Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8)
Look, I really need to give you guys the full rundown on what’s been going down over the last month.
I wanted to write sooner, honestly, but I was totally out of commission for twenty days and then I got slammed with a mountain of catch-up work, plus I needed some time to actually dig through all the posts from while I was gone.
Thank God, I’m doing alright!
I'm sure you all saw my photos—you saw just how much my psoriasis flared up from being almost completely clear to this mess in only about six weeks...
A lot of you were giving me well-meaning advice to get to a doctor immediately... some of you even thought I was dealing with erythrodermic psoriasis...
Thank God it wasn't erythrodermic; it's actually a follicular type of psoriasis, which is super rare, and when combined with the vulgaris kind, it can just explode all over your body... but we'll get into that later...
Even after all your warnings, I decided to take a gamble and see if this ointment from Healed would actually work. So, I headed down to New York City, met him in person, and met his father too (who’s actually the one who formulated the stuff and used it himself to clear up his own external psoriasis symptoms), and I met his lovely family—his mom, his wife, and his two absolute gems of kids.
His dad gave me the specific instructions on how to apply the ointment, the right way to rub it in, and how to wash it off (he even told me I could put it all over my body). They even showed me the lab reports from the Torlak Institute proving the ointment doesn't contain any heavy metals and is totally fine bacteriologically.
Still, despite being told I could go all over, I only applied it to my arms, legs, and backside, mostly because I figured some part of my skin needs to breathe, and since the ointment seals everything in, that seemed like the logical move.
I applied it for four nights straight, and every single day my skin felt worse—it was incredibly dry and cracked, even with me using Omega-3 body milk... but I have to admit, the patches were starting to fade!
On the fifth day at work, I started feeling this weird tingling in my tongue, and then my lips followed suit...
Then my head started tingling, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. The symptoms eased up enough for me to finish my shift, but once I got home for lunch, everything came crashing back even harder—intense dizziness and total suffocation. My wife rushed me to the ER, they moved me to the urgent care center, and then sent me straight to neurology. To them, it looked like neurological issues, and they seriously thought I was having a stroke, especially since I lost my ability to speak and couldn't even remember where I was born or where I worked. It is a terrifying sensation—you are fully conscious and aware, but you don't know your own birthdate and you can't find the words for basic things... it's horrific. At neurology, they ran a CT scan and everything came back clean. They gave me some meds and injections and sent me home... obviously, that was the moment I stopped using the ointment.
The next day, the whole nightmare started all over again... and the choking feeling was even worse... they finally realize it's either poisoning or a massive allergic reaction, so they start pumping me with Urbazone, Nyripana, Sinalar, Besedina... then they send me to dermatology... and the cycle continues every single day, the head tingling gets more intense, so they hook me up to neurology again. I ended up paying for an MRI myself because waiting for a spot at a public hospital would have taken like a year, and everything there was okay...
Finally, they sent me to an allergist, who realizes this is either a severe allergy or a serious systemic disease. He starts digging into everything I did before the first symptoms popped up... and he hits the nail on the head: it was the ointment. Apparently, the allergens built up in my system, specifically in my brain, because the smell of the ointment was so incredibly strong that I must have inhaled a huge amount of it. He sent me to the allergy institute at the major medical center here, where I stayed for a few days for testing. The results just came back, and they confirmed I reacted to the resins in the ointment, though they aren't 100% sure if it's an allergy or actual poisoning (though they think allergy is more likely). Once the symptoms cleared, they moved me back to dermatology to treat the psoriasis patches and keep a close eye on me to make sure the allergy doesn't come roaring back.
Right out of the gate, they were slathering me in these creams that were way stronger than some basic Vaseline 😬 and pumping me full of antibiotics... which actually cleared up most of those spotty patches. I made a deal with him, basically demanding that after ten days I could head back to work and home while keeping up the treatment with regular checkups... so they put me on 10 mg Accutane and salicylic acid every other day, plus daily moisturizing with Eucerin and 3% urea. I’ve been on the Accutane for seven days now and I’m already rocking short sleeves 😎 because the spots are barely visible, though I still have these big patches (just patches, mind you) on my butt and calves. I went swimming at Lake Tahoe this week and nobody really gave me a second look, except for this one guy who asked if the marks were burns because he wanted to pitch me some honeycombs and St. John's Wort 🙂
I tossed the bedding, even called in a crew for a deep clean of the mattress... but honestly, I’ll probably just dump the whole thing because even now, after all this time, it still smells a bit like tarry ointment.
My take:
Watch what you're putting on your body... all those natural remedies, teas, salves, and ointments can either save your life or end it, just as much as the industrial drugs can!
Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean it's safe!
Don't mess around, because there are things out there that, if they don't kill you, might actually help!
What works for one person might not work for another—in fact, it might do the exact opposite!
If it's an allergic reaction, it could be triggered by anything, even water; but if it's poisoning, that's a whole different story.
I don't hold a grudge against Healed for anything! I assume his ointments have helped plenty of people... besides, I was the one who wanted to try them. I'm not telling you to use his stuff, and I'm not telling you not to... that's your call to make.
The only thing I think he was obligated to do was keep me posted on what was happening with me, since he was checking in and contacting me pretty much every other day. Plus, he's offered any kind of help if I need it.
May the Lord God bless and protect you all, and grant you healing, because He is the only true physician of the soul and the body!!!
Thanks everyone for the advice and for looking out for me.
Wishing you all the best, you and your families (including Healed, obviously)
Yours,
Gregory Mendoza3