All Rileyed Up

Everyone’s always asking me about eczema. What I do for it, did for it, have I tried this, that, the other thing, will I talk to their friend who has a child with eczema, etc etc. So now, if anyone asks, I can send them the link to this post.

Eczema is a pretty nasty beast and it changes with every person, but these are some things I have done for The Boy’s eczema, in no particular order. They may or may not work for you. Good luck.

1. IgE and IgG Blood tests. IgE and IgG are two different kinds of antibodies that can appear in your blood in response to allergens. When you visit an allergist, they usually test for IgE allergies. A person with an IgE allergy has an immediate reaction, eg: hives, anaphylactic shock. An allergist can test for them by either drawing the blood and testing it or doing what I call “the back scratch test,” where they essentially give you a bunch of paper cuts and then swipe them with the different possible allergens and wait 20 minutes to see if there’s a reaction (like hives). IgG blood tests look not just for reactions that take place immediately, but reactions that take place over time, usually two weeks. They’re more like intolerances. This is a time-consuming, expensive blood test that many insurances do not cover and doctors will disagree on the accuracy of its results. Keep in mind, though, ALL allergy tests run the chance of inaccuracy. The Boy has had three IgE blood tests and 1 IgG blood test and none of them have had the same results. Most of his diet restructuring is based on the results of the IgG blood test and his skin has taken a phenomenal step up since then.

2. Bath time Routines. All the dermatologists I ever met recommended as little bathing as possible to avoid drying out the skin. I did that with The Boy during his younger years, but found as he got older, he benefitted from taking a shower every night and cleaning all that dirt off. Try to keep the water tepid, vs very hot or very cold. Also, post-bath/shower, don’t rub the skin down with a towel. Just pat the skin dry (or better yet, air dry), and immediately put on moisturizer.

3. Hydrogen Peroxide. If the rashes start getting red/ooze-y, break out the hydrogen peroxide. If the Boy is showing any suspicious spots, then right after his shower, I dampen a white washcloth with hydrogen peroxide and pat the area with it.

4. Moisturizer. I do not use any cream lotions. Period. End of story. Lubriderm, Sarna, Cetaphil, Eucerin, Moisturel… I’ve tried ‘em all. If you have mild eczema, any of these might do the trick, but when you’re dealing with moderate to severe eczema, don’t put your hopes in a cream. I currently use Natralia Skin Nourishing Oil all over the body and the occasional Aquaphor on the knees and elbows. I’ve also had experienced good results in the past with Moisture Riser oil, Wise Woman Herbals salves, and Derma-Smoothe oil (this one is prescription only).

5. Hot Wraps and Cold Packs. This was something recommended to me by a Pediatric Dermatologist at an eczema specialty clinic in San Diego. When the eczema is particularly inflamed, after the shower, apply a thick layer of Aquaphor to the area (in The Boy’s case, it’s usually the elbows and knees, sometimes the whole forearm or shin and ankle areas), then wrap it with gauze that has been soaked in warm to hot water, followed by another layer of dry gauze or self-adhesive athletic wrap. I usually do this at night and let The Boy sleep with the wrap on. At the very least, try to keep the wrap on for two hours. If you have a prescription steroid ointment, apply the steroid first, then the Aquaphor, then the wrap.
Now onto the cold packs. Yes, I wrap up the body with warm gauze, but once he’s in bed, I tuck The Boy in with a cold pack in a fabric sleeve – the kind they sell at kiosks in the mall and farmers markets and craft sales. Ours is a fluffy purple sleeve that is washable and the cold pack is filled with corn seed and lavender. I keep it in the freezer and give it to him every night and he likes the cool softness against his skin. If you don’t have a cold pack, you could get away with a hand towel that you’ve put in the freezer (don’t soak it or anything, just let it get nice and cold in the freezer so that it feels good against the skin – think Liz Taylor freezing her negligee in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, only without the sexiness).

6. Topical steroids. Oral steroids. The Boy has been prescribed oral steroids on a couple of occasions, the kind that asthma sufferers take, and while I admit it zapped away the eczema in a couple days, oral steroids are harsh on your internal body and once the effects wear away, you run the risk of the eczema coming back with a vengeance. Topical steroids are not as bad. I’ve used pretty much all the topical steroids out there at one point or another and had the best experience with Triamcinolone ointment (I can’t remember the percentage off the top of my head, but your doctor will know best which to recommend). There’s also a foam one called Verdeso that is neat because a little bit goes a long way, but if there are too many breaks in the skin, Verdeso stings. It’s also relatively new to the market and you never know what study might come out in a year that says, “Whoops – you shouldn’t use that after all.”

7. Non-steroid prescription creams. Elidel and Protopic. I had pretty much zero success with both of these and had to chuck over a lot of money for them. What a disappointment. There are also rumors that people who have used these creams have gone on to develop skin cancer. There are no conclusive studies that prove it to the point where the creams have been made unavailable to the public, but it’s discomforting nonetheless.

