flakey days. Although the big clear patches haven't come back I do seem to have quite a few islands of sparing (clear spots) on my stomach, each about the size of a penny. 

The other day when getting out of bed I noticed how my skin wrinkled and folded like old parchment. It's depressing that my body feels like it's gone from being in my 30s to my 80s. 

Brief update

Another brief update, brief because there isn't much to say. I think the skin might be slightly paler than last week.  I have been under lots if emotional stress over the last 6 weeks or so and I think this has made things worse, or at least stopped things improving.  

Second week of methotrexate and all good. I didn't get the side effect I got last week, which wasn't mentioned in the leaflet. Green poo. 

Nothing to report

It feels like it's been a long week.  I've had some really itchy days and I've been really dusty. No real changes to report, still red. I think the palms are not flaking as much.  

In my last post I mentioned my change of medication which, if nothing else, should be easier to manage than the last lot as it is just a dose of 6 methotrexate tablets once a week and 1 folic acid tablet on the other days.  Let's see if they start to improve things

Change of meds

Today I saw my dermatologist for the first time in about 6 weeks.  The last time I saw him things were definitely improving, with big patches of clear skin.  Today he saw those patches of clear skin have disappeared.  Also my skin is quite red and the last couple of days have been very dusty.  So the dermatologist has changed my meds. No more cyclosporine and instead;

• -          6 x 2.5 mg of Methotrexate once a week
• -          5mg of Folic Acid 6 days a week (none on the day I take the Methotrexate)
• -          20mg of Neotigason (acitretin) once a day

I was relived to find out my blood tests showed no more reduction in kidney function.  I guess coming off cyclosporine means I can start drinking grapefruit juice again ,but taking Methotrexate means I should avoid alcohol.  Id rather keep avoiding grapefruit juice.  

...like the back of my hand

Not a great deal to report this week.  I posted last Sunday that I got splinter hemorrhages (thin black lines) in 2 of my finger nails.  On Monday a third appeared. They are not causing any problems and one of them has almost disappeared. I am lucky as lots of people with Prp loose their finger nails completely. 

Last week I saw an ophthalmologist (eye specialist) at the hospital. He could see my eyes were dry but there is no damage to them, which is good. 

The only other thing to report is how dry and peeling my hands are. I can't really remember the last time the back of my hand didn't look lizard like and the palms have been getting dryer and more peeling for a while. 

splinter hemorrhages

Over the last couple of days I have noticed tiny black lines under 2 of my finger nails. After a bit of Google research I decided they could be splinter hemorrhages, which are in some way related to Prp 

I want my life back

It's been an emotionally stressful week, and this has had a really bad effect on my skin. Here's the update;

Feet:  top of feet red, dry and dusty

Legs: shrinking patches of normal skin on the calfs.  The rest of the legs not flaking too much but red, dry and dusty

chest & stomach. The clear patches I had have gone.  The skin is redder than it has been in a while and there are constant flakes.

Arms. Flakey and scaly. 

Hands. Small spots of peeling/flaking on the palms.  Peeling between fingers

Face.  Requires emollient a few times a day to stop flaking

Scalp.  Constantly full of scales

Energy levels: low, which is worrying because they have been okay for months.

Mental state: it's really getting to me now.  The amount of dust I am creating every second of every day, the amount of cleaning, hoovering, changing of sheets and clothes that's required, the constant itching, the camping trips, holidays and spontaneous days out that haven't happened.  I hate it all and want my life back. 

No more hospital grease ups

Since this all started I've been going to the hospital on a daily basis to get covered in emollients.  On the days when I am out of town I do this myself.  Recently I have been going in less often as there is always some reason I can find not to go in.  Today I went in for the first time in a week. The nurses were happy that things were improving and I am doing a good job of managing the treatment on my own, so we agreed that I no longer need to go in for my daily grease ups.

