Vitiligo presents a patchy picture!

Last Updated on 3rd January 2019 by Caroline Haye

Thinking  back to how my vitiligo developed, it was quite literally a patchy process!  There were years when it progressed slowly, times when it seemed stable, and frightening and depressing times when new lesions appeared almost daily and I was terrified to look in a mirror.

The onset of these new patches of white skin was also a mixed bag.  Many of them were heralded by an intensely itchy rash, which only cleared once the new patch had appeared underneath.  Other patches seemed to just silently emerge with no warning whatsoever and no accompanying symptoms.  Other, larger expanses of skin (e.g. my face and the backs of my legs and my chest) just seemed to gradually morph into total whiteness without my ever having been aware of any patches as such.

Equally strange is the way the vitiligo has been disappearing over the past two years.  Most of the re-pigmentation has developed in the form of freckles – pale at first, then darker and more numerous, until freckles have piled on top of freckles and started to join up.  Other areas have just “phased” back into a light tan.  And a limited patch on the top of each foot has not re-pigmented at all (well maybe it has taken on a milky flesh colour, rather than the stark white of vitiligo, but that’s all).  These are the only two areas that still don’t bear too much scrutiny.  The rest could pass for normal now, if a bit mottled in places.

So, there you have it – a patchy picture in every sense of the word!