Ethan Eczema Update

I know I am long overdue for an update on Ethan. Time has gotten away from me in a blur of dr's visits, toddler tantrums, and trying to keep my child from scratching his skin raw. Looking back on my previous post about his Eczema I realized that it has been 18 days since I posted those photos of Ethan.

Pediatric Dermatologist

Two weeks ago Ethan saw a pediatric dermatologist. His appointment was originally supposed to have been this week but persistence paid off and we got the appointment moved up. The dermatologist was wonderful. She prescribed a new set of medicines for Ethan (ointment for his body, ointment for his face, medicine to keep him from itching at night, and a prescription moisturizer) and the new stronger medicine did wonders for him and two days later we were seeing dramatic improvements. Five days later and his skin looked the best that it had looked since he was 4 months old. No more oozy bloody spots. Also, no more scratching his skin raw.

You can't tell because of his pacifier, but his chin is clear and the skin feels normal!

The dermatologist recommended allergy testing for Ethan. (this is something that I have repeatedly asked for in the past). We dropped by the blood lab at the hospital for a blood allergy test on the top 5 allergens. This part was awful. It took 30 minutes, the nurse was the only one on duty and had to keep leaving us to answer the front desk, etc, and Ethan didn't like being cooped up. It took three tries (switching arms in between tries) for her to find his vein and I had to bodily restrain him for his blood draw. Poor little guy still has a faint bruise from where the blood was drawn. Everyone in the waiting room heard his screams and when I came out with him I think everyone in the waiting room looked a little shell shocked. It.Was.Awful.

Results

I had expected the allergy test to be negative or that maybe he was allergic to milk. So I was thunderstruck when the nurse called and rattled off a long list of things that he is allergic to. Peanuts, eggs, wheat, milk, soy, and walnuts. He also tested positive for cats and dogs but the Allergist wasn't too worried about those results because she said that Eczema like Ethan's is usually triggered from a food allergy not an environmental allergy. Also blood testing isn't as accurate for environmental allergies. So that brings us to the next appointment...

Pediatric Allergist

I have to confess, I wasn't too impressed with our Allergist. Maybe it was her inability to communicate with me and answer my questions during my toddlers tantrum or her recommendation to give him Flintstone vitamins which she said she wasn't sure if he is old enough for (turns out he's not old enough for them) or just the fact that she was unable to answer most of my questions. I felt like I didn't get a lot out of this appointment other than Ethan needing to avoid wheat, milk, and soy, and avoid eggs as main part of a dish, but trace amounts are fine. Perhaps my questions just weren't in her field of specialty though. I just felt a little disillusioned because the Dermatologist's office told me the Allergist would be the person to go to with the questions I had and then the Allergist recommended that we visit a Dietitian for our questions instead. I still have a lot of questions about parameters as far as his allergens but maybe that is something that she intended for us to discuss in our next appointment.

Pediatric Dietitian

This is the appointment that we have tomorrow. I have high hopes for this appointment and I hope that I'm not setting myself up to be disappointed. This time Garrett is going to join us for the appointment so that if Ethan throws a tantrum (like he has at all his other appointments) he can take him out of the room so that I can discuss my questions without having to talk loudly and try to concentrate while he screams. ;-) I don't blame the poor kid though. Dr visits are boring and a little scary when you are only 1 year old!

In one week we have a follow-up appointment with the dermatologist to see how his medicine is working. While he did have dramatic results at first, his skin did flare up again over Easter weekend. We spent the weekend in San Antonio and when he woke up his skin looked noticeably worse. The next two days when he woke up I saw his skin get worse and worse. We are still using the medicine that the dermatologist gave us and we had already changed his milk to rice milk. We were trying to remove wheat but there were a few accidental slip-ups. Now that we are home his skin got a little bit better and then a little bit worse. It still isn't as bad as it was at the beginning of the month though.

Not the best photo, but the Eczema on his chin and cheeks has returned along with a little bit starting back up on his forehead.

We have a follow-up Allergist appointment for the end of May but the jury is still out on whether or not I will keep the appointment or find another Allergist. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just request his test results and then go to another Allergist. Can't hurt to have another opinion.

Anyway, I know that I have written a lot (and probably a lot more than you ever wanted to know). To sum it up, the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster filled with doctors visits, an unhappy baby, fighting Dallas traffic to make appointments on time, and several rounds of medicines (getting pretty expensive!) Of course one of the things I've learned so far about motherhood is that I no longer have the luxury of dwelling on my emotions. Ethan might pick up on my mood and since he is going to take his cues on how he should feel or react to something from me and my reaction I can't let things get to me. It's not easy but I'm working on it. ;-)

Finally, since happiness is a choice and a state of mind I'm choosing not to let my sons list of allergens or his itchy skin affect his or our own joy. I'm looking at the blessings in this situation (there are plenty!) and I'm going to use it to show my son that I love him through taking care of him and his dietary challenges. Creative baking here we come! Lets hope this takes care of things so that he can enjoy playing outside in our hot Texas summer without being miserably itchy afterwards. Oh and lets hope that Ethan outgrows most of these allergies before he goes to school and learns all about the awesome processed foods that other kids are eating. ;-)