As much as the staff at Clifton Hospital have been fantastic throughout this period, I am very glad that I don't have to go in as much.  Its also a sign of how much the condition is improving.   I am not always good at noticing how much it is improving, possibly because I am living with it 24 hours a day, and I just want it to end, but everyone else is saying how much better its looking, and how I am not so red any more. 

update

This week has been a step backwards, possibly stress related. Hopefully this is a temporary blip. 

legs.  The skin is redder than it has been with a clear patch on the calfs and peeling skin on the thighs 

Stomach/chest. Peeling on the belly, dusting on the chest

Arms. No major flaking but very dry

Head. Very itchy and flakey scalp. 

Itchyness. I've been more itchy this week than I have been in a while. 

Flakey skin leads to having a thick skin

I have read various comments from other people with prp on a dedicated Facebook group. For many of them, the most debilitating part of this disease is what other people think or say about it. It has been a large part of why some of them have had to take time off work or even quit their jobs.  I can totally understand how the opinions of others would have this effect and how it adds to the almost debilitating level of self disgust that can come with this disease.   I want to try and explain how I have dealt with these feelings so far. I want to make it clear that these are my personal coping strategies and I am not judging how others are coping. 

Having said that I haven't really had any nasty comments about my skin. Quite a few people have said something like "been anywhere nice? You've obviously caught the sun". That's not offensive so I don't take offence. Other than that the only comment I can think of is when I went to the gp one day just after being covered in emollient. Some kids looked at me and one shouted out "Oi mate, why are you all wet?"  I could have taken this to be confrontational, aggressive, humiliating but I made a conscious decision to be naive and treat it as a genuinely curiosity. I just shouted back "long story" and carried on. 

So as far as what people have actually said, it's been easy. The hard bit is dealing with what you assume people are thinking. I am looking out at the world from the epicentre of this continuous cloud of flakes. So when a flake falls down across my field of vision it looks relatively large and important. It can therefore be inconceivable to think that others haven't even noticed. The same applies to the white flakes that appear on a black tablecloth where I am sitting or the greasy emollient stains that appear at my desk. Just because it's all I see, doesn't mean it's all everyone else sees.  So how do I deal with these situations?  Well I could continuously apologise to virtually everyone I meet for leaving a disgusting trail of flakes and grease everywhere I go or, what I try to do is assume they don't notice or care. If it's that bad, wait for them to say something. This requires developing a thick skin and is easier said than done. Last week I was staying in a hotel for work and I had a really bad flaky night. By the next morning it seemed to me that every surface of my hotel room was covered in a thick layer of skin and grease. My self disgust went into overdrive and i had visions of the cleaning staff screaming as soon as they opened the door. I definitely expected an angry phone call from the hotel. Of course this hasn't happened (yet) but it can be difficult to control that self disgust and realise it might not look as bad or as important to other people. 

So it's all about dealing with the self-disgust. This can really build up from small insignificant incidents. I have found that blogging about these incidents, like stopping at a service station to get the vacuum out on the car seat, is quite liberating because I am saying this is something that is happening to me, rather than something I am doing. I don't want to come across as a victim but more importantly I don't want to feel shame at something I cant control. 

Update

A bad midweek flare up during the week while away with work. 

legs. Doing ok, especially from the knees down. Durning the flare up my thighs where peeling. 

Stomach/chest. Big areas of normal(ish) skin although this was also peeling during the flare up. Red spots among the good skin

Arms. Normal-ish skin on the inside of my arms

Head. Woken up a few times with a face that looks like I have slept in a bag of porridge oats (see yesterday's photo). Scalp varies from mild to middling levels of flakiness/scabby. 

Eyes. Still the same. Flakes around, goo inside, but not all the time. 

Energy levels. During my mid week flare up I suddenly felt wiped out. I think this was partly due to a drop in temperature as the air con was on full blast. 

Emoluments. For a long time I was putting on half a tub of 50/50 paraffin at a time. Now the tubs are lasting a lot longer because there are large parts of my body that don't need it and the bits that do, don't need as much as they did. 

