To be clear, a lot of nice people that I love have sweetly and gently suggested that the dog might be the problem because they're sweet people. I don't mind that. Goodness, I couldn't have even begun to imagine all the things a human being could be sensitive to or that could cause eczema, so I depend on people's ideas and suggestions to know where to begin treating Diana. If there's one thing I've learned for certain, it's that everyone's eczema is different, so it becomes a little disheartening that avoiding (or using) the same foods, soaps, and lotions that completely cured other people's eczema hasn't healed Diana's, and I suppose that leads to a good amount of skepticism whenever people give me suggestions. But hey, the people who gently suggested that she might have been allergic to the dog ended up being right in the end. ;)
I still don't know what this means for Diana's eczema. We'll go see the allergist again soon. Her skin has on its own gotten much better. Sunshine and the Aveeno Eczema Therapy Cream seem to help with that up to a certain point. Right now it's just incredibly dry- covered with layers of super dry skin that's almost like light sandpaper. It's not very red, though, and it seems to be healing overall. These breaks are always so nice. She does still seem to be moderately itchy, but it's not as bad as it has been. She's also getting to the age where we can begin to suggest substitutes for scratching. We ask her to rub her skin instead of scratching it. Or if we can, we rub her legs, neck, or wrists ourselves and she seems mostly satisfied with that. I'm hoping there are very few more years that her eczema will be a serious problem. Growing up does seem to help even just a little bit.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
The results are in... Part II: No, really!
I'm sorry I cut you off with the last post before revealing anything. I'm very wordy in print.
If you skipped the last post just because you saw there was a Part II and guessed the surprise ending, you are a perceptive but terrible person. I bet you peek at the endings of books too.
We've tried Cetaphil, Cetaphil Anti-Itch Lotion, Burt's Bees, Cerave, normal Aveeno lotion, and Aveeno Eczema Therapy cream on Diana. We've tried coconut oil, sunflower oil and even emu oil. (I still want to know how they extract oil from emus.) We've tried Vaseline and Aquaphor. We've tried 1% and 2.5% hydrocortisone, as well as "moderate" and "strong" topical steroids, whose names I don't remember. This list seems short, so I know I'm forgetting some, but basically, we've tried everything we can think of. I've changed our laundry soap and household cleaners multiple times, as well as all my soaps and cosmetics. Mostly, we've had two and a half years of red rashes from allergic reactions to new soaps or moisturizers. The only thing that seems to help a little is Aveeno Eczema Therapy Cream, but since it has some alcohol in it, we can't use it where there are scabs on Diana's skin. When her skin got bad a couple of weeks ago, that was basically all over her body.
The allergy clinic gave me the results of Diana's blood panel over the phone. Hallelujah! Hooray!
And they were as follows:
Diana had a strong reaction to: cats, dogs, and peanuts.
She had a moderate reaction to cow's milk and egg whites.
She had a low reaction (which may not manifest as a sensitivity at all) to soy and tree nuts.
My first reaction was relief. Thank goodness! We had some idea of what we were dealing with, and there was scientific evidence to back it up. I've always suspected cow's milk and egg whites, but couldn't get a strong correlation between those and her eczema during our elimination diet. My second reaction was: "Rats." Only partly because we have a dog in the house. My motivation might have been a little selfish. I don't like being told "I told you so." People always ask, "Could she be allergic to the dog?" and it drives me nuts. Usually they do it gently, as if they're breaking bad news to me. As if I hadn't considered she might be allergic to the giant walking allergen in our house? Or as if I was so emotionally attached to the big dumb (but sweet and loving!) dog that I would have any kind of pang of conscience over throwing her out if I knew it affected my daughter's health? We've never had any concrete evidence that Diana's eczema was related to the dog. So I feared that the first reaction I would get would be "Well, I told you so," and I knew that the question immediately following it would be "What are you going to do with the dog?" And I really don't know. We're still talking about it.
So now we know that Diana is allergic to something she's exposed to in our house 24 hours a day. Something that is leaving extra hair everywhere because it's shedding season. You know what that means, don't you?
Nothing.
That's right. In terms of her eczema, it means basically nothing.
Really, though, we knew that. We've traveled away from the house with variable effects on Diana's skin. We were between dogs for a while and her skin was still bad. It turns out, allergies and the causes for eczema can be entirely different. Here's a very stream-of-consciousness transcript of a talk by Dr. Harvey Leo of St. Joseph Medical Hospital on that topic. Eczema like Diana's is a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Even if we got rid of our dog (and here are some interesting stories from dog-allergic families whose eczema didn't clear up after getting rid of dogs), Diana would still have eczema. She has an allergic response to the dog, an immune system response, that would probably manifest as itchy eyes, runny nose, etc. when she touches the dog or rubs her face in her fur: something we've already seen and know how to treat. But her dog allergy and her eczema are separate things. Also- surprise!- a study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that children with eczema may actually benefit from living with a dog! (Technical abstract here, summary news article here.)
