Game changer

I took today off from work. I had a mid-morning appointment with my allergist, Dr. Stone, and I have loads of paid time off I can use. My appointment was just a follow up to check on my progress with the Dupixent injections. I was so excited to show him how great my skin looks! These shots have been a total game changer for my severe eczema. The skin on my ankles and feet hasn't been this clear (and itch free) in over 20 years!

There's still quite a bit of discoloration on the skin, which Dr. Stone thinks will gradually fade over the next 6 months or so. You can really see it in certain lights, like in this next photo:

I don't care about the lingering redness one bit, though. The skin is smooth, cool, and soft. It's not broken and bleeding from scratching anymore, and the terrible itching has stopped pretty much completely. I can't begin to tell you how much this has improved my quality of life!

 Bless the doctor for being persistent in getting my insurance to cover the cost for this medicine. I'm beyond grateful.

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.

Updates

Just a few short updates on everything going on this month:

We did it! My friends helped me complete 400 Postcards to Swing States this past Sunday afternoon! We had a little postcard party over at Barbara's house. Out of the 400 postcards I committed to, I had already finished 275 (!!) ahead of time, so I only brought the remaining 125. Karen H. brought an additional 100 postcards she needed help completing (for down ballot races in the non-swing state of Ohio). We made short work of those 225 postcards, and had a little time left over for talking and eating the potluck snacks we'd brought. 

It's a relief to have it done.

Left to right, clockwise: Maggi, Marian, Barbara, Paulette, Karen, and Yours Truly, struggling to get a selfie that included everyone.

I may or may not have mentioned that I'd planned to have the Postcard Party at my house. Obviously, that didn't happen. Barbara was kind enough to offer to host because our small renovation project is still not done. Yep. Still not done! Our house remains in disarray with one room emptied out and being worked on.

This is what happened. The guy took longer than he expected, and at the end of the week he'd allotted for us, he was only about 70% done. He had other job commitments starting that Monday that he couldn't get out of. It's meant some delay in the finishing work, and he's been coming over for an hour or two here and there when he can. It's been dragging on a lot longer than I expected, though.

To be fair, Rick's doing really good, careful work. He's taking his time and every part that he finishes looks great. He pays attention to detail. We're also getting an absolute steal on the price of his labor. Since he'd never tried coffered ceilings before, he wanted to get some experience with them, and I think he lowballed the price a little bit because he was unsure of how it would go. Well, it looks terrific! So, if it takes him a little bit longer than we expected, so be it....

but DAMN I'm tired of all the furniture from that room being crammed into the rest of the house! We can barely move! It's okay for a week, but when it's stretching into the third week, it gets old, fast.

Then to add insult to injury, day before yesterday we discovered an ant infestation in our pantry and kitchen shelves. We had to move all the food out, and everything stored in the kitchen cabinets where we saw ants, because the exterminator guy is coming later today...my house is a shambles. Seriously.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that my skin is almost healed (and much, much better). Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement on my last post! Once I got started on antibiotics and prednisone I started to feel better, fast. That's a relief, at least.

I'll sign off with a picture of the front porch that I've been getting ready for Halloween. Several of our neighbors have been decorating, too, which is fun. As soon as I buy some candy, we'll be ready for trick or treaters. 

Back on my feet

I ended up having two doctor's appointments this week. The first was with my family doctor on Tuesday to get refills for the SSRI I take. I'd made the appointment week before last, and it turned out to be a lucky thing that I did, because on Monday I woke up with a pulled muscle(s) in my lower back. I'm not sure how it happened, but I could hardly walk, so in addition to giving me a refill on the Zoloft the doctor also gave me two prescriptions for my back. That was good timing!

Along with the back pain, I've been having a massive eczema flare on my ankles and the tops of my feet. The itching, pain, swelling, and redness was making it nearly impossible to sleep at night, and between that and the back pain, it was really difficult to walk. I was miserable. On Wednesday morning I called my allergist's office and made an appointment for Friday afternoon after work.

Have I mentioned how much I love my allergy/asthma doctor, Dr. Stone? Any time I need to see him I can get appointments quickly, there's never any waiting past my appointment time, and he's always very kind. I was almost in tears when I got to his office yesterday. My feet were in horrible shape, so bad I was almost embarrassed to show them to him. I know that's silly, since he's my doctor and, as Gregg pointed out, has surely seen worse. It was pretty bad, though.

Dr. Stone was wonderful, as always. He held my feet gently in his hands to examine them while he questioned me about what's been going on. It turns out the triple antibiotic ointment I'd been slathering on the skin (in an effort to avoid infection when I couldn't help but scratch myself bloody) is an irritant that makes eczema worse.  Oops! And I did indeed have infection setting in, which of course explained the extra pain and itch and swelling. Then after examining my skin closely for a few minutes, he decided that the pattern of eczema on the tops and sides of my feet might be a sign of something called shoe dermatitis, an allergy to materials and chemicals used in making shoes. That would explain why the regular eczema treatments haven't been working very well and why the rash is all concentrated on my feet. In a few weeks, after the current infection and inflammation have been dealt with, I'll be going back to the office for patch testing, which will determine if I have it or not. From the website I just linked to:

 "Shoe dermatitis represents approximately 10% of all persons attending for patch testing. The culprit agent can range from products found in leather, colourants, rubber, or adhesive components, and can occasionally be mimicked by an allergy to agents on socks or stockings."

In the meantime, he prescribed a course of prednisone as well as oral and topical antibiotics to clear up the current crisis. He advised me to get several pairs of all cotton socks and to change them out a couple of times a day, maintaining a dry barrier between my skin and my shoes. Going barefoot or just wearing flip flops at home would be a good idea, too.

If I do have shoe allergies, I'll have to see if any companies make allergen free shoes. And it will be expensive to replace all of my current shoes, but very much worth it if it solves the problem. At the end of my appointment, Dr. Stone said, "We're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to fix it." I could have hugged him! 

I'm sorry I've been mostly absent in blogland for the past week, but now you know why. I hope to catch up with reading and commenting this weekend. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon--between my back and my feet, it's been a rough time! 

Earache

 For at least a week now I've been dealing with pain in my right ear. I haven't had an earache since I was a child, and it's been awful. This morning I woke up and knew I had to go do something about it.

My regular doctor couldn't see me for a couple of days, and urgent care costs a fortune, so I decided to give my allergist's office a call. The nurse said that Dr. Stone would be happy to look at it whenever I came in for my weekly allergy shot. So I called off work today and went up there right before lunchtime, and the doctor saw me right away--no waiting! What a treasure he's turned out to be!

Apparently, I have an infection in the outer ear canal, and he saw the cause of it, too. I've developed eczema inside that ear! I didn't know that was possible. I've also been having a terrible eczema flare on my ankles, and Dr. Stone looked at that and decided that there's an infection setting in there, too. I'm getting antibiotic ear drops and an oral antibiotic, too. Well, maybe. The pharmacy called and the ear drops are out of stock and won't be in until APRIL. Of course, I can't wait that long. My ear hurts really bad. So I called the doctor's office and left a message that I need some alternative prescribed. I'm still waiting to hear back.

I've been in bed most of the day. I feel awful and my ear is worse than ever. I sure hope I can get something tonight. I don't think I can bear to go back to work tomorrow if I've still got such bad ear pain. 

Have you ever had an ear infection as an adult?