Seth Update, Number I Don't Know

Let me bring you up to speed since the last post I wrote about Seth's health issues. He finished taking the antibiotic, but could tell things were not right yet. After quick phone call to the dermatologist, he was back on a second round of the same antibiotic. We both questioned this plan, since we'd always heard that switching to a different antibiotic was the best course of action. But, Seth did it. All the while, he was feeling somewhat better, but not much. Walking a fine line between tolerable and totally miserable.

So, the second round of antibiotics ended, and the next day, Seth ends up coming home early from work because his body is completely red and itchy. His face and fingers are swollen. The circles under his eyes are magnified and strangely wrinkled. All of his glands are swollen. This is not normal! Seth makes another appointment with the dermatologist, hoping for some answers.
He comes home that afternoon completely dejected. The doctor had hardly listened to him, claiming that a staph infection isn't really the problem and that it's just Seth's eczema flaring up from something. "Have you been using a new detergent?" the Doc ACTUALLY asked him. (Of course that's it, Doc. I've been about to die for the last several months from swollen glands and oozing sores because my wife bought the wrong laundry soap! Are you kidding me?) He wrote Seth ANOTHER prescription for the same antibiotic and told him to go home and soak in the tub. Oh yeah, and then he wrote a prescription for chigger medication too.

. . . Needless to say, Seth was furious, depressed, miserable, and still without any real answers. However, that's not the end of the story. Today, there was a glimmer of hope.

Seth went to a previously scheduled appointment with an allergy doctor today. This doctor actually listened and spent a long time with the examination. He disagreed with the dermatologist's assessment that staph wasn't a problem. He said Seth has a very serious staph infection and that he probably has become allergic to the chemicals that the staph is producing in/on his body. This new Doc gave Seth a course of action that was more than the usual "shoulder shrug" that others seem to give. It consists of:

• Starting a different antibiotic that will last for one month. (Throwing out the old one.)
• Daily allergy med (fexofenadine) to help itching.
• Applying Bactroban to the inside of his nose 3 times a day (!) to kill staph. (Apparently this is its favorite breeding ground in every person.)
• Continuing the topical steroid cream to control eczema.
• Start using Protopic again. (Used this one years ago, until concerns surfaced about it being carcinogenic. The jury is still out on that, but Seth and the Doc think the benefit outweighs the risk.)
• A bedtime med to help Seth sleep. (Something he hasn't been doing much of, since scratching and tossing take up so much time.)

No allergy scratch test can be done because he doesn't have a patch of skin healthy enough to do it on! Seth had an allergy blood test done several years ago and he was found to be allergic to almost everything. This new doctor says that isn't suprising, and that type of result means he has extremely high levels of IgE, common in people with his severity of eczema/atopic dermatitis. All of this just means life isn't easy. (When is it?) I'll let you know when we find out anything more. The best part today for Seth is just having a doctor listen and respond with answers that attack all of the issues going on.