Dermatology Update

This morning Ted saw the dermatologist. She was lovely and knew what each issue was as soon as she looked at it. And she has a plan!

First, his bad leg eczema is Molluscum contagiosum. It's part of the pox family. She applied Cantharidin, or beetle juice (really!) to the areas and it should scab up and wake up his dormant immune system so it can fight it off.

Second, his lip (and the sides of his mouth! oops.) are a type of oral candida infection, so she has prescribed an antifungal for him to take that will clear that up.

And third, his peeling hands are a bit of a mystery to her too. She suspects it is just excessively dry skin, and has instructed us to lather on the lotion with socks duct-taped on at night (he got a big kick out of that) but she is also conferring with a pediatric dermatologist she knows at Children's as well as checking the strep test results, to be sure all forms of staph infection were cultured, just in case a simple dose of antibiotics might do the trick.

She'll see him again in a month. She says the extra zinc we are supplementing will help his body toughen up, so she's very sure we'll see quick results in the next few weeks.

I feel quite relieved and pleased at her obvious expertise, kind manner, and swift plan of action! And Ted thought she was very nice, which helps.

Now, off to make him his green smoothie for his after school snack! Ssh! Don't tell!