Big old flakey face

This morning before my daily hospital treatment

Dermatologist update

Just seen the dermatologist for the first time in 6 weeks.   Generally all is good.  He is happy with the progress and the patches of good skin.  I told him I was happy that yesterday, after a long day at work and a 4 ½ hr train journey I had smelly feet.  I was happy about this because it suggested that my feet were sweating.  No part of my body has sweated since February.

So that was the good news.  There was bad news though.  The Neoral (Immunosuppressants) which seem to be making things better, can affect my kidney function.  For this reason I have to have bloods taken every 4 weeks.  The results show my kidney function is deteriorating.  Its not too bad at the moment but if it gets to a certain point I will have to stop taking the neural.   I’ll try not to worry too much about that for the moment. I’ll try. 

Triggers & Bullet points

A couple of things to mention. First, I have already written a post listing some of the things which i think may trigger my bad days (alcohol, showers & baths). I've noticed a few more;

• Stress
• Air conditioning 
• Sudden drops in temperature 

Obviously I could just be seeing patterns that aren't really there. Which means I may have given up alcohol under false pretences. 

Next thing to mention, just like Eskimos have 50 words for snow, I'm starting to build my own lexicon of shedding words;

• Shedding: I've been using this to describe skin coming off in visable but small (about 5 mm or less) flakes. 
• Dusting:  when it comes off as tiny spots of dust, less than 1mm
• Peeling: when it appears to be a sheet of skin that is coming off my body and breaks off in relative big flakes (1 cm or more) 

Maybe I should look at the Eskimo dictionary and see how their flakes compare to mine 

Brief update

A brief update this week as I've already posted a few updates during the week, but just to recap. Generally still improving but a few flakey days this week. 

Flakey day becomes flakey 2 days

20 mins of de-flakeing in the shower room at work before driving home then a service station stop to get the dyson out. 

Flakey day

Like I said in my last post things are improving all round. That doesn't mean I have stopped having flakey days. I do, and today has been one of them. Head, face,chest and arms. All flaking or peeling. All to be expected on the long road to recovery. Annoying rather than depressing. 

Good news update

Nothing but improvements to report this week.

• Skin shedding.  A lot less.  Yesterday was my first office day where I didn't need to go to the shower room for a shake down :-)
• Scalp. Improving. Especially first thing in the morning. not as scaly as I was.
• Eyes. not as mucusy or flaky
• Itchiness. minimal
• Skin colour. Big island of sparing across my belly , the inside of my arms, and my legs
• Temperature:  I can now definitely feel the temperature better than I did. I'm enjoying the warm sunny days now :-)

Scales

Yesterday I was fed up because I woke up with a scaly forehead and scalp which looked like this

But looking through my photos reminded me that just a week before I was waking up looking like this 

So it's definitely improving 

Logistics

One of the hardest things about having this desease is the logistics of treating it while maintaining full time job which requires me to be away from home for 3 days a week.  

First of all there is the appointments:

- daily hospital appointments where nurses apply appointments.  This is not a major problem as I can do this myself on the days I am out of town

- monthly (approximately) visits to the dermatologist as part of his ward round at the hospital

- GP visits every 4-6 weeks, there always seems some reason to need to go.

- I also have an appointment to see an eye specialist

Then there are the medications & treatments.  These currently include: 

- neoral.  imunosupresent

- Acitretin. retinoid

- HYdroxyzine. antihistamine  

- 50/50 paraffin emollient.  big tubs of the stuff to be applied a couple of times a day

- Emolin Spray.  Spray on alternative to the 50/50 gel which i can put on, on my work days.  

- Cetreben.  Emollient for my face

-  SCC ointment. horrable greasy cream to put on my scalp which lifts off the flakes

- Alternative scalp ointment.  not as discusting or powerful, but i can wear it on work days.

- eye drops for day

-eye gel for night

-emollient shower gel

its not just a case of seeing if I am running low on these treatments, i have to take into account time for ordering and getting the prescription from the doctors, taking it to the chemist, the chemist often has to order it in, which takes another working day and making sure this allows me time to get it before my net trip to newcastle.  

