About being really busy and Gaelle’s incredible new treatment’s results

I am finally blogging again after a few weeks of madness. Robyn, 6, and Gaelle, 5,  have been busy at school. Robyn is improving her empathy and listening skills slowly but surely thanks to our lengthy chats at home and with her friends. Gaelle turned 5 at the end of September and enjoyed her party very much.

She has also learnt her address and a few more letters through school work. Alice, 17 months, has been learning to say a few words, climb the stairs and imitate animals’ sounds, so she has been a busy girl too! In fact, the whole family is working extremely hard and is very tired at the end of the week: John is completing a demanding physiology module with Glasgow Uni in preparation for his physiotherapy course starting in January (quitting a successful career in the construction industry to re-train for 2 years full time as a physiotherapist. I admire him so much!). Very exciting, indeed. I too have been working most days after work on different projects, including an Outreach Services programme that I designed and presented to the National Eczema Society. It aims at creating connecting between families affected by eczema across the UK, training teachers, raising awareness at local events and encouraging volunteering in companies. This is my baby! I just hope they’ll like it as much as I am passionate about it. I am also focused on completing a ‘train the trainer’ course. As a result, I must design and deliver a couple of courses as well as write three reports in order to become an accredited trainer. So far, I am thoroughly enjoying it and have chosen a topic close to my heart for my first ‘home-made’ course: “Understanding, setting up and running successful support groups”. I learnt a lot in the process! Finally, my boss told me this week that the organisation is taking a business idea I presented last month forward and we are now in discussions with the government to discuss potential contracts. My family and friends think we lead a crazy life at the moment and they are probably right, but I must admit that we absolutely love it. However, our family, our happy not so little 5-some, will always come first so we make sure we spend meaningful and fun time with the kids in between telling them off and grounding them! :-)

I must admit we are very tired at the moment, though...

 In regards to Gaelle’s life, her birthday party was a complete success. I even baked her massive chocolaty High School Musical cake for her, which she really appreciated as she knows baking and me don’t go together! We raised £45 for the National Eczema Society with raffle tickets thanks to the little guests’ parents and many of them came to speak to me to learn more about eczema. Mission accomplished!

At Gaelle’s follow-up appointment a few weeks ago, we were told to try a new, more potent, steroid cream twice a week. Well, what can I say?.. This has been close to miraculous! I can’t even describe the difference between her old and new skin health, it is like night and day. She used to have regular flare-ups, infections, was not allowed to be left in the bath to play, had steroid creams applied daily, and her skin was more often than not looking sore and out of control. With the new cream applied thinly as a preventative measure on areas at risk (even when looking good) twice a week, Gaelle’s skin is just per-fect! You simply cannot tell she has a condition, apart from the 24/7 bandages and the three emollient applications daily regime, of course.

Her skin is as beautiful and smooth as her baby sister Alice is. We have had a couple of wonderful weeks. Gaelle can now have long moisturising baths and play in the water with Alice (because she doesn’t scratch anymore), wear the clothes she wants after school sometimes without her bandages (they never looked great under a princess dress!), stop taking anti-histamines every morning, plan trips to the swimming pool and this also make the lunch time ‘creaming’ easier for the school staff as they don’t have to look out for infected areas or raw patches.

Obviously, I am worried that if this cream is having a big impact, it may be that its side effects are more dangerous too… So our plan is try and use as

little of it as possible and hopefully applying less and less often, but I can see that on the last day before Gaelle is due an application, some areas are starting to become dry and red again… so it really isn’t a cure, just calming down the symptoms very effectively for the moment. Still, this is the first time Gaelle’s life is actually changed in a positive way by a new treatment. All other regimes only have added pressure, efforts, more treatment, a wide range of creams, more bandages, more applications, more restrictions… This is a relief.

 Oh and by the way, my company received a volunteering certificate from the National Eczema Society so thanks my team for the leaflet distribution during the National Eczema Week in September. It is now very proudly displayed on the staff room’s wall!