Dayna was in her senior year of college when what should have been a carefree weekend triggered the start of a chronic condition. “I was 21, in my senior year at UCLA. At that age, you don’t think you’re going to be diagnosed with a chronic skin condition. I went to Coachella as a 21-year-old does, and after Coachella, I started experiencing red dots on my back,” she says.
At first, she brushed it off. “I looked it up on Google and it told me it was bed bugs. I figured in two weeks it would go away. My primary care doctor thought it might be contact dermatitis because I had been lying in the grass,” she recalls. But the spots spread, and by the time Dayna finally got to a dermatologist, her symptoms had escalated. “When I finally got to my appointment, it was red, burning, scaling. It feels like your skin is on fire, on my back, my legs, my arms and it was starting on my chest.”
A New Diagnosis
One she was diagnosed with psoriasis, Dayna learned the condition was more advanced than she expected. “There’s a measurement called body surface area, or BSA. Ten percent is considered severe, and I was at 40 percent. It was on my scalp, my face, in my ears, all of my intimate areas, my groin, my breasts. At one point, I could only see a fourth of my nipple because it was covered in psoriatic plaques. My legs, it was everywhere, and I felt disgusting,” she says.
The emotional toll was just as heavy. “Everywhere I went, I would get stared at. Even when people were well-meaning, asking if everything was okay, it was a constant reminder that I wasn’t normal. At the gym, when I had the energy to push through the pain of sweating, I’d get weird looks. People don’t always realize psoriasis isn’t contagious.” Sleepless nights, painful workouts and having to delay her medical school applications added to the strain.
First Relief
Dayna tried and failed with multiple topicals before her dermatologist started the insurance process for a biologic. The waiting was difficult. “I remember crying in my dermatologist’s office because it was one month after one of our visits and she told me, hopefully by then we can either get an approval or a sample so you can start the medication. But she couldn’t get a sample, and there was no news about my insurance approval. I just lost it,” she says.
When she was finally approved for Skyrizi, the change was dramatic. “Within a month, my skin went from fully covered to completely clear, which is wild,” she recalls.
A Secondary Concern
Clear skin brought temporary relief, but soon another problem emerged. “I developed psoriatic arthritis in my axial joints—my back, shoulders and feet,” she says. At first, she thought it was normal back pain from studying all day, but it escalated quickly. “It was getting worse every day and it interfered with my sleep. There were nights when it took me seven hours to fall asleep. I often couldn’t walk around for long. It was miserable.”
The Treatment That Worked for Both
Her rheumatologist recommended Bimzelx (bimekizumab), a biologic recently approved for both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. “The medication I’m on now is called Bimzelx. I use it for my psoriasis and my psoriatic arthritis. I couldn’t believe I got insurance approval—that was the best day of my life,” she says.
The results came quickly. “Within a week, I was already feeling a little bit better. Within a month, I was back to playing volleyball, going to class, hanging out with people and sleeping more. My life was just so much better—all because I finally had access to a medication.”
Expert Insight
New York dermatologist and rheumatologist Saakshi Khattri, MD, explains why Bimzelx was the right fit. “Bimzelx is a first-in-class biologic medication that blocks both IL-17A and F, cytokines that are implicated in the pathogenesis of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. It’s approved for both, so it’s an excellent choice when a patient has skin and joint symptoms at the same time,” she says.
She notes that while some patients may feel results within weeks, “from an arthritis perspective, they do have early data, as early as four weeks of being on the medication, which is just one first dose. The clinical trial data is looking at week 16, so that’s about four months. So, I do tell my patients in the real world that let’s give the drug four months because that’s the primary endpoint of clinical trials, but they could start to see something as early as four weeks.”
Moving Forward
Now thriving in medical school, Dayna admits there’s still uncertainty that comes with relying on a costly biologic. “Living with a chronic illness with no cure and having an expensive biologic, you never feel fully at peace because your medication just might stop working. Or if you change insurances and you’re approved, you might have to start the whole process over again. So I try to live in the present,” she says.
Her advice for others: “You are not alone. Starting conversations and sharing stories helps. There are millions of people living with this, and support programs and foundations that can help. If you have the energy, reach out. If you don’t, that’s okay too. Give yourself grace.”
