Itchy skin and MRSA 8

It has been a very long time since I last blogged. So much has happened. Zac has had a lot of appointments and we have finally got through the skin episode – which turned out to be much more than just a skin episode. As I said, he got through it but not without a lot of stress, some scarring and what I think can only be attributed to divine intervention.

Pruritus, atopic eczema and boils 1

It has been several months since Zac last had a skin infection. We did think/hope that we had found a way to prevent them, even though we know we have no idea what really causes them.

New Year – new doctors, new hope and new adventures. 5

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a good Christmas and have seen January off to a good start. I am happy to report that we had a very good end to the year and positive start to 2014.

My intolerant child, Zac, has been mostly very well and we have had some positive meetings with some very genuine doctors and are making progress in all areas. Towards the end of last year we visited Dr Adam Fox again, as Zac had been having recurrent skin infections. To cut a long story short, the advice we were given – to use Oilatum Plus in the bath every day – proved to be the answer. Zac has not had any boils or abscesses since the day we started it. Worth a try for anyone with problematic skin – but probably best to check with a GP first!

The outcome of our latest appointment. 3

Last week, we had our second private consultation with Dr Adam Fox. We first met him almost a year ago, when after years of poor treatment from local GPs and hospitals, I decided we would have to pay for it ourselves, if we were to get Zac in front of a specialist. The first appointment was a success and gave us a greater understanding of what was causing Zac’s various symptoms, but because tests were need Dr Fox wrote to our local hospital and GP and suggested they are managed through the NHS – to save us money, and because they should have accepted him as a patient and run these tests in the first place.

After several NHS appointments and several rounds of blood tests we were pleased that all of Zac tested negative to all of the allergens we had identified as troublesome and this looked like it was confirming Dr Fox’s hunch that Zac has non-IgE mediated allergies, but nonetheless should keep to his restricted diet and take anti-histamine twice daily, with a view to looking at some challenges in the months and years ahead.

Feeding my intolerant child on holiday – beware of ice lollies! 2

I was so nervous before we went on holiday. Would I be able to find enough dairy free, gluten free foods, to be able to get by? Would I be able to make enough room in the suitcase to take a good supply to get us through the first few days? Are you allowed to take a packed lunch in hand luggage? Since we had last travelled abroad Zac’s diet has become a lot more restricted and I had never faced these issues before.

Fortunately my parents had been out to Spain just before us and did a good search around the supermarkets and found a decent selection of bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, milk and yoghurts. We were self catering, so I had pretty much resigned myself to doing a lot of cooking from scratch whilst away. Eating out at home is challenging enough and even though I have some good basic Spanish, I just couldn’t face asking those questions and trying explain his condition every time we ate out. So instead I would cook for him before we went out, and take a few healthy snacks for him to enjoy, if the rest of us were eating later.

Skin infections – our latest challenge 5

Last year Zac had a horrible spot on his elbow that turned into a rash with an erupting abscess at the epicentre. The first GP who saw it said it was nothing. A few days later when it was oozing, another GP decided it did need anti-biotics and the pus needed to be squeezed out. She did it while I held him and it is a memory that still haunts me. The doctor went pale as she did it and both of us went temporarily deaf from the ear piercing screams of my brave little hero.

Ever since then we have always been very vigilant at keeping an eye on any ‘weird’ skin stuff. He did have one other very nasty rash that was diagnosed as eczema but until last week, his skin has been pretty good. But then a week or two ago Zac had a few ‘bad nights’. Lots of fidgeting and getting up in the night, itchy, very sweaty and his tummy seemed very bloated. These were all problems that were part of every day life until we started him on antihistamine twice a day. Because he has been so well I foolishly started to think perhaps he was growing out of his condition and so I became less vigilant with the medicine. I don’t like pumping him full of drugs every day so perhaps was subconsciously challenging him. BIG mistake.