Then there are the daily shedding, brushing, vacuuming logistics and shaking out the bedding each morning  

BUT  Its not going to kill me and i will get better, so i'll quit my moaning now and watch a bit of telly.  After all, I still find time to write all these blog posts  

Update

• Skin shedding.  Fairly bad, getting worse towards the top half of my body, hot weather may be drying the skin and emollient?
• Scalp. Flakey, itchy horrible 
• hands. All good
• feet. Generally good although my nails are a bit yellow and require scraping out. (Sorry, I hope you're not eating)

• Eyes. Big mucusy mess, again I think the heat makes them worse
• Itchiness. Not too bad although it can get worse if I'm out in the heat
• Skin colour. Hmm, overall getting paler but day to day heat makes it darker
• Islands of sparing. Growing across stomach and sides. Good news :-)
• Weight loss. In the 4 1/2 months since this has started I have lost about a stone and a half (21 lbs). Impressive since I have been eating more and doing no exercise.  Definitely not a problem as I was, and still am overweight. 

Islands in the sun and topless selfies

We have had a heatwave recently and a few people have asked how has it effected my skin.  My head and face have been particularly flakey, which I think might be partly due to the emollient drying quickly.   Also the 'islands of sparing' seem to be harder to spot on a really hot day.  Speaking of which, when I can see them my islands (patches of healthy skin) generally seem to be growing, which is good. 

Ps it is not easy to take a selfie at this angle with a camera phone covered in emoluments and flakes

Pps I'm obviously fishing for google hits with the title of this post

PPPS, enjoy the moobs :-)

Smut

It can be difficult to talk about the process of removing of shredded skin and applying of Emoliant, without it sounding a bit smutty. Examples of things said by me or others;

- I need to cream up

- I have to shake myself off

- kevs gone to lube up 

- I stopped off at a service station to touch myself up 

Lunchtime dusting

When working in the office I have to go to the shower room several times a day to dust off & grease up. Here is the result of today's lunchtime dusting 

Islands

Islands of sparing are patches of normal skin amongst the bright red skin. These islands are a feature of Prp. I had them when the condition started but for over 2 months my body has been completely covered. Since taking the neoral the redness has gotten paler and patchy. Over the weekend it got to the stage where there were definite islands of sparing on my side :-) 

Since then the islands have disappeared. I hope they'll be back soon. 

Best way to stop flakes in hair....

Shave off the hair 

weekly update

I have said in a previous post that things a generally improving.  This is true, but it doesn't stop me having bad days.  As far as i can tell the following things cause 'bad days';

- Alcohol, it looks like one night out leads to 3 or 4 bad days

- Shower or bath.  I am having to limit my showers to one, very brief shower a week.  As soon as i get out the shower and pat myself dry, i put on loads of emollient, but that doesn't stop me flaking and itching for the rest of the day.

So with that in mind, and remembering that this week i went out drinking on Tuesday night and had a shower yesterday morning, here is my weekly update:

• Skin shedding.  wasn't bad until my night out.  The following morning it got bad and stayed bad for the next few days.  At work i spent 40 mins one day just shaking the skin off me in the shower room.  Today has ben the first day since then that the flaking has calmed down, with some exceptions (see below)
• Thighs.My thighs have started peeling, different to the flaking on the ret of my body
• Scalp. My scalp, hair and forehead have been full of scabby flakes all week.  not too bad today though.  
• hands. Not too bad, but flakey between the fingers
• feet. All good

• Eyes. Mucus, flakes, the usual. 
• Itchiness. On Friday, after the shower, i was uncontrollably itchy all over.  It really was unbearable.    
• Skin colour. Getting paler but dark red spots underneath.  
• Belly. The nurse at the hospital the other day noticed that my belly was slightly enlaged on the right side.  unlikely to be anything to do with the PRP, but illkeep an eye on it and mention it to my GP when i see him next.

By the way, I havent been able to sweat since February.  Probably not a bad thing as I cant have daily showers at the moment.