Sinead Okafor used to start treating a flare on about day nine, when it had become unbearable, which is roughly eight days too late.
Nothing here is cosmetic, and the clinic is explicit about that in its letters, because the word decides funding.
Quantity is the most under-explained part of topical treatment. Patients are given a tube and an instruction and left to invent the dose.
People wait because nobody told them what the trigger was. So we wrote the trigger down.
Illustrative composite
The psychological load of a visible condition is asked about routinely at every appointment, because it does not correlate with severity and is otherwise never mentioned.
“I don’t have to decide any more,” she says. “It’s written on a card in the bathroom.”
