Recently I stumbed onto a website where LeAnn Rimes bravely discussed her lifelong battle with psoriasis.  It was truly inspiring.  As you probably know, psoriasis awareness has been one of my passion projects over the last few years and I hope to inspire others living with the disease to come forward and pursue their dreams – I’m excited about LeAnn coming out and hope they’ll be others.  Psoriasis is not a contageous (nor sexy) disease, but is connected to so many other problems – including alcoholism, depression, heart disease, and other system-wide problems.  As a sufferer, I am almost always uncomfortable in my own skin; skin which cracks, burns, itches, and bleeds frequently as my immune system stupidly attacks my it as if it was some kind of dermal virus.  Sometimes I want to send a memo to my own immune system, which would read something like this:

Dear White Blood Cells, Yo, it’s your boss Kevin (You know, owner of the body you live in and are hired to protect).  Yeah, what’s up?  Hey,  here’s a naked photo of me – you see that semi-tanned layer of soft flesh with cool tattoos and a bit of hair in all of the right places?  Yeah, that’s called “skin” you idiots!!  So when you get done playing X-box, or whatever it is you do everyday, maybe you could stop screwing around inside my body and instead focus on the flu that’s going around or making sure I don’t get some kind of STD.  I’m definitely keeping your damage deposit and may have to evict you if you guys don’t get your act together.  You are officially on f*#$ing notice – my skin is off-limits!  Hugs and Kisses. Love, Kevin

Each October, which includes World Psoriasis Day on October 29th, I try and create some additional awareness for the disease and this year I’ve decided to do something a little radical.  For the last 2 weeks I have pulled myself off of all my psoriasis medication, medication which was managing the disease moderately well – yep, right now I’m allowing the psoriasis to ravage my body.  Don’t worry, I’ve not gone completely crazy and there is a method to this madness.  Later this week I’m participating in a drug trial for an experimental new medication called AIN457 by Novartis, some cutting edge stuff which probably won’t be FDA approved for at least a couple years.  Hey, someone’s gotta test it and if it kills me at least I die for a good cause.  Regardless of the results, I’ll be tracking my progress including photos, ideas, funny anecdotes, and whatever else comes to mind.  Hopefully you won’t mind the break from the usual music posts for a few weeks as I work through this process.  Thanks for sticking with me and supporting me.  If want to learn more about psoriasis, it’s research, treatments, or anything else, check out:  http://www.psoriasis.org/ —————————————————————————– Check out the Memorial Edition of The Bedroom Sessions by clicking on this link:  The Bedroom Sessions LIVE