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Dear Dr. Martin Schiele

Emma was born on the 6th August 1995. She was premature and only 4lbs 12 with very red skin. 2 Days after she was allowed out of the special care unit and one of the midwifes used her to demonstrate to all the new mums how to bath our babies and she put red antiseptic soap in the water with Emma. She started to scream the midwife quickly washed her and dressed her again. That night Emma just screamed and cried all night however much I fed her or rocked her. The next day her skin had a red lace look to it and the midwife gave me E45 cream to put on her but she just screamed more as I put it on. When we went home I talked to my Doctor and health visitor about this and they said to try a different cream and gave me diprobase. 

Once again she did not like this being put on her skin. At this point I had not discovered computers so I went to the library and took out a book about skin complaints. I read it cover to cover and decided that Emma had eczema. I then took out a book about eczema and learnt all I could about it. I then went back to the doctor armed with my book and my screaming child. He referred us to the nurse and prescribed Olatium for the bath and aqueous cream for her skin. This calmed it down a bit but never stopped it from itching. She seemed to be worst after lying on her sheepskin rug and the back of her head would break out in red sores as well. We then joined the Eczema society and went to a meeting in a hotel where there were lots of different companies telling us about their products. I discovered that E45 and various other creams where full of lanolin which is a product from sheep's wool. 

That was it Emma is allergic to wool so we stopped wearing wool and checked all products for lanolin and got rid of the wool rug. This helped a bit but again her skin was still very sore. We went to see the nurse and doctor every 3 months and tried various creams and socks of oats in the bath, bandages at night with cream but they did not help and she could not sleep because of the itching. Her hair was not growing in right because her scalp was so dry and sore. 

So we started on medicated shampoos these helped her scalp for a couple of hours and then we would have to wash her hair again. In 1997 we moved house from the country in the middle of a farm to the town this helped her skin slightly. We also changed Doctors. Our new family Doctor was happy to listen to me and accepted my information about Emma being allergic to lanolin. She thought Emma was too young to be tested for allergies and I would know best. She again was happy to prescribe whatever creams I asked for and suggested others to try. We discovered the cream would help for a while never clear it and then the eczema would take over again and I would have to change the cream we were on a cycle of double base, diprobase, aveno cream, aqueous cream and olatium with a very small use of steroid cream when it got very bad but I as a mother did not like to use this as I know it thins the skin which if she did not grow out of this as she got older it would just make her skin worse. I also went to the herbalist and we went on a dairy free diet and herbal tea and cream that the herbalist made up for Emma this did not last long as the herbal tea tasted awful and she would not drink it and the cream nipped so we went back to the circle of creams we used before and the dairy free diet made no difference at all apart from the fact I had to say no to ice cream, chocolate and yoghurts.

In 1999 we had another baby (Louise) I would not let the midwife bath her and I took in my own olatium for her first bath. At first Louise had red lacy skin and I thought her we go again but Louise only gets small patches of eczema at the front of her elbows. Although Emma seemed fine with the birth of her baby sister after about 6 weeks her skin just flaked off. We went to see Dr Austin and she referred us to the skin specialist in Fife. I then found out it would be at least 6 months before we would be offered an appointment. The Dr and I agreed that we could not wait that long and we went privately to the Murryfield Hospital in Edinburgh the next day. The Dr was very nice but could only up her steroid cream and say that she had been dethroned. The steroid cream stopped her skin from peeling off but did not stop the eczema and then we had to stop using it as you can only use the steroid for so long then stop for a month then start again in the time that we stopped it came raging back to how it was again. We were in a vicious circle.

My father in law phoned me to say he had just seen on the news about a product in America that was working and it was called tacrolemus and they were going to bring it out in the UK soon. They had discovered it because when given to transplant patients to stop organ rejection and it cleared up their skin too. I phoned Dr Austin to ask if she had heard of it she hadn't but would look into it for me. We discovered it was going to be called Protopic in the UK and would be available in 2 months. On the day it was released in the UK we went to see Dr Austin and she gave us the prescription. Boots got the cream for us that afternoon and we tried it. Emma said that it did not sting and the next morning there was a great improvement. Within a week Emma just had really dry skin with a few patches of eczema on her hand and feet. This was the best yet but we still had to use the aqueous cream and olaitum in the bath. After a few months Dr Austin said that she would not prescribe this very often, as they did not know what other side effects it could cause. So I had to be careful with it. 

Again the patches started to get worse and bigger. We were on the cycle again and Emma was having problems at school with writing, as her hands were so bad. Also as she grew up her friends would not hold her hands, as they were so bad they either did not want to hurt her or they thought they might catch it. A few people tried to bully her about it but we had a word with the head mistress and she talked to the classes individually to stop this and explain what eczema is. The teachers were very helpful and let Emma put on her own cream during classes but she hated having to do this and would let her hands bleed rather than put cream on them. I then saw an advert on Ebay for bioskin, salcura and thought I would try it as I had many other things and when we received the lotion I took it to Dr Austin and showed it to her before I used it. She said to go ahead and try it. That night I sprayed Emma from top to bottom and she said it did not sting at all but she did not like the smell. 

The next morning I could not believe the difference on her body but her hands and feet were bright red and lacy. We sprayed it on again all over and did not put Olaitum in her bath and off she went to school. When she got home we did the spray again and as I sprayed it on I saw the skin on her body was clear this was the third time we had used it. Over the next couple of days we used the spray 3 times a day and her hands and feet started to clear up the red lace came to the surface and the lace flaked off to reveal normal skin underneath. After a week the red calmed down and her hands and feet were normal. She did not have any eczema for the first time in her life she is 9 now. I order the spray once a month and I order two 100ml bottles and one 50ml bottle as Emma now puts the spray on at school and likes to have her own small bottle. She still does not like the smell and neither does her friends (she puts it on in the bathroom at school) but she will use it herself for the first time. At school she had received awards for much better work and writing (she finds it easier to sit still as she does not itch any more). Her friends hold her hands all the time and her love of gymnastics is renewed as her feet work better on the beams etc. 

Emma is a much happier child due to this treatment. We have been trying different creams every 3 months for 9 years nothing works like this there are no side effects no reasons to stop using it no stinging no tears. I have recommended it to everyone I know that has eczema and Dr Austin has never seen Emma's skin so clear and wrote down the name of it to tell other patients to try it.