More About Light Therapy.

Light Therapy. The more you think about it, the more peculiar it sounds. At least, that's what I though as I sat in hospital for days, left wondering what on earth it actually involved. I'm probably not going to do a very good job at attempting to explain what it is and how it works and whatnot, seen as my understanding of medical jargon is limited. But hey, I'll give it a go.


So, according to good old trusty Wikipedia, Light therapy

'consists of exposure to daylight or to specific wavelengths of light using polychromatic polarised light, lasers, light-emitting diodes, fluorescent lamps, dichroic lamps or very bright, full-spectrum light. The light is administered for a prescribed amount of time and, in some cases, at a specific time of day.' 

My personal definition is 'It's basically a sunbed' Because really, it is. It looks like a vertical sunbed to me! Or the thing that Captain America is put inside to be turned macho. Luckily that hasn't happened to me yet! I am currently being treated with UVB light, or Narrowband Ultraviolet B. This is the most benefiting part of natural sunlight for skin diseases such as eczema or psorisis. You know it's common knowledge that people who suffer with eczema find that magically it clears up when they go abroad due to rise in exposure to sunlight. Well living in Wales, there isn't exactly a lot of that mysterious light emitting yellow thing in the sky. So UBV basically is artificially created sunlight. 


You start by doing a exposure test to determine how long you will be in the cabinet for. This is done by placing a thing that looks like a hair styling device against your skin (mine was on my hip). This thingy has little gradient squares on it to help the nurse figure out how long you need to be in the cabinet for to begin with. You start with a time then each time you visit you go in for longer and longer as your skin gets used to the light. Because I am so fair skinned (the lightest option) I started off with 8 seconds. I have now been going for around a month three times a week and I've got up to one minute five seconds. In the grand scheme of sunbeds, its really not a long time at all but so far it seems to be doing the job!I have only had one slight issue. One of my recent treatments went a bit wrong, I'm not sure if I stood differently or something, but I ended up with a sun burnt face and bum! Not so pleasant haha!  All in all you have 36 treatments in a session. This takes around three months although with me it might take a little longer as obviously whilst I'm having a blast in sunny Magaluf I wont be able to pop to the hospital three times a week! 
I am amazed at how my skin has gone from being red raw, clearing up and revealing my natural so-white-I-look-blue colour to now gradually getting a bit of dare i say it, a tan. I never thought I'd see the day! I feel like honestly I've never actually seen the colour of my face not being red or at least pink. So many people comment on how 'You actually look a normal colour now'. I will mention that I have noticed a change in the texture of my skin. I would say the wrinklyness is diminishing slightly, but I am noticing that the places I suffer with the worst, like my arms and neck have gained these weird little bumps. I mentioned this to the nurse and they said if it wasn't sore or itchy just to keep an eye on it, so I'll keep you updated. 
So for now, LT seems to be doing the job for me. I attempted to research people with Eczema who are going through, or have experienced LT. From what I can tell, reading the little info from Eczema sufferers and the vast amount of opinions and experience from Psorisis sufferers, It does the job whilst you are still going three times a week, but soon after you stop the symptoms come back again. I am very intrigued to see how my skin reacts to the end of treatment. Overall you are allowed 500 treatments on the NHS once you are in the system, but have to have at least six months break between each set of 36. 
I'm 89% sure that in about an hours time, I will remember a lot of things I didn't mention here, which I will  undoubtedly edit in. But for now this is all I can think of, and currently how I'm treating my Eczema, alongside creams of course! 



LT does also take a lot of commitment in terms of traveling three times a week to the hospital. If like me, You start off at 8 second treatments, and live a 20 minute drive from the hospital (Minus the 30 minutes it takes to try and find a parking space) then you have to be willing to dedicate the time. Luckily my employers are very understanding, and as long as you go on Monday Wednesday and Friday, you can attend at any time throughout the day, so fitting it around work isn't an issue for me.