(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.
No comments:
Post a Comment