Hi All, This is my first post here. Ive been diagnosed with Vit for a month and I was wondering if there was any advice for a new Vitiligan?
I see so many people at peace with themselves and just happily accepted Vit as a part of themselves. How do I get there?
Replies
:) hi
i was diagnosed at the beginning of the summer so I'm also new to this. its really hard in the beginning but try and fight through and always have hope. try as many vitamins, treatments, diets, and lotions as you can and hope something works!! there is always hope don't get down on yourself! also try to avoid what other people think because you are your own person and people love you for you, not your skin. i used to cry a lot about it but then i realized that it didn't matter and it made me special. it gave me my own unique thing that separated me from others. it will be okay!!!!
-katherine
This is my advice. I should say, this is our experience.....We have been on vit journey since fall of the 1997. Hence, we were in your shoes once before when my child was 7 years.
Vit is treatable in the initial stages if proper medicine (dosage, frequency) used. Most importantly, need the eyes of a good dermatologist. Good derm usually takes 10 seconds (our derm only 2 seconds) to decide, if something is vit or not). Its not easy to find a good derm....Takes bit of research. Try to get referred by someone. We went by trial and error and via online research.
Repigmentation is typically faster in areas where hair is present because hair folecules act as conduits for pigment carrying purposes. Vit in non-hair locations (example: fingers, toes, lips and bony areas) is very slow or may not repigment at all. Hence, location of vit is very important. Derm has expeirnece, what medicine to use where...(cutivate, apexicon, protopic, halobestol.....etc.).
In summary, have faith in medicine in the first 2 or 3 years and pray for a bit of luck. You can focus on non-medicine avenues after a couple of years. Because, some are lucky and some or not, We dont know the reasons behind....
One more thing. repigmentation process is slow....minimum 12 weeks. some can even take 6 to 8 months.
Good Luck.
My advice woudl be dont just rely on medicines change your diet to remove toxins, research leaky gut if you feel you have digestive issues, get blood tests to check for food intolerences and vitamin deficiencies and take supplements - B12, Folic, etc (I also take Ginko Bilbao). Buy a juicer and drink freshly juiced carrot, celery and apple. I also use Protopic and as much early and late sun as I can get and UVB when no sun available. I am repigemnting after 30 years of extensive Vitiligo....I know I may never get it all back and it may not last ...but the differnece in 3 months is staggering and it has given me my life back even though I still have loads of it left I am much more confident. I really wish you the very best of luck and anyone else who is trying hard to heal.
Since you are recently diagnosed with Vit therefore I think you have an opportunity to suppress it. Listen to your doctor for various treatment options. I got Vit 3 years ago and frist year was very troublesome for me because I was worried that people will reject me or look down at me. It was my assumption because most of the people accepted me without problem and appreciated my skills and work in my IT job.
Just keep yourself aware of various advancements in treatment of Vitiligo. I think joining Vitiligo Friends was a good step.
Empower myself, I like that. I guess we have 2 choice in life right, fight or flight and you're right, fighting is the way to go. For awareness, for a cure, for a treatment. I don't know why that didn't occur to me!
I'm going to fight. If there is a reason I do have this, I really want to find out why and discover that life is not a series of arbitrary events that we just have to deal with. But for now, fighting seems like a first positive step I can take.
Hopes a scary thing, but Im starting to think that maybe it will be worth it. Down the yellow brick road I go...
Take control, your still a baby vit <3 take vitamins, research, try things, everyone is different and is affected differently by different foods/vitamins/creams. What works for you may not work for him. dont stress SO IMPORTANT! and just accept it, realize you were chosen to have this, In life we are given what we can handle, your a fighter... I can tell, cause you've just been diagnosed, your researching already, your taking in feedback, That's awesome!!! Taking control!!! See but you have to educate and raise awareness, don't hide it, bring it up whenever the opportunity arrises, whether to friends/family/even strangers you just have a friendly conversation with, Problem is lots of vits are sad/don't go out to much, so when people see us, they stare, cause we are so differnet, and we are rare to begin with imagine all the ones hiding at home, can seem like there's none of us :0( make people aware, spread the vitiligan love, educate and make people understand, this way next time they come across one of us fellow vitiligans they will give us a smile not some weird stare. and realize we are not sick and we can do or be anything we want, do not let this disease handicap you, and if you feel sad, come here for support, thats why we are all here, to help support one another
Thanks Caroline. I never really thought about it that way... Maybe I should be looking at treatment options... Take control of my life and my skin, instead of just giving up without a fight...
You're so right! -- Thanks for that...