We'll be meeting with the allergist again this week to talk about what her results mean. For the sake of thoroughness, we'll probably try having the dog stay elsewhere for a while. She's a nice dog, but I have too much on my plate to be really emotionally attached to her, so I would have no problem being a dog-free family. But unless it will positively affect Diana, I don't see a reason to get rid of the dog when there is only a correlation between Diana having eczema and our family owning a dog. The nurse at the allergy clinic suggested that the doctor might ask us to try another elimination diet (goody) with cow's milk and then egg whites to see if that affects Diana. Since our first elimination diet didn't reveal anything, I'm guessing we won't see much improvement in Diana's skin. I suppose in reality we'll probably just end up waiting this one out until Diana grows out of her eczema. There are so many factors I wonder if we'll ever find them all. I hate eczema.
(On that note, can I take a moment to vent that I am always the one taking the blame for Diana's eczema?? Of course it doesn't matter really, but I've had so many people ask about her skin, because that's the first thing strangers ALWAYS say to me, and then comment, "Well, you're so fair-skinned, it probably runs in your family..." FALSE! NO! Not me! I'm even mixed, for Pete's sake! You can take your disapproving stares to my tan-but-completely-Caucasian husband! Oh, genetics are a hilarious and nonsensical game.)
If you skipped the last post just because you saw there was a Part II and guessed the surprise ending, you are a perceptive but terrible person. I bet you peek at the endings of books too.
We've tried Cetaphil, Cetaphil Anti-Itch Lotion, Burt's Bees, Cerave, normal Aveeno lotion, and Aveeno Eczema Therapy cream on Diana. We've tried coconut oil, sunflower oil and even emu oil. (I still want to know how they extract oil from emus.) We've tried Vaseline and Aquaphor. We've tried 1% and 2.5% hydrocortisone, as well as "moderate" and "strong" topical steroids, whose names I don't remember. This list seems short, so I know I'm forgetting some, but basically, we've tried everything we can think of. I've changed our laundry soap and household cleaners multiple times, as well as all my soaps and cosmetics. Mostly, we've had two and a half years of red rashes from allergic reactions to new soaps or moisturizers. The only thing that seems to help a little is Aveeno Eczema Therapy Cream, but since it has some alcohol in it, we can't use it where there are scabs on Diana's skin. When her skin got bad a couple of weeks ago, that was basically all over her body.
The allergy clinic gave me the results of Diana's blood panel over the phone. Hallelujah! Hooray!
And they were as follows:
Diana had a strong reaction to: cats, dogs, and peanuts.
She had a moderate reaction to cow's milk and egg whites.
She had a low reaction (which may not manifest as a sensitivity at all) to soy and tree nuts.
My first reaction was relief. Thank goodness! We had some idea of what we were dealing with, and there was scientific evidence to back it up. I've always suspected cow's milk and egg whites, but couldn't get a strong correlation between those and her eczema during our elimination diet. My second reaction was: "Rats." Only partly because we have a dog in the house. My motivation might have been a little selfish. I don't like being told "I told you so." People always ask, "Could she be allergic to the dog?" and it drives me nuts. Usually they do it gently, as if they're breaking bad news to me. As if I hadn't considered she might be allergic to the giant walking allergen in our house? Or as if I was so emotionally attached to the big dumb (but sweet and loving!) dog that I would have any kind of pang of conscience over throwing her out if I knew it affected my daughter's health? We've never had any concrete evidence that Diana's eczema was related to the dog. So I feared that the first reaction I would get would be "Well, I told you so," and I knew that the question immediately following it would be "What are you going to do with the dog?" And I really don't know. We're still talking about it.
So now we know that Diana is allergic to something she's exposed to in our house 24 hours a day. Something that is leaving extra hair everywhere because it's shedding season. You know what that means, don't you?
Nothing.
That's right. In terms of her eczema, it means basically nothing.
Really, though, we knew that. We've traveled away from the house with variable effects on Diana's skin. We were between dogs for a while and her skin was still bad. It turns out, allergies and the causes for eczema can be entirely different. Here's a very stream-of-consciousness transcript of a talk by Dr. Harvey Leo of St. Joseph Medical Hospital on that topic. Eczema like Diana's is a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Even if we got rid of our dog (and here are some interesting stories from dog-allergic families whose eczema didn't clear up after getting rid of dogs), Diana would still have eczema. She has an allergic response to the dog, an immune system response, that would probably manifest as itchy eyes, runny nose, etc. when she touches the dog or rubs her face in her fur: something we've already seen and know how to treat. But her dog allergy and her eczema are separate things. Also- surprise!- a study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that children with eczema may actually benefit from living with a dog! (Technical abstract here, summary news article here.)
