A lesson learned...

Unfortunately, my little girls have had some health problems recently– which in the scheme of life are very treatable and minor ( so no need to worry about them).

But the lessons that I have learned over the past few months will truly shape the way I care for my children from now on. And hopefully this info might prevent some of the same mistakes from happening to any of your kids.

Since early September, Hayden and Brenna have been battling a rash that was initially diagnosed as ring worm (which is a common childhood fungal infection). But because of repeated scrape tests that came out negative for fungus, the diagnosis was then changed to eczema, then psoriasis, then nummular eczema, and then even a suspicion of an auto-immune disease called erythema multiforme.

We wound up seeing two Physician’s assistants from a dermatologists office (even though I paid to see a “specialist”),  two different doctors, and our other regular PA.  In the meantime,  despite all of the prescribed medications, my children’s rash got progressively worse.

Finally, we researched on our own  and took them to a highly recommended dermatologist. He explained to us that the initial medication we were prescribed  WAS NOT meant for children under the age of 17, and was NEVER meant for facial tissue. He also said that it should not have been applied at all for more than  four weeks - we used it (under the instruction of our doctor) for about 8 weeks - on little kids -- and on their face.

We wound up having to get biopsies done of their deep skin tissue in order to confirm a diagnosis, which did in fact conclude that their infection was fungal. However, instead of it being simply ring worm on the skin’s surface, it was now a systemic fungal infection in the deep layers of their skin and most likely spreading internally.

The new theory is that the initial medication, which was WRONGLY prescribed, thinned out their skin so much that it allowed fungus to grow deep beneath the skin’s surface. Had we been given a simple, over the counter anti-fungal cream, this probably never would have escalated to the point that it did. It could have been completely prevented…..

Obviously, as a mom I have so much guilt over this. If I could do it over again, I would have researched the medication that was prescribed before giving it to my children. Instead, I simply trusted in the medical professionals that were seeing them. I would have also demanded to see a doctor and not a PA. We love this particular PA, but unfortunately, she didn’t have enough detailed knowledge to really know the negative effects of what she was prescribing. And I would have followed my gut and demanded concrete answers much sooner – my mother’s instinct told me at about week 4 that something wasn’t quite right, but after the PA assured me it was “normal”,  I naively believed her.

So…I've been feeling a bit compelled to share this story -  and feel free to share it with other moms you know -  so hopefully this type of thing can be prevented. From now on, I will be my children’s medical advocate and never, ever, will I simply trust a diagnosis or treatment plan without doing my own due diligence to research, research, research. I hope this encourages other mommies to do the same.

My kids are thankfully doing a lot better and almost completely healed so like I said, no need to worry about them  -- just hopefully passing on some useful info for you, mom to mom J

I wish you all many blessings and especially good health in the New year!! ~ Carly