It’s been a confusing 8 weeks in Mermaid’s world when it comes to her skin. About 2 months ago she had what appeared to be a black eye arise out of nowhere. As time went on the skin beneath her eye bubbled up and eventually peeled off. It has since remained rough and scaly, much like an older spot on her back. Then, a few small dots on her back turned into a round blistery patch and just like her eye, peeled off and has since remained rough and scaley. The presentation of both spots is not exactly like her normal nevus but has some similarities.

The timing was impeccable considering we already had a series of routine appointments set up in the coming weeks, so I didn’t worry much knowing we would have answers soon.

Without knowing exactly what Mermaids new spots were and one of them being present on her face I wanted to be careful with what I chose to put on them as far as medication goes. With a few weeks to our first appointment I chose to just use a salve that we had made over the summer.

Mermaid’s Grandparents have bees so we have access to all the wonderful benefits bees bring us. Last summer we experimented with making some of our own products with beeswax. One of our endeavors was an anti-itch salve with Beeswax, Shae butter and a few other secret ingredients.

I was pleasantly surprised with the level of improvement our salve provided. Specifically, the spot on Mermaid’s back that she was asking me to scratch 8,432 times a day, stopped being bothersome during times of its use. I am happy that the salve has prevented further itching but we still didn’t know what we were really dealing with.

First up, we had contact with our dermatologist. He seemed pretty confident that what Mermaid has is not spreading of her Nevus but either Eczema or Seborrheic Dermatitis. He suggested we use 1% Hydrocortisone and let him know if it didn’t clear up. Honestly, I hesitated with the hydrocortisone because I had read about it not being the best for use on the face. Her Dermatologist even mentioned that too strong of a medication could potentially cause the pigmentation to stay, despite his suggestion I simply opted to wait.

Our next appointment was with our Primary Care Provider, once again he stated that he did not believe these were related to her nevus and agreed with dermatology that it could be Eczema but also thought it resembled Pityriasis Rosea, if that were the case she may develop more of a rash on her body and needed to let him know, though it is not contagious. He supported using the hydrocortisone 1% both on her back and face. With 2 people agreeing on its use I picked up a tube and for no other reason than being busy that evening I never got around to using it.

The following day we headed in for one last appointment with the eye specialist. The first thing she noted when entering the room was Mermaid’s face. I appreciated that it bothered her because it had been driving me crazy for nearly 2 months! She asked what it was, to which I replied honestly – I have no idea but nobody seems overly concerned. Seems like it might be eczema….? This particular day it was angry. Red, swollen, extra flakey, so she really got a good version of what it looked like. I shared the previous encounters and the plan to which she strongly disagreed. She felt that the medication they were suggesting was fine for her back but too strong for her face, as I initially felt concerned about. In turn she ordered a steroid cream to pick up and promised in 3-5 days we should see some improvement.

So really… what do we know? Mermaid has something that might be Eczema or maybe it’s Seborrheic Dermatitis or possibly even Pityriasis Rosea or maybe they are all off and its new scales developing as we speak! With the lack of a clear answer I decided NOT to use either medication advised by the Physicians and have stuck with just our “Bee honey” as Mermaid calls it. It truly keeps her from scratching and seems to keep it moisturized enough yet obviously fails to actually clear anything up. I trust all of our Physicians and we are not dealing with anything serious where my decision to not use the medication right away would cause harm but I truly want to be confident in what we are treating before treating it.

I am only confident in the decision to avoid medication therapy at this point because coming up in a few short weeks we will be going to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, a unit at Oregon Health & Science University to see a Physician who specializes in Pediatric genetic skin diseases. With the variation of answers I would rather be certain about what we are treating before putting anything on Mermaid’s face. With the variation of “possibilities” and discrepancies in treatment we are sticking to our daily routine of  “bee honey” in hopes that the specialist has some concrete answers to what these new spots are.

Praying that Mermaid’s new spots are NOT Nevus and impatiently awaiting our big day at Doernbecher!

Does anyone have anything that looks similar to Mermaid’s pictures above or have a form of nevus accompanied by other severe skin issues? Looking forward to hearing all your thoughts!

Thanks for walking with us today!

Mermaid’s Mommy