Hey Everybody,
Well... I recently had the chance to go to the NPF Conference in San Diego.. and let me tell you-- It was an amazing experience. Although, there is one thing that did dissapoint me... there was a major lack of teens there. I met 2 teens... thats it... and i sure didnt see more...
So i am here to share my experiences. I truly had an amazing time, i feel renewed and ready to take action with my psoriasis..And i only hope and pray that other teens like myself can have a chance to feel that way.
As you guys know, i have lots of friends on these boards, and me and my mom got to meet a bunch of them in person, and it was so much fun. If you think these people are awesome on the boards, wait till you meet them in person. They told my mom only good things about me, and they truly just gave us an awsome time. Matt (FlakeyMatt) gave an awesome speech at the Friday night welcome reception, and they presented some awards to the NPF and stuff (read all about it here: ) and he said it all perfectly in the very last line of his speech.. he said " damn, its great to be in a place where we dont have to feel different"... and it is so true... he said it all in that one line... Being at that conference, with 300 other people who are faced with the same psoriasis trials and pains each and every day of their life totally lifted me up. We didnt have to be afraid of what others thought, we didnt have to cover up our skin, we could be open and be ourselves!
I learned so much in all the workshops, and its not like i expected it to be. I expected it to be all formal and serious and boring, but the sessions/workshops were actually interesting, and i actually enjoyed being in most of them, and i learned so much about being a powerful patient and about new treatments becoming available for psoriasis. For once, i am actually excited about my next dermatologist appt (next week), because i am so informed now, and i am able to actually discuss things with him, and i know what is going on in the psoriasis research world so i can ask him questions and stuff.
Now, dont worry or anything, it wasnt all workshops and stuff like that. There was fun stuff too... They had little booths set up from all different places... there were booths like Enbrel, Amevive, Raptiva, PS:relief, all sorts of different places, and they had people standing by each booth ready to answer ANY question you happened to have... and they gave away free stuff too! LOL (yes, right now, i am proudly sporting my nice white RAPTIVA hat!).. and on Saturday night they also had the "Lets Make Some Noise" reception, and they had awesome food and music and stuff goin for a long time... it was awesome. There were also chances to go out for meals or just to hang out in the hotel lobby and those all proved to be really fun and awesome times!
I dont know what else to say except that i had a truly amazing time. I hope that next year more of you can make an effort to be at the conference, because you have no clue how big the smile on my face would be if i could talk to more teens, and actually meet them in person! Just so that you know, the NPF does give out scholarships to the conference, and when the plans for next years conference start being released, please contact the NPF about the scholarships if you cannot afford to make it there yourself!
Hope to see LOTS of you next year,
x0x0x KIM