Eczema

We have struggled with Kara's eczema pretty much since birth. We get it under control, and have a flare again. We've used so many different creams, lotions, ointments, and haven't found our magic treatment yet. In the past few weeks we've noticed a definite increase in symptoms, despite the limited diet, and most recently, the liquid diet.

Yesterday we noticed a pretty major increase in her eczema, to the point where she pretty much looks terrible. I left a message with her allergy nurse at the end of the day, anticipating an a callback from the doctor sometime today.

We had a terrible night last night. I dont' think that neither Brian nor I slept for more than one consecutive hour last night. Kara tossed and turned, was so uncomfortable from her skin. My alarm went off this morning and I let work know that I wouldn't be in, and with that re-set the alarm for when the appointment line at our local clinic opened. No need - Kara was up, and with Kara up, Brenna was too. I was waiting for a call back to see if Kara could get in to see her doctor and decided maybe I should just call to Kara's allergy office to see if by chance she could be seen today. I called down there, spoke with the nurse and she fully agreed that Kara needed to be seen and they were able to get us in at 1:00 today. We had about an hour and a half to make plans and get on the road!

I was worried about this trip - Brian was unable to leave work and with me being up most of the night I was a little nervous about driving this trip on my own with Kara. It's a good 2 1/2 hour drive. Luckily my mom was able to make the trip with us, which was great because it ended up being a very long day!

We got to the clinic a little early and the doctor took us back early. We went through how Kara has been since she last was seen, explaining that even that week that we had seen her last, Kara had ended up in the hospital. I hadn't updated her on our latest food issues, the elimination diet and down to Neocate again so we went through the timeline for all of that.

Kara had a lot of poking and prodding at again today. She was out of sorts and looked awful so it was a long day. She had some labs done for cultures, an immunization because one of her immunization titers didn't come back the way they should due to her IgA deficiency and in the end, was skin pricked for bunches of things again.The final report was that the doctor firmly believes that the eczema is environmental, meaning that something in the air is setting her off so much and it's clearly not something that she is eating this time. She thought for sure that Kara's ragweed test and even possibly the trees and grasses would come back high but in fact showed nothing. Neither did any of the animals! She said that she's sure this is only the beginning and we'll see a positive as time goes on. Kara's milk and peanut reactions were very discouraging. She had a high reaction to peanut, much worse than the last one she had, and the dairy result was definitely positive as well. Obviously, she hasn't had any peanuts ever, and no dairy in abotu a year and a half so we can't blame those on the skin!

We aren't going to be doing anything too different as far as the skin care and medications go. Her face, we are going to start using vaseline on. My girl is a greasy, shiny mess! We are going to start trying moisture wrapping and giving her a daily dose of zyrtec as well as benedryl as needed. We'll get to the bottom of this one way or another!

We are to finish out the two weeks of Neocate only. At the end of that she wants her scoped right away and then for us to get back on the road of food trials. We mapped out a little plan of doing five day trials, pending scope results, of course. She is going to be talking with GI about this plan and hopefully we can get this show on the road. She would like to see Kara eating again as soon as possible.

Even though these last few weeks have been tough, it's amazing how one challenging, but educational day can turn our outlook around again. My mind is spinning with all of the info from this appointment and I'm sure I'm missing some pieces to our day but I feel like we have a good plan in place for right now.