Day 1 - Sweimeh, Jordan at the Dead Sea

Today I finished my first day of treatment here at the Dead Sea, the first of 21 days. The basic treatment plan below is performed once in the morning (ideally all before 10am) and and once in the late afternoon (ideally after 3:30pm):

Bathe in Dead Sea for 15 minutes
Rinse off salt with water (no soap)
Apply pseudocatalase cream to the whole body
Then sunbathe in the solarium (without clothes in gender-specific areas) on your front, back, sides, and any private areas. This is done starting out with 5 minutes on each side, then slowly progressing to 15 minutes on each side over time.

I recently realized two quick items: 1) to get to hard to reach areas you must contortion your body to ensure that the sun can reach it and 2) you must be careful with all the sweat dripping down that the pseudocatalase does not all get wiped off (since it is activated by the sun). Thus, to stay hydrated, you must purchase a lot of water. You will likely go through 3L of water per day. Fortunately I was able to go shopping with the help of a local Jordanian driver to buy 18L of water to get me started in addition to the free daily 1L I receive in my room.

Even after one day of treatment, some of my larger white spots are a little pink, which is good! Red is bad. I'll just have to monitor this well moving forward.

I am currently staying at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel (http://www.dssh.jo/), but I've had an overall great experience so far. The employees are all very nice and the facilities/room is quite nice. I'm staying here mainly because this is where Professor Schallreuter comes and seems to have all the resources I need for my treatment plan.

By the way, after 3 years of doing excimer laser treatment and protopic (with minimal effect) I've decided to try out Professor Schallreuter's treatment plan, which involves pseudocatalase and narrowband uv-ray application. Though not necessary, I also decided to start this treatment off with a bang by coming to the Dead Sea since I have the time and resources (though still questionable) to make this happen. I'm also trying to treat this as much of a vacation as I possibly can. I want to make sure that this is not only my experience but also an experience for everyone interested to learn more about this. And besides, it gives me something to do!

I just saw Professor Schallreuter for the first time earlier this week at her office in Greifswald, Germany (http://www.vitiligo.eu.com/home_en.php). Finally being able to meet her and and Angela in person was great. In my opinion, I believe they are absolutely not only the world's foremost experts on vitiligo but also the most passionate and medically committed to the cause that I've encountered. I know there's a lot of ideas on possible causes and treatment plans for vitiligo but I think I really do fall into the camp of trying to minimize the oxidative stress in the skin (thus the idea for reducing hydrogen peroxide levels in the skin through pseudocatalase). Obviously this is a personal take, but having studied chemistry, this seems to make the most scientific sense at the moment. It's certainly not a cure by any means, but it seems to have the most scientific evidence for me.