8. Tea and herbs. We met with an acupuncturist who concocted a special herbal bath recipe for The Boy. It worked okay, but I found I could get the same results from pouring a pot of freshly brewed chamomile tea into the bathtub. I also know someone who poured oatmeal into her bath – mind you, not the Aveeno Oatmeal Bath, just straight up oatmeal. Much cheaper. Be careful when you drain. There’s also the age-old corn starch bath. A little bit goes a long way. Again, be careful when you drain.

9. Chiropractor. Read here for more info.
I took The Boy to a chiropractor. I fell into the 25 percent who saw some improvement. But not total improvement.

10. Benadryl. Good for the itchies that just don’t go away and ruin sleep time. I’m not a fan of drugging up The Boy, but let’s face it, he also needs to sleep and sometimes Benadryl gets him there. At doctors recommendations, we have tried both Zyrtec and Atarax (and for a short, fretful while, both) but in the end we all agreed that I would use Benadryl at my discretion because it put the least amount of drugs into his body.

11. Probiotics. For goodness, take them, regardless of whether or not you eat yogurt and especially if you’ve ever taken antibiotics. Be careful of probiotics brands though. Not all probiotics carry live bacteria and if they’re dead, then they’re doing you no good. My friend the chiropractor recommends this brand that requires a health professional’s assistance in ordering: Innate Choice.

12. Cod liver oil. I aim to give The Boy cod liver oil (flavored in either lemon or orange) every day to nourish the skin and those omega-3s aren’t hurting his brain activity either. I’ve been recommended strongly by three health experts to only use the Nordic Naturals or Carlson’s brands.

13. Bragg’s brand Apple Cider Vinegar. The ultimate panacea. Got a fever? Got an allergy? Got a weight problem? Got acid reflux? Got digestion issues? There’s a testimonial out there how apple cider vinegar changed it all. Recommended drink is two tablespoons a day mixed with 8 oz water. If you can’t stand the sourness, try adding honey. The Boy wasn’t too fond of this concoction, so I mix a little 100 percent apple juice into the water.

On a final note, Pine Tar soap was recently recommended to me by Mary-LUE. I’ll have to give it a shot and get back to everyone on that.

This post contributed to Thursday 13.

The Boy went in for his six-year-old well check yesterday and like a fool, I forgot to bring the school form that I needed the doctor to fill out. Which means I’ll be making another visit to the doctor. Not that going to the doctor is such an uncommon thing for me.

When your child has severe eczema, your child is an easy target for infections, which means you visit the doctor. A LOT. I saw my doctor’s admin at the community center over the holidays and she totally knew my name. I hate to say it, but this level of recognition isn’t really par for the course any more in doctors’ offices, so you KNOW I’m there a lot.

The good news is that Doctor thought The Boy looked pretty good at his well check yesterday. He’s growing, getting taller, gaining weight, has normal blood pressure, and she proclaimed his skin “not bad for The Boy.”

Happy dance!

So, of course, Doctor wants to talk about how we’re treating his skin. A combination of obsession, dietary changes, advice from alternative health practitioners (chiropractor, naturopathic, acupuncture), and limited use of topical steroids.

I’ve unfortunately been through many prescription drugs in the past six years to treat eczema. For those of you with drug use history, you might relate well to the uncomfortable moments when you asked for a refill only to find out that such-and-such drug has been recalled. This has happened twice to me in the past, once with a topical non-steroid-but-prescription-strength cream (now available again on the market) and an oral steroid that I enjoy administering about as much as I might enjoy eating the dirt cleaned out of my toenails.

If you haven’t been in this situation, here is a brief reenactment:

Me: Why was it recalled?
Former Doctor: Hmm. I don’t know exactly. Something like causing cancer in monkeys? Or something like that. But don’t worry about it.

While you’re at it, why don’t you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?

Now, between you and me (and, you know, the internet-reading public), I think it’s best to avoid prescription drugs whenever possible. I’m always making an effort to use as little steroid as possible. But sometimes, it just happens that that prescription drugs come in handy, like when I had a MRSA infection that wouldn’t go away until I took crazy antibiotics. But I’ve always been paranoid about how to keep track of drug information, like recalls and bad reactions, which is why it was even more upsetting to not once but TWICE be caught unawares by a recall.

And this is why I’m glad to be a member of MomCentral. I recently received this message from them about Drugs.com and MedNotes:

“MedNotes provides a free online personalized medication management program that can be used to track the whole family’s medication profiles… you can enter the names of all the medications being taken and then register to receive drug safety or interaction alerts to ultimately help reduce dangerous side effects and avoid unwanted drug interactions. In addition, MedNotes will send you new drug and specific condition news released by the FDA or drug makers related to the medications your family members take.”

Thank you, Drugs.com and MedNotes, for relieving my worries. Now if I could just get everyone in the house to a point where we didn’t have to use the drugs at all…

At a recent kid function, I was approached by four different people, who started these conversations with me:

“What’s wrong with your son?”