We'll be meeting with the allergist again this week to talk about what her results mean. For the sake of thoroughness, we'll probably try having the dog stay elsewhere for a while. She's a nice dog, but I have too much on my plate to be really emotionally attached to her, so I would have no problem being a dog-free family. But unless it will positively affect Diana, I don't see a reason to get rid of the dog when there is only a correlation between Diana having eczema and our family owning a dog. The nurse at the allergy clinic suggested that the doctor might ask us to try another elimination diet (goody) with cow's milk and then egg whites to see if that affects Diana. Since our first elimination diet didn't reveal anything, I'm guessing we won't see much improvement in Diana's skin. I suppose in reality we'll probably just end up waiting this one out until Diana grows out of her eczema. There are so many factors I wonder if we'll ever find them all. I hate eczema.
(On that note, can I take a moment to vent that I am always the one taking the blame for Diana's eczema?? Of course it doesn't matter really, but I've had so many people ask about her skin, because that's the first thing strangers ALWAYS say to me, and then comment, "Well, you're so fair-skinned, it probably runs in your family..." FALSE! NO! Not me! I'm even mixed, for Pete's sake! You can take your disapproving stares to my tan-but-completely-Caucasian husband! Oh, genetics are a hilarious and nonsensical game.)
The results are in.... Part I
(But first, the backstory.)
It's been about two months since I last posted and it has been a crazy ride. A week or two before Easter, Diana's skin magically cleared up. No redness! No itching, even when she had the opportunity! It was a miracle! I'm always glad for these surprise improvements in her skin, but I know that it's just a cloud break- eventually coaches turn back into pumpkins and Diana's skin goes back to being itchy. Our prayers are still being answered- we are continually getting new insights into trouble factors and meeting people with new, helpful ideas about her skin. God is still faithful, even though she's not completely healed yet.
With the break in itchiness, we started really potty-training, which she took to like a dream. There was no reason to put ourselves through heartache when she was 18 months old. She just got it this time. Within a couple weeks she was almost completely potty trained at home. For the most part, she doesn't like diapers anymore and she can go through naps and public outings without any accidents! Hooray!
Sure enough, around Easter Diana started itching again. Our week or two of sunny weather became cloudy again. (You can count on clouds in western Oregon until about July.) And with the clouds came the redness and itchiness. We've developed an emergency protocol for Diana's skin. When it gets bad, she takes a shower every night (sitting in a bath gives the opportunity for scratching already damaged skin) and gets her face and hands wiped with a warm, wet rag every morning and when necessary during the day. We slather on Vaseline as if she's about to go open-water swimming and try to keep her covered in long sleeves and tights. Yes, we know what to do when the getting gets bad. But this time, it got REALLY bad. She couldn't stop scratching for anything. We tried to keep her covered up, but now there's the confounding factor of potty time: 5-15 minutes at a time of just sitting on the potty with her legs exposed usually scratching up a storm. If she can't get to her legs, she goes for her belly and back. If she can't get to that, she goes for her wrists and neck. If she can't get to those for some reason, she goes for her cheeks. This time, about 80% of her body was covered in little scabs from scratching until she bled EVERYWHERE. And because there were scabs, it hurt to put anything on her skin- even water. So Diana's bedtime routine became one of a child screaming bloody murder as we showered her and slathered oil (to moisturize) and then Vaseline (to lock in moisture) on her skin before putting on her PJs. It helps to think that you're just doing it for her own good and she doesn't know that you're actually doing the best thing for her skin, but with enough screaming, it becomes a jaw-clenching, soul-tiring routine. Suddenly our girl who loved water won't go near it, which is sad to me. She didn't sleep well at night, and every time she woke up she would scratch. We tried probiotics (though in retrospect, maybe not the right kinds) and apple cider vinegar or bleach baths to combat the yeast component, but it didn't seem to do any good for the rest of her skin.
It got so bad that I made an appointment to see our family doctor, who Diana had never seen. As "luck" would have it, she got a bad cold that was heading toward pneumonia again, so Joseph ended up taking Diana to Urgent Care where she met Dr. Sharp, who works in the same building. A few weeks later we were back to talk to him about her eczema. It was a wonderful visit. He listened to me! He listened to my story of Diana's eczema and ALL the things we'd tried! He had suggestions- new suggestions!- not just the same old bleach bath and moisturizing cream lecture. He explained eczema to me and referenced current medical literature (that I'd read!). It was wonderful. Unfortunately, his suggestion of sunflower oil and Cerave lotion didn't work for Diana's skin, but we switched her antihistamine to children's Zyrtec instead of a double dose of children's Claritin and it seemed to lessen her itchiness a bit.
