Eczema Tracker May 2018 – Go with the flow
When I started working on our Eczema Tracker for May, I did not know what theme to use. I picked up brush lettering recently thanks to my hubby. He bought me my first Tombow dual brush pen that started a new obsession with brush lettering. Still trying to get the hang of it but am loving the concentration it requires to master. It is a lot harder than it looks! Thats why I started doodling to cover up the rough calligraphy!
The creative process also calms me and helps in gathering my thoughts. I highly recommend all eczema mamas to try it. It was this creative process that helped me solve Corey’s eczema woes by breaking it down into bite sized simplified pieces. It was a constant of flow of reworking what worked, sieving out what made sense and what to throw out even before trying.
My May 2018 bullet journal theme is about letting my ideas flow and organising my life into buckets
May Bullet Journal Cover page: Bucket lists let the ideas flow
(Family/self, website and work). Here’s sneak peak of the cover. I tried out faux calligraphy which was also rough around the edges. I definitely need more practice! Thankfully I probably do have more time now that Corey is settling well into preschool.
Corey’s skin is so good, we can go with the flow!
Corey’s condition has continued to be GOOD. In fact, his skin is better than mine some days.
I use the itch scale in my tracker to determine whether antihistamines and steroid creams are needed. I still have a detailed breakdown of where I put steroid creams to help wean off usage and thus dependence. We are mostly confined to stubborn spots now.
General observations of Corey’s skin condition from the last tracker:
Corey’s skin is better than ever. At the end of April, he recovered from a flare surprisingly quickly. The flare was a result of a horrible ear and throat infection that I was bracing myself for a bad 2 weeks, instead his skin recovered in 2 days. I put that down to us having switched to the Lipikar Baume AP+ in February this year. You can read about it in Review after 5o days of using La Roche-Posay Lipikar Baume AP+, to this day it continues to amaze me with its efficacy. I continue with his minimum twice a day 4 step skincare regime of ‘Check, Disinfect, apply Meds, Moisturizers’.
Staying disciplined for eczema babies: Never Take Good Skin For Granted
With Corey’s huge improvements we have seen more smiles, more laughs, better appetite and faster learning. However, if there’s an important lesson learnt over the past 2 years, it is to never take good skin for granted. His skin might feel normal, but the itch still overwhelms his sleep often. Its a nervous tick almost. While I work on retraining my toddler that he doesn’t and shouldn’t scratch when he is upset, I will continue with this standard eczema tracker template.
Give the Eczema Tracker a shot, send me feedback!
Back when I was a desperate eczema mama grappling at anything to help me find control of this horrible affliction, I started tracking Corey’s eczema in June 2016. Earlier versions were just haphazardly written on scrapes of paper. Then I developed a really detailed diary that broke down observation in hours. Looking back, that served me well because it was how I narrowed down his triggers and we saw huge improvements after elimination.
Now I have a system used on a daily basis that has become second nature. It definitely has helped me fill in all the gaps that my eczema baby’s allergist does not fill. It DEFINITELY has helped me save a lot of money on doctor trips (the same can’t be said for his skincare products though!).
Do give the Eczema Tracker a shot as it not only solved our eczema woes, it also helped me find solace in so many helpless moments. Send me a shoutout if you do and tag them with #eczemaworkbook
