I Hate Eczema

Warning. This is a whiney, depressing blog. :-)

I love blogging. I really do. I consider it a stress reliever. Not to mention, I really, really love reading other people's blogs. I've been so busy at home and work lately that I haven't been good about blogging. I'll try to catch you up on what has been going on in the Morris' household.

I think I've mentioned before that Wes has severe, severe eczema. Like, really bad eczema. It kind of started surfacing when he was around two months old. He is five months old now, and he has had a really rough time the last few months.

His eczema has been so bad that his poor little face, neck, legs, arms, and torso would just ooze from the eczema patches. His skin would itch him so badly that all he would ever do is cry and scratch till he bled. It has been very trying to say the least. It actually got to the point that he would never nap, because his skin hurt him so badly. We could never just lie him down anywhere, because he would scratch and cry constantly. There have been many times that I would just cry and cry, too, because there was nothing I could do to make him better.

We started off by taking him to the pediatrician twice. Both times Wes was given a steroid cream that would help a little. We (we includes grandparents) all changed laundry detergents and soaps. As far as lotions, we started with Aveno Eczema Therapy lotion, then switched to CeraVe, and now use Vanicream. We switched to the most expensive formula Alimentum (roughly $80 a week).

We also took him to the dermatologist twice. The first appointment he was given an oral medicine. It helped immediately, but the eczema flared back up the next day he came off of it. We went back to the dermatologist to find out that he had developed a skin infection b/c of the eczema. They took a swab of his skin, too, to have it tested for staff infection. They also referred us to an allergist.

Wes was referred to an allergist, because we are thinking he is severely allergic to something that is causing this, so Wes is getting the skin prick test done. We went to the allergist last week for the skin test, but his skin was too bad to test then, so the doctor put him on Zyrtec morning and night AND Benadryl morning and night and told us to come back this past Monday. On top of that, the dermatologist called us on the way home from the allergist to say Wes' skin results came back, and he tested positive for MRSA staff infection on his skin, so we started one of two more rounds of antibiotics that night.

We went back to the allergist this past Monday excited to finally know what Wes may be allergic to, but the allergist said we had to reschedule until Wes is off the antibiotics for the skin infection. We now have to wait until September 8th to get the test done. Until then, we continue with the Zyrtec and Benadryl, which has helped wonders so far, thank the good Lord.

All that to say, Wesley and I have been exhausted, and poor Wes has had it rough. It has really effected all parts of my life. I'm tired when I get to work, I work all day, then go home to a precious baby boy that cries constantly until we put him down for bed. When I get home, I'm so tired that I don't want to workout. During the day, I find myself drinking too much coffee with too much sugar, and I'm definitely not drinking enough water, so I feel like crap because of that. I hope we are able to Wes' eczema under control soon. It's so hard to see my son so miserable. He deserves to be a happy boy! Not to mention how broke we are because of all the co-pays and medicines and hypoallergenic formula.

I need to win the lottery. If only I could afford to play.