I am on my third night in a row of lying awake in the middle of the night for hours. This is a regular occurance for me, but it's been awhile since it has happened every night for days. A few months ago it was happening 5 nights a week or so, but it's been good for awhile. I am seriously bothered by it. I hate lying awake, and I hate being exhausted during the day because of it. I really feel like smashing my head against the wall when this happens.
I think its the stupid heat. Is it only where I live that within a few days you can go from freezing temperatures with the wind chill to 45 degrees with the humidex? For you US dwellers (pretty much all of you) that is 113 stinkin degrees. Of course I have the a/c on, but I find it hard to let myself set it below 72 degrees at night. I like to sleep in a 60 degree house. I have an extremely hard time adjusting to sleeping in a house thats in the 70s, wearing less clothes, having only a thin sheet on...
I just want to sleep! My body is so stupid!
I figured I would do an update on Noah's skin thingy. I've been meaning to do it but haven't found the time.
Noah most certainly does not have tinea versicolor. By third night of the Selsun treatment he was screaming in pain when the Selsun got on his skin. It took me until the fifth night to be positive that was why he was screaming. By then, as soon as the Selsun got on his skin and had time to react with it (a period of about 30 seconds), his whole body was tensed up and he was panicked and screaming. Furthermore, by the fifth night his skin was about 10 times worse than before I started. It was brutal, and looked so painful.
I did some more research online and became pretty darn positive that what he has actually is eczema. And Erin's Doctor-Mother told me to put a harsh chemical on his dry skin for 15 minutes every night, causing him extreme pain and exacerbating the problem.
Needless to say, I was pissed. I'd been treating it like it was eczema since the dry patches appeared over 6 months ago. And even with the major moisturizing I was never able to get rid of the dry patches. Now it was 10 times worse and really painful for him - how was I supposed to get rid of it now??
I decided to go to natural route, since prescription steroid creams for eczema eventually start to thin the skin and can even make the eczema problem worse. I decided to try pure coconut oil and ozone gel. I'd heard they do great things for skin. After deciding on that, I looked it up and both are things people use for eczema and have great results with.
So I've been using this new skin regimen since Saturday morning. First I slather his body in organic, non-processed coconut oil. Then I apply a regular baby lotion on top to kind of seal it in (I found this works better than just putting the coconut oil on). Then I apply ozone gel on each dry spot. I do it all twice a day - in the morning and before bed.
It's only been 5 days and his skin is drastically improved. It's really amazing. A lot of his dry patches, many of which were bright red and the size of my palm after the Selsun treatment, are almost gone. He has a few spots that are still visible, but they're each smaller than a quarter.
I'm so happy. Before trying this I was always using baby lotion and vaseline several times a day on Noah's skin, and I would barely see a difference. After only 5 days of using coconut oil and ozone gel his skin is probably 90% better. And I'm only using natural, organic products on it.
Lesson? Don't get diagnosed in your neighbour's driveway.
Showing posts with label Tinea versicolor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tinea versicolor. Show all posts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Tinea Versicolor
For a really long time now Noah has had dry red patches on his body. Sometimes a lot, sometimes a few, but they're always there. It started back when he was maybe 6 or 7 months old. I thought they were just random dry patches, because I'll occasionally get a random dry patch on my face or something in the wintertime. I have tried to pay extra attention to the dry spots, and moisturize him a couple of times a day (as opposed to just once after bathtime). I even sometimes make a point of applying vaseline to these spots daily. This seemed to help the patches clear up, or at least stay under control.
However, it's been a long time now, and the spots have been getting bigger and spreading. Last Sunday my Mom and Dad thought it looked like ringworm. Later that afternoon I was hanging out with my friend/neighbour Erin and her Mom, Hazel, who is a doctor. I showed the spots to Hazel and asked her if it looks like ringworm to her. She said no, but immediately diagnosed it as tinea versicolor, and told me to use Selsun Blue on it. Tinea versicolor is this really common skin condition caused by a fungus that lives on all adults' skin. It's not contagious or anything. It's just that some people end up with tinea versicolor from it, and some people don't.
