Eczema: The Story of Zach's "Itchy" Life...

Zach has had a battle going on with a skin condition called Eczema since he was 18 months old. Eczema is a very severe dry skin condition that breaks out in a rash on certain parts of the body such as the arms, legs, shoulders, or back. It can be triggered by allergies (nature and food), asthma, or changes in the weather. Even a family history of allergies or asthma can be reason enough for someone to get eczema. Apparently this is the case with Zach.When he was younger, the doctor had hoped he would grow out of it, as most people do. In the last 3-4 years, his skin has been doing a lot better. He used to get a lot of flare-ups on his face, arms, and legs. These flare-ups were usually small -- no bigger than about the size of a 50 cent piece usually. Now that he is older, I was hoping that he was growing out of it, since he didn't seem to have too many of these flare-ups anymore. Of course, I also don't see as much of his body now that he is older, too! We noticed that he was scratching his leg and back last weekend, and when we looked he was broke out with a few small rashes in several places. We put lotion on him and told him to be sure to use the lotion a lot until it goes away. The doctor used to have him on Elidel, which is a steroid cream, however he had to discontinue using that about 3 years ago or so because the FDA determined that it was made with a cancer-causing agent and took it off the market. There was nothing else to use that would work, so we had to resort to expensive lotions that were labeled as "extremely moisturizing". Luckily, we hadn't had any real problems until now. After several days had gone by since he first showed us his back, he came up to me one night after he had his basketball game and said that his back was really hurting bad. When he showed it to me, I almost fell over! The eczema had flared up so bad, that he actually had red welts and bumps covering almost his entire back!!! He said he had been itching it , which he is not supposed to do because that can cause the sores to break open and become infected. We gave him a cool bath and really moisturized him up good that night and I put a call in to the doctor in the morning. When we had his appointment that afternoon, she took one look and said that his skin was infected from itching and she prescribed an antibiotic cream for that. Then she gave us the REALLY GOOD NEWS!... She could put him back on the Elidel that worked so well for him a few years ago. When I asked about the cancer-causing agent, she said that the FDA seemed to have made a mistake about that, and they have returned the medicine back to the market as safe to use. She gave him a prescription with about 6 refills, and he is to use it every day to heal this up and then keep in under control in the future. His back is already starting to heal nicely. The dry skin bumps aren't gone yet, but at least it doesn't look like he is trying to sprout a set of wings out of his back!