April has previously been a bad month for James and it was again.  My own hands and legs were driving me beserk so I could understand how he was feeling!  We have an array of creams that we were able to try but in the end had to admit defeat.  A trip to the GP was in store and more oral antibiotics.  The good news is…. it did the trick.  His skin improved, and the green patches went.

April has been bad for him before. I was not sure if the unusual weather might make a difference - in the end, it still got him!  It is still good now although he is on another antibiotic for ear infections.  How come some children just get everything?

In a previous post I mentioned James having a very high pain threshold - evidenced again by his ear infections.  He commented on one being sore one night.  It popped in the night with lots of discharge, both were infected and apparently there is a little hole in the bad one.

That night he ended up on his inhaler hourly, the doctor then put him on steroids tablets.  I chuckled to myself, as never mind me worrying about the poorly symptoms, the steroids would help his skin too.  Bonus!  (Obviously he needed them for his breathing anyway.)

Currently, it’s still going well.  Let’s hope that April sees it continuing to do well.

James’ face has been so much improved, we are able to use protopic 0.1% at the weekends and pretty much moisturisers the rest of the time.  I could spend all day just looking at his handsome wee face.  I was speaking to his teaching assistant at the Christmas Fair and she was commenting on the photo I had sent with the eczema fact sheet I’d prepared for him starting.  They’ve not had to see that, I find it upsetting to look at the photos, even though that was how he used to be… the majority of the time.  His face used to be varying degrees of severity, usually severe but sometime worse and occasionally better.

I’m loving it now.  He is a very tactile little boy and loves it if you stroke the side of his face.  It is an amazing feeling when it is soft!

Over his body is not too bad.  The cold does not seem to have affected it too much.  Central heating has.  Last week, his eczema did take a turn for the worse, but it ended up being more of an asthma problem.  Now he is 5years, he is officially asthmatic!  He has patches but not too bad - nothing that a bit of Elocon won’t hopefully sort.

Such a relief.

I did find out from someone who used to be an MDA at his school that not all of them are that sensitive during the hot weather.  She was saying that she used to get him to sit by the window to eat his lunch.  He overheats and scratches intensely.  Others however, apparently said, he needs to deal with it.  Oh if they could change shoes for a day and endure it.  I will raise it at the next parents evening pre-summer.

He always has a shower at the pool to wash off all the chlorine and other gubbins from the pool water.  A long time ago I noticed that he was not scratching much at all after swimming.  At that point I stopped putting anything in his bath water.  If it didn’t make his skin better, it certainly didn’t make it worse.  He is now back using dermol as a wash, but not filling the bath with any other emollient.

This morning James decided he didn’t want any epaderm ointment on his face.  I put some on my face encouraging him to put it on too.  When I had a shower a bit later, it was noticeable where I had put it on.  The water seemed to be sliding off.  I wasn’t convinced how clean I would be if I was covered in it.  Usually James just goes swimming (many pools don’t like creams on before the kids go in), then showers and then creams.  However, next time I will be trying the epaderm on the worst patches before he goes in.  Obviously I know how slippery it would make him and need to make sure his hands and knees can still grip so he’s able to pull himself out or I could grab hold of him if needs be.

He was only on a short 5 day course of 20mg prednisolone.  It does help his eczema initially.  Previously on a longer course (for his eczema) he tapered down the dose from 30mg to 5mg.  As he was going to smaller amounts his eczema started deteriorating.  This time it was great as he came off the tablets but last night I noticed how much worse it has become over his body.

So for James, it seems to be that whilst on a good dose of the tablets it helps.  Then when he takes a smaller dose, or comes off, his eczema returns with avengence.  It’s great that he had a few days with only minor patches, but now it can be deflating.

Last night I went out with some of the mums from his class.  Whilst talking about chicken pox, one was saying how awful it was seeing their little one’s perfect skin all bumpy and how awful it was to touch.  I remember crying when the health visitor said nonchalently that ‘Yes, it is a little touch of eczema’.  Thankfully for many it may just be a little patch, but having grown up with it I was upset!  Now I love the days when his skin, or part of it, does look clear.  The frequency probably isn’t far off how many times people get chicken pox!

However, on a positive note, James’ face is clear.  It’s not got really bad on his face for a few months now.  The steroids helped too - his facial skin looks amazing.