2016 (part 1)

I don't have time to blog, but if I did I would tell you about what 2016 has meant for me...

First, the bad. I've always had bad skin. I have had eczema since infancy and I could count on at least one full-body rash each year with no apparent cause and only goes away with oral steroids. It's been that way for over a decade. This past February, however, I noticed a rash on my torso that didn't look like rashes I'd previously had. The papules were scabbed over, some appeared bite-like, others looked like sores. On February 12th I sent my Mom a pic to get her opinion and then went to see my dermatologist the next week. 

At the dermatologist I was seen by the PA who immediately diagnosed me with Scabies. In very basic terms scabies is like body lice, but worse. I told her that didn't seem right, we were clean people, we didn't own pets, no 2nd hand furniture or sleazy hotels in our past ... but she was sure. She prescribed me an oral medication for treatment and sent me on my way. I went home and did research that night and found out that the entire family would have to be treated in order for it to be effective because of the contagious nature of the parasite. So, we got the (insanely expensive) medicine called in for Chad and both girls and treated the whole fam.... but my rash need went away, so we treated again, and again. Then I went back to see the dermatologist again because I was miserable and confused as to why I wasn't getting better. This time the entire fam came along. We saw the doctor this time who looked at me and again immediately "confirmed" the diagnosis from the PA of scabies. This was despite the fact that the treatment hadn't worked, I didn't meet the criteria for being around the parasite, and no one else in my family was affected by what is an insanely contagious bug. She even went as far as to lie and say there was no test for scabies which at that point we knew not to be true because I was almost 4 months into this whole ordeal and had done my research. She deemed my strain resistant and tripled my dose of medicine. Oh by the way, did I mention that the medicine for scabies is a pesticide. So after taking the triple dose of poison and still not getting better and Chad pointing out how dismissive and uncaring my dermatologist was we decided to see another doctor. I went and saw my new doctor the next week and within 60 seconds of being in the room with me he told me I did NOT, nor did I ever have dreaded scabies. Bleck (and yes, I know what you're thinking, I did unnecessarily repeatedly ingest poison and cover my kids in it). I could get into the fury and pure unadulterated rage I felt toward my old dermatologist for causing me to suffer needlessly for months, or spend hundreds of dollars on harmful medicine, or hire professionals to come examine my house for bugs I didn't have, or wash my sheets every single night for almost 2 months... but dwelling on the past is not important. 

My new doctor was a godsend, but he wasn't able to cure me right away. He was very upfront that it would take some time, research, and trial and error to get a diagnosis. On the first visit he did two biopsies to test for bites and gluten intolerance which at first glance is what he thought my rash resembled. In the meantime suggested I go gluten free while we waited for results. Both were negative, but I felt like the gluten free diet was helping so I kept it up. This decision very quickly went wrong and I flared up horribly. Back at the doc he immediately suggested a severe nickel allergy based on some of the sores on my back, but needed to do testing to confirm. I was at one of my worst points during this visit. The rash was everywhere, there were awful sores developing all over including my scalp, this sucked for me- but my doctor made sure to let me know that the silver lining was that he had more to go on, as far as leading him toward a diagnosis. We scheduled testing began to pray harder than ever...