The Daily Hailey

I wrote this post over several months time, so if I mess up tenses or something, please let it slide 🙂 I was SO nervous to write it and felt SO disgusting the whole time. Feels vulnerable to share it even now, but here you have it!

*****

Back in mid-January, I started getting this weird dry spot below my right eye. I have quite dry skin as it is, and rely pretty heavily on face products that do some exfoliating, and lots of moisturizing. I figured I had gotten lazy with it, and with the BRUTAL cold snap starting right around there, I figured my skin was taking a hit with it. So I stepped up my game. 

Buuuut it persisted.

As you know if you’ve kicked around this year, I had a facial mole removed in early February. By that point, this little spot was a little bit darker than my skin. It was still dry and crusty. It crossed my mind – an age spot? A sun spot? I almost asked my dermatologist, but I figured she’d say I’d need a fresh referral, which would’ve been true. So I left it alone, but I kept a closes eye on it. That sucker was comfortable where it was. It wasn’t going anywhere. 

I saw Dr. Guselle for some unrelated things at the end of February, and just towards the end, I mentioned how my skin was completely out to lunch, and I had this bizarre dry spot under my eye. She leaned forward and took a look at it. 

“Oh, thats just fungus.”

😳

I’m sorry, what?

“Ya, its just fungus. Like, ringworm, sort of.”

Guys, that shook me. I was immediately crawly in my own skin. EWWW!! Fungus! RingWORM! On my face!! 🤮 

Dr. Guselle saw right away how uncomfortable I was, and she reassured me it wasn’t all that uncommon. “Its very common around farm animals or baby kittens,” she said. Not that I’d been around anything like that in the recent past. She explained to me that ringworm, jock itch, and athletes foot are basically all the same. Just a little fungal infection. The name changes based on where it shows up. While its not as common to present on the face, it wasn’t too shocking either. She advised me to go get a basic athletes foot cream to treat it, and it would clear up within a few weeks. So you’d better believe I got ON that as soon as I could. I took a picture for reference. 

I spent two weeks treating that stupid spot, twice a day, every day. I’m not always diligent with medications or vitamins, but I rode this thing. Two weeks. AND IT HAD GROWN!!! 🤮 I knew there was potential for it to not be completely healed by two weeks, but I was expecting at least some improvement. Not GROWTH! 

I was running errands in the city right around this two week mark, so I asked the pharmacist at Costco if there was a different avenue I could take, or perhaps a stronger cream. She listened to me with a genuinely disgusted look on her face, and when I finished, she simply offered “You should definitely see your doctor…” Super helpful. Didn’t feel like a monster at all!. 😒 On my drive home, I stopped at our local pharmacy and asked our pharmacist the same question. He was considerably more helpful, and suggested a different ointment. He said it was virtually the same thing, but treated a wider range of (gulp) fungi. Ugh. I don’t even like typing that word. Sick. Anyway, I bought that cream and scrapped the last one. 

Just shy of two weeks with the second cream, I observed that things with my big spot were pretty much maintaining. It had, however, spread to a new location. I now had two little spots forming in my eyelid creases and evidence of some starting under my other eye and on the side of my nose.

Seriously, guys, I was SO over it. Cher came over and helped me treat it with tea tree oil, which showed some results. For the first time in a while, I was hopeful! 

Aaaaand then I found a spot on Wavy. That. Was. It. 

I took us to the doctor. We booked in with a student and Dr. Guselle, but somehow, lines got crossed and we ended up seeing a totally different doctor. But she was in Dr. Guselle’s group, and honestly, she was lovely, and SO helpful!! I really liked her!

She listened to my whole spiel, making notes all along the way, nodding when I told her which step I had taken here and there. She had questions about the ointments, and I had brought them all. She asked how it looked at the beginning, and I had pictures. I felt SO well prepared, and she kept saying how helpful it was that I had brought everything along. We did good together. 

She washed up good and proper, and then examined my face and Wavy’s little spot by her pit. She totally agreed that they were the same thing, which was both a super bummer, and kind of reassuring that I wasn’t crazy. I had a real fear that she’d brush it off as a dry spot. She asked if I’d be willing to give a sample of skin to test, which I was all for! I’m SO glad she wanted to take action and figure out for sure what was happening. She gathered up some tests kits and was back in the room within seconds. 

***A bit of yucky talk, if you’re super squeamish***

She referred to the test as a skin scraping. Normally, its done with a blade, but since my spot was so close to my eye, and Wavy’s spot was on a baby (obviously,) she didn’t want to use something sharp. Rather, she had an alcohol swab that she kept in its packaging, and used the side of it to just scratch at my spot. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t painful, either. Just scratchy. She got a good amount of skin to test from me. Wavy’s turn! The doctor bent down and had a full chat with Wavy about what she was going to do. It was actually pretty sweet. She showed her the paper to catch the skin sample in, and told her she was safe and nothing would hurt. She offered Wavy one of those big square stickers to crunch/chew on, and Wavy happily accepted it to munch on while the doctor scratched at her skin. Her spot wasn’t as dry as mine, so it didn’t produce as much of a sample, but we tried. She was totally cooperative. 