He sent us to an allergist who didn't have any new ideas about what could be causing Diana's problems, but she ordered a blood panel, which meant my brave little girl had to unknowingly go to her first blood draw. Obviously I didn't really explain what was happening to her beforehand because I didn't want her to panic. She was so sad (what a terrible surprise!) but did very well and didn't try to move her arm around at all. Poor poor thing. I hoped it would be worth it to have an idea what she's ACTUALLY allergic to. We've had so many theories over the years and we need some concrete answers to work with.
[Fade to black.]
Surprise! Come back for the next post. This one is long enough.
It's been about two months since I last posted and it has been a crazy ride. A week or two before Easter, Diana's skin magically cleared up. No redness! No itching, even when she had the opportunity! It was a miracle! I'm always glad for these surprise improvements in her skin, but I know that it's just a cloud break- eventually coaches turn back into pumpkins and Diana's skin goes back to being itchy. Our prayers are still being answered- we are continually getting new insights into trouble factors and meeting people with new, helpful ideas about her skin. God is still faithful, even though she's not completely healed yet.
With the break in itchiness, we started really potty-training, which she took to like a dream. There was no reason to put ourselves through heartache when she was 18 months old. She just got it this time. Within a couple weeks she was almost completely potty trained at home. For the most part, she doesn't like diapers anymore and she can go through naps and public outings without any accidents! Hooray!
Sure enough, around Easter Diana started itching again. Our week or two of sunny weather became cloudy again. (You can count on clouds in western Oregon until about July.) And with the clouds came the redness and itchiness. We've developed an emergency protocol for Diana's skin. When it gets bad, she takes a shower every night (sitting in a bath gives the opportunity for scratching already damaged skin) and gets her face and hands wiped with a warm, wet rag every morning and when necessary during the day. We slather on Vaseline as if she's about to go open-water swimming and try to keep her covered in long sleeves and tights. Yes, we know what to do when the getting gets bad. But this time, it got REALLY bad. She couldn't stop scratching for anything. We tried to keep her covered up, but now there's the confounding factor of potty time: 5-15 minutes at a time of just sitting on the potty with her legs exposed usually scratching up a storm. If she can't get to her legs, she goes for her belly and back. If she can't get to that, she goes for her wrists and neck. If she can't get to those for some reason, she goes for her cheeks. This time, about 80% of her body was covered in little scabs from scratching until she bled EVERYWHERE. And because there were scabs, it hurt to put anything on her skin- even water. So Diana's bedtime routine became one of a child screaming bloody murder as we showered her and slathered oil (to moisturize) and then Vaseline (to lock in moisture) on her skin before putting on her PJs. It helps to think that you're just doing it for her own good and she doesn't know that you're actually doing the best thing for her skin, but with enough screaming, it becomes a jaw-clenching, soul-tiring routine. Suddenly our girl who loved water won't go near it, which is sad to me. She didn't sleep well at night, and every time she woke up she would scratch. We tried probiotics (though in retrospect, maybe not the right kinds) and apple cider vinegar or bleach baths to combat the yeast component, but it didn't seem to do any good for the rest of her skin.
It got so bad that I made an appointment to see our family doctor, who Diana had never seen. As "luck" would have it, she got a bad cold that was heading toward pneumonia again, so Joseph ended up taking Diana to Urgent Care where she met Dr. Sharp, who works in the same building. A few weeks later we were back to talk to him about her eczema. It was a wonderful visit. He listened to me! He listened to my story of Diana's eczema and ALL the things we'd tried! He had suggestions- new suggestions!- not just the same old bleach bath and moisturizing cream lecture. He explained eczema to me and referenced current medical literature (that I'd read!). It was wonderful. Unfortunately, his suggestion of sunflower oil and Cerave lotion didn't work for Diana's skin, but we switched her antihistamine to children's Zyrtec instead of a double dose of children's Claritin and it seemed to lessen her itchiness a bit.
He sent us to an allergist who didn't have any new ideas about what could be causing Diana's problems, but she ordered a blood panel, which meant my brave little girl had to unknowingly go to her first blood draw. Obviously I didn't really explain what was happening to her beforehand because I didn't want her to panic. She was so sad (what a terrible surprise!) but did very well and didn't try to move her arm around at all. Poor poor thing. I hoped it would be worth it to have an idea what she's ACTUALLY allergic to. We've had so many theories over the years and we need some concrete answers to work with.
[Fade to black.]
Surprise! Come back for the next post. This one is long enough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)