“Is your son okay?”

“Do you know who he belongs to? Oh, you? Does he have chicken pox?”

“I think your son is sick.”

Whew.

Imagine if they’d seen him a year ago, when his skin looked really bad.

I’ve come to accept that these remarks come with the territory of “looking different” and I do appreciate that nobody recommended any skin products (my personal, however irrational, pet peeve). I get that The Boy’s skin does not look normal. I get that when people hear him cough and combine that with the sight of his skin, then they might conclude he is sick. I get it. I really do.

What I do not get is why people think that these are acceptable questions with which to start – and then end – a conversation.

Go ahead, ask me what’s up with my son (fyi, I find “Is he okay?” to be the least offensive of the above options). Sure, I’d prefer you assume I am not the kind of mother who brings a sick, contagious child around other children, but, whatever. I’ll answer your questions. And I won’t—no matter how often I think of doing it—respond with “So what’s wrong with your kid? Does he have some sort of contagious disease that I should know about?” But for the love of Benadryl meltaway strips, stick around and talk to me. About movies, books, cake, Johnny Depp’s ass, anything! Don’t walk up, say “Does he have chicken pox? No? Oh, okay,” and then return to your three friends and shake your heads amongst each other like you don’t believe me, the woman who’s still standing around all by herself.

Because that’s not cool.

Fast forward to yesterday. I went to Starbucks with The Boy. A woman in line kept looking at us. After I ordered my drink and was standing around waiting for it, the woman approached me and said, “I’m sorry to keep staring at you, but I believe we’ve met?”

Sure enough, we had met. At the MOMS club Easter party in 2007.

“Wow,” I said. “You have a good memory!” (For real, there must have been 30-40 people at that party.)

“Well, I never forgot your son, because his eczema was so bad.” Figures. Yes, the Easter 07 look for The Boy was unimpressive, indeed. That was around the time someone asked me if he’d “fallen into a thorny bush.” I’m not even kidding. And neither was the person asking the question.

“But he looks amazing now!” she said. “What did you do?”

Turns out both of her kids and she herself have eczema, but none so bad as The Boy, and whenever she was frustrated with her family’s eczema, she would think of me and The Boy and wonder how he was. I told her about our doctor and the blood test we did and blah blah blah, exchange, exchange, exchange.

And then her son had to pee, and I got my latte and went home. Why can’t all conversations be that lovely?

I have mentioned (obsessed over) the fact that The Boy has eczema. It used to be categorized as severe eczema, but has since been downgraded to moderate eczema. Most likely because of the removal of many, many foods from his diet. But the eczema still persists and from time to time, and I am still asked if he has (or just recently recovered from) chicken pox.

Why hasn’t it gone away entirely? Who knows. The weather. The dogs. Something out of place in his spine. Genetics. Stress. Allergies. Digestive issues. These are all answers I’ve received in the past from various people of western and alternative health practices.

Recently, I was made aware of the American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning’s AccuClean™ whole home air filtration system.

I am seriously considering getting this. I have no idea how much it costs, since they don’t even list the starting prices online (my wallet quivers in my back pocket as I write this), but according to my tax accountant, if I spend more than seven percent of my income on health related expenses, I can deduct them from my taxes, and while I don’t know if this would meet the required seven percent, this should count as health-related, shouldn’t it? Maybe I should include a picture of my son’s skin?

It’s old, but still infamous

Also, AccuClean removes nearly all allergens AND prevents odors. So not only could this help The Boy’s skin, it might also address the problem of my home smelling like dog.

I resent that comment. I smell like lilies. And roses. You should WANT to smell like me.

It’s such a big rule in creative writing: Don’t shift the tense. Repeat after me. Didn’t shift the tense. (Doh!)

If your story is in present tense, you’d best bet it better stay there. From time to time, I read something where the writer magnificently shifts the tense, like “The Custodian” by Deborah Eisinger, but generally speaking, it’s best to keep to the same tense. And in fiction, writers (and readers) tend to favor the past tense. Including me.

As it turns out, I also favor the past tense in certain conversations. I made this discovery just yesterday when I was talking to my naturopathic doctor about The Boy.

For those of you not already aware, The Boy has eczema. Severe eczema. And whenever I took him out in public, people asked me about it–
“Does your son have chicken pox?”
“What’s wrong with him?”

In June, we put him on a special diet.

Now, when I take him out, the people who stop me and ask about his skin say this–
“Did your son have chicken pox?”
“What happened to him?”

See?

See the beauty of the past tense verb?

People no longer think something currently afflicts The Boy, they just think something USED TO afflict The Boy and he is now healing from it.

Ah.

Of course, we’re still a ways from the finish line, but we get closer every day. I suppose the next step is people not noticing his skin. Dare to dream.

And in other news, I find it supremely hilarious that there is a brand of milk called Hemp Bliss.

Oh yes. I do.

May 20, 2007

August 29, 2007