*** Icky talk over! ***

Once the samples were taken, I got the lowdown. Apparently cream #1 didn’t work because, while being the right stuff, it was half the strength of the stuff they’d normally prescribe. There was no way I could know that, so no big loss. I also learned that the kind of fungus 🍄 she suspects I have is not quick to leave. It takes its precious time. She anticipated a FULL four weeks of diligent treatment with the cream that is the correct strength, which is the the second cream I purchased. She said to use it on the little spots in my eyelid creases as well, as she believed they were the same thing. I asked about continuing tea tree oil, and she supported it. NOT on Wavy, though. Its so strong. Wavy was to use the same cream as I use, twice per day, and when I did tea tree on my spots, I’d do coconut oil on hers. Both great anti fungal treatments. 

One week later, there was no exciting progress to speak of. I called the doctors office looking for results of my skin test. I got a call back from the doctor I saw the week before later that evening. And wouldn’t you know it, the test resulted NO FUNGAL CELLS!!! 🤬 So I was pretty ticked. Even less answers than I expected! At this point, I wanted a positive result so I would just be able to be sure I knew what it was. But I didn’t get that. She explained how these tests go, and that the preliminary test is just looking at the skin cells under a scope. Now comes the fun part where they 🤮 grow them and see what they turn into. Everything about that phone call left me so so grossed out and a bit distressed, if I’m being honest. The doctor was super compassionate and said I should come in the next day, along with Waverly, and Dr. Guselle would take a closer look and see if she had any other ideas. Besides that, however, they were going to send in an urgent referral to a dermatologist. “Urgent” still takes time, but it was her best effort. We made an appointment with Dr. Guselle for the next day. 

You guys know how much I love my doctors office, and that day was no different. I chatted with the girl who always brings us back for a bit, and she played with Wavy and took her temperature. It always feels like we’re just among friends there. When she did leave, she ended up ducking back in. I heard her in the hallway saying “You have to see how cute this baby is.” She had legitimately brought a doctor over to show Waverly off! Humorously enough, we had encountered this doctor before, and she lit right up. 

“I know this baby!!! Hi, Wavy!!” she said. Wavy smiled like a fool and flapped in excitement at being the centre of attention, as per usual. She showed off like crazy as the ladies in the hallway swooned over her. I made the joke that if they’re like this with every baby, the “service” is above and beyond. The doctor poked her head into the room a little further and whispered to me that not all babies are cute. Lip service or not, I’ll take it, haha! Was a really sweet moment, seeing people love her that way. 

Before seeing Dr. Guselle, we saw a med student. She had previously been a pharmacist, so she knew her way around the creams I was using, and she and Dr. Guselle agreed I needed to go full bore into the prescription cream. They both know I don’t have coverage for prescriptions, so we were trying to go over the counter to save money. Turns out it didn’t save me money, but I super didn’t care at that point. Just get this thing off my face and off my baby!! 

Four weeks-ish after that appointment, I got a call from Dr. Guselle’s office. Her assistant was asking if my rash had cleared up. Spoiler alert. It had not. The big spot under my eye was much lighter, but not gone, and the bigger spot in my eyelid crease had grown and become itchy. Wavy’s spot was… gone? I hesitate because the cream dried that spot on her out BADLY and I couldn’t really tell what was dry skin and what was the rash. However, on another part of her chest, another spot had begun growing. So. Frustrating. 

May 28th left us finally at dermatology! It was kind of debacle getting there, but we made it. I filled out some forms for Wavy and successfully kicked another kid over in walking back to the front desk. Like he landed HARD. ALL the way down! It was actually hilarious, and I was momentarily mortified, but I spent the next few minutes trying desperately to keep my composure. He went down with a serious thud, but him mom hauled him back up by his t-shirt and everyone lived. Whew!

Our dermatologist heard me out, looked at my pictures, reviewed everything that we’d been using, and made his diagnosis. 

Eczema. 

Of all ridiculous things. We have small patches of eczema. 

I was both seriously annoyed and completely relieved. We’re not contagious, or infected, or gross, or anything else. We have dry skin, and in some cases, some changes in the pigmentation of our skin, hence the brown spot that started it all. The end. After ALL of that! 

I felt way lighter after that appointment. I can touch my eyelids again. Wavy doesn’t always have to be fully dressed. I can wear makeup again!!!! Guys, I haven’t worn makeup more than twice in 2019. I remember both times well. Once was in January, before I realized something was happening, and another time was for the coffeehouse. And legit, “makeup” consisted of concealer on some zits and a mascara that I then threw out. 

My goodness. Eczema. Of all things. 

I learned shortly thereafter that the prescriptions the dermatologist gave us were going to set us back hundreds of dollars. 😳 So rather than doing that, I jumped back on the skin care wagon! I had been advised along the way not to really wash or moisturize my face more than necessary, and if I did, to do it very carefully, for fear of spreading this infection. Now knowing we weren’t contagious at all, I began being SO nice to my skin, and her skin, and things are clearing up beautifully! I basically exclusively use the galaxal based lotion out of Costco now, even on my face, and our skin is WAY happier. I even fussed with it enough to scooped it into an old lotion bottle because I didn’t like digging it out of the little tub, and was using it less. Now I use it ALL the time, and there has been SUCH improvement!

All of the fear of being contagious and infected is gone ☺️ I haven’t felt much like myself this last year, for one reason or another, and knowing this isn’t a fungal infection has helped quite a bit. 

My plan for this spring had been to finally get contacts again, but when this all kicked up, that plan obviously fell by the wayside. Now that its all over, I’m really looking forward to doing that soon 🙂 Kind of a little reward for all the frustration. 

I’m SO relieved!