Tinea versicolor can look like Noah's dry red patches, or they can be brownish, and sometimes white. I remember being aware of the white patches when I worked at a tanning salon. People would sometimes ask why they had white spots that wouldn't tan, and we employees were educated on it. We told them to use some selsun blue shampoo on the spots, and they would go away eventually.
Well, apparently this is what Noah has. Since we found that out a week ago I stopped moisturizing him several times a day and went back down to just once. We also are no longer making a point of putting vaseline on his spots. I was waiting until I made it to the nearby city, 25 minutes away, to pick up the selsun at Walmart, where it would be cheaper. But in the past week his spots have grown and multiplied at an amazing rate. Finally today I sucked it up and went to the only drugstore in our little town and paid a whopping $18 for a tiny bottle of selsun. We have to put it all over his body for 10-15 minutes a day, 7 days in a row.
Tonight was the first night. Noah has patches on his bum, so we had to have him completely naked. His whole body was smeared with the Selsun. We had him locked in the bathroom with us so he wouldn't get Selsun all over the house. About 2 minutes after it was applied he squatted down, peed - without us realizing thats what he was doing, since he was playing with something else at the time - and then started playing in his pee, smacking his hands in it. We couldn't help but laugh, especially since two nights ago after his bath, but before getting his diaper on, he was walking in the hallway and suddenly wiped out, out of nowhere. We both were like, "What the heck kid..." and then realized that he wiped out in a puddle of his own pee. Kind of hilarious.
Anyway, after we were done with the bath, all his patches looked really obvious, and I couldn't believe how bad its gotten. Seriously, it used to be just a few smallish patches on each arm and leg. Now its everywhere, covering his arms and legs and body. The poor kid. I hope its not uncomfortable for him (it doesn't seem to be), and I hope it goes away soon! It really annoys me that this is taking over his skin.
However, it's been a long time now, and the spots have been getting bigger and spreading. Last Sunday my Mom and Dad thought it looked like ringworm. Later that afternoon I was hanging out with my friend/neighbour Erin and her Mom, Hazel, who is a doctor. I showed the spots to Hazel and asked her if it looks like ringworm to her. She said no, but immediately diagnosed it as tinea versicolor, and told me to use Selsun Blue on it. Tinea versicolor is this really common skin condition caused by a fungus that lives on all adults' skin. It's not contagious or anything. It's just that some people end up with tinea versicolor from it, and some people don't.
Tinea versicolor can look like Noah's dry red patches, or they can be brownish, and sometimes white. I remember being aware of the white patches when I worked at a tanning salon. People would sometimes ask why they had white spots that wouldn't tan, and we employees were educated on it. We told them to use some selsun blue shampoo on the spots, and they would go away eventually.
Well, apparently this is what Noah has. Since we found that out a week ago I stopped moisturizing him several times a day and went back down to just once. We also are no longer making a point of putting vaseline on his spots. I was waiting until I made it to the nearby city, 25 minutes away, to pick up the selsun at Walmart, where it would be cheaper. But in the past week his spots have grown and multiplied at an amazing rate. Finally today I sucked it up and went to the only drugstore in our little town and paid a whopping $18 for a tiny bottle of selsun. We have to put it all over his body for 10-15 minutes a day, 7 days in a row.
Tonight was the first night. Noah has patches on his bum, so we had to have him completely naked. His whole body was smeared with the Selsun. We had him locked in the bathroom with us so he wouldn't get Selsun all over the house. About 2 minutes after it was applied he squatted down, peed - without us realizing thats what he was doing, since he was playing with something else at the time - and then started playing in his pee, smacking his hands in it. We couldn't help but laugh, especially since two nights ago after his bath, but before getting his diaper on, he was walking in the hallway and suddenly wiped out, out of nowhere. We both were like, "What the heck kid..." and then realized that he wiped out in a puddle of his own pee. Kind of hilarious.
Anyway, after we were done with the bath, all his patches looked really obvious, and I couldn't believe how bad its gotten. Seriously, it used to be just a few smallish patches on each arm and leg. Now its everywhere, covering his arms and legs and body. The poor kid. I hope its not uncomfortable for him (it doesn't seem to be), and I hope it goes away soon! It really annoys me that this is taking over his skin.
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