Hello and Happy New Year! I think I can still get away with saying that as we’re still in the first week of January…
It seems ages since I last posted on here, but it’s only been just over a month. Christmas plays havoc with my sense of time! (I can’t blame everything on hormones, although I do like to try!)
Last time I wrote about the Hippy Dippy Bit and ended that by saying the following post will be about my visits to my GP. (you can catch up on the post about Itchy Skin here and The Hippy Dippy Bit here).
So how did I get on with my GP?
When my skin was at its worst in September, I realised that I needed medical intervention to a) find out what was wrong and b) to clear it up as the 100% natural route wasn’t working.
These challenging times we’re facing meant I had to make do with an initial phone triage chat to discuss my symptoms. The first port of call was blood tests for liver, kidney, thyroid and hormones. All were fine and “compatible with menopause”, apart from my white blood cell count was slightly low. I repeated that test a month later and it was fine, although I was told I was allergic to the house dust mite! Well, that’s helpful!
The nurse who did my bloods was shocked at the state of my hands and encouraged me to make another call and to send in some photos as she felt I needed to be seen. Bingo! I got a face to face appointment! Woo-hoo! Result!
I was prescribed the usual steroid creams, liquid paraffin body lotion and a week’s course of strong general antibiotics (three a day) because the eczema on my hands had become badly infected. (I had also originally thought the hand issue was from over use of harsh hand sanitisers so I’d stopped using them a few months previously and wear gloves instead if necessary.) We briefly discussed HRT but I was advised to wait until the beginning of November for that because that would be a year since my last bleed.
These antibiotics didn’t touch it until the last day of the course, the redness and itching had almost disappeared. I had also used the steroid cream and that had helped calm down the irritation on my hands but after I finished the course of tablets everything flared up again and the skin on my hands resembled elephant’s skin. I couldn’t use the body lotion, I tried it twice and it just made my skin tingle (not in a good way) and very red.
Nothing had changed. I reverted to using all the natural products and decided to contact the surgery again and make an appointment with a female doctor to discuss HRT. I’ve got nothing against my GP, he was great, but I felt that he just didn’t “get it” with regards to menopause.
My first appointment with her was on 11th November. She was brilliant! I felt heard and understood. Unfortunately though she prescribed some horrible body gel, which I promised her I would try. It was disgusting stuff, like slime and I was supposed to use it three times a day. I gave it a go for 5 days but I felt like I was coating my skin in clingfilm as the gel wasn’t sinking in. It was also ruining my clothes and bedding because it was so greasy – you could’ve fried chips on me! I was also prescribed some strong anti-histamines for the itching and redness. I reverted again to the natural creams and made another appointment with her for 8th December. This time I was given different body lotion and more antibiotics especially for skin issues. Thankfully they kicked in within a couple of days and my skin cleared. She asked to see me again on 16th December for a progress report. I walked into her surgery and announed “We’ve cracked it!” She was so pleased! The photo shown here was taken on 4th January 20222 – a huge improvement!
I’ve had some tiny flares on my fingers and hands over the Christmas period due to eating richer foods and consuming more alcohol than I would normally, but I’ve been able to keep it under control. I’m still taking the anit-histamines.
Although my skin is so much better, I still don’t really have a clue what made it flare in the first place, which is frustrating. I have now been given a swab to take a skin sample if I get another major flare. I wish I’d been given one of those in the first place!
Another change I’ve made is that I’ve now gone Super Sonic! I now have HRT patches! I’ll write another post about that, otherwise I’ll be here all day (and I’m sure you have other things to do rather than read my blog posts all day!)
Until next time, stay safe and well.
Sending much love,
Wendy xx