Flare

After a long and grueling week, I'm grateful that the weekend is finally here. Outside my window, the sky is deep blue and the fall color in the trees is about as good as it gets. There's a sharp chill in the air this morning, and the hot cup of coffee I'm sipping really hits the spot. 

Monday night I had another extremely nasty eczema flare, one of the worst ones I've ever experienced. I'd just spent the whole day at work trying to function while pretty much having low key panic attacks all day. I had to close my office door to cry over and over, that's how bad it was. I've been under loads of stress, and it seemed to reach a boiling point that day. So then...that night I woke up just after midnight with painful, swollen, hot-to-the-touch skin in patches all over my body. My fingers were maybe the worst, so swollen with small hard blisters breaking out that I could barely bend my fingers. Large red welts had appeared around both elbows, and all the places where I normally have eczema (ankles and tops/sides of feet) were on fire. It was really, really bad.

 I did go in to work despite all this but called my allergist's office as soon as they opened. They weren't able to squeeze me in for an appointment until the next morning, but they immediately called in a prescription for prednisone to the drug store for me. I was able to start it that afternoon. 

When I finally saw the doctor the next morning, something good came of all this: he said he was pretty sure he finally had enough evidence to get my insurance company to cover Dupixent injections for me. It's a new and incredibly expensive biologic treatment that's supposed to be a total game changer for uncontrolled eczema. He took pictures of my skin to use as evidence and did all the paperwork necessary to send to the insurance company, and it worked! I was approved two days later! And since he was so sure he could get it approved for me, he gave me two sample injections to get me started. I'll be getting the refrigerated shots in the mail from an online pharmacy by the time I need to take my next shot, which will be in two weeks. 

It seems that a majority of people who use this drug have outstanding results, with over 75% achieving at least a 75% decrease in symptoms. Lots of people seem to be totally cured while taking it. After all these years of suffering through these skin problems, that's going to seem like a dream come true.

So at least one good thing happened this week.