Thank you Photoderm clinic!!

With all the struggles of the last year or so with trying to get “someone” to actually give me the time of day when it comes to treatment options for my eczema; I think I have finally met my match.

After two months of waiting I was able to see a dermatologist at the Bruyere Continuing Care Center in Ottawa; its a photoderm clinic just like what I had requested back in Sept 2010 but didn’t get referred to until early March 2011.  The treatment offers exposure to mid-range UVB light, the range that photo responsive skin conditions respond to.  Cool, eh?  You start at 10 second and move up in 10 second increments each time  until you get up to a couple of minutes, starting at 3-5 times a week!!

Since I am  6 months pregnant I am going back for a follow up in 3 months to decide if this is the route I want to go with my eczema management.  Its a treatment I used about 12 years ago during high school with decent results.  It’s time consuming though involving many trips into the clinic for treatment, you need to be dedicated to see results.

One of the reasons I liked this clinic was the fact the doctor actually took his time and talked to me (and my husband) about my eczema.  I wasn’t brushed off with the usual “familial hereditary eczema; here is a cream for that”.  He actually “looked” at my skin, like pretty much everywhere which may sound gross but seriously how can you treat a skin condition without seeing the skin?  He took notes, asked follow up questions and he even recommended other dermatologist who specialize in what I have.  So different then what I have experienced in the recent past.  How refreshing.

I haven’t blogged about this yet but I have been going indoor tanning since March 23 this year (so not even 2 months) and it is unbelievable how well my eczema is looking.  It has cleared up on my legs, arms and neck but my hand still cause me some issues but they are WAY more manageable.  I am sold on indoor tanning for MY eczema treatment.  The dermatologist today actually said that it is something I “should” continue doing if it is working.  Of course, he mentioned the “small” risk of cancer but he also acknowledged that the UVB treatment has the same risk.  Everything is risk/benefit and if you have eczema like I do, its a very small risk to a huge benefit.  For the record, tanning while pregnant has  never fully been studied regarding safety but there is lots of hype out there based on fear not facts.  The main thing my doctor and midwife have said is don’t overheat and stay comfortable (laying flat on your back can be uncomfy in the later months).  So far, I’ve been doing max 10 minutes, so I don’t have a chance to become uncomfortable.

TRY TANNING!!!!

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4 Responses to Thank you Photoderm clinic!!

  1. McCall says:

    i am sorry you are having to deal with this, my son is 21 mo. & has ezcema too. you have tons more experience with this (unfortunatley), i wonder if you have tried the bleach baths? we just started with him.

  2. Amie says:

    McCall, by “bleach baths” do you mean putting bleach into bath water? This was recommended to me by a dermatologist earlier this year as a way to keep infections at bay on my hands. He did suggest that I bath in 1/4 cap bleach in a bath tub every now and then for the same reason.

    What are you doing exactly (amount/frequency) and is it working for him?

    • McCall says:

      Sorry it’s taken so long to reply to you. We put 1/4 cup of bleach into an almost full tub of luke-warm water. Then lube him up with aquafor for babies. We did that two times a week. Not sure if this treatment helped, or the change in his diet, or change in his environment. Around the same time, we cut out all traces of nuts in his food, removed the carpet from our house and put in laminate flooring (in hopes to cut down on dust-mites). His eczema went away completely for about a week. We also changed daycares to a totally nut/peanut-free facility. He has tree-nut/peanut allergies. It did come back when he started the new daycare. So we are going to try the bleach baths again (we stopped them when it got better). It is not as bad as it was, but it is still there. Food definitely triggers his eczema, but is not the cause of it. The more we monitor his diet, the better it is. He is still too young to do environmental allergy testing, but that will be the next step for us.

  3. Pingback: When you are THIS bad they give you mega sized cream! | I Hate My Skin

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