To the hospital

We got to the hospital yesterday. The trip into Lancaster wasn’t too bad. We’d feared the worst but decided to try going into town the usual way. Yes, there were delays but no worse than it used to be all the time before the arrival of the new bypass road, the Bay Gateway. We couldn’t help noting even at lunchtime, a normally fairly quiet time of day, the queue out of Lancaster stretched as far as you could see. Clearly that wasn’t going to be the way to go home.

As we arrived in plenty of time we popped into the WRVS café & had a couple of bacon buns & some drinks. Eventually we made our way upstairs to Dermatology.

We were relieved to realise the doctor clearly recognised the symptoms. That gave us some faith in what she might have to say.

She diagnosed Discoid Eczema. Causes – age & stress.

How often we have heard those causes! I was told my knee problems were due to my old age – I was still in my 20s! As for stress all the Fox’s medical problems this year have been put down to that along with my psoriasis. 2017 was a bad year for us but all these medical adverse effects seem ludicrous!

Anyhow, they don’t know really why it starts. They suspect the disease is carried in the body throughout your life, until something triggers it into action, usually by then the patient is of retirement age, as is the Fox. They have no cure. However, there are things they can offer which should alleviate the symptoms & manage it to a great extent.

 He left with a prescription for two lots of creams/ointments. One he is to use daily instead of soap. That is essentially a moisturiser. The other is a steroid to be applied once a day, being careful to always stroke it on in the direction of his hair follicles. He hadn’t been told this before & had used a more circular motion to rub the creams in. As a result some of the creams had got into some of his hair follicles, inflaming them, adding to his discomfort. He will be sent another appointment in about 8 weeks’ time to check how he is doing. Hopefully he should be feeling easier then. With luck he will have phases when the eczema disappears. It may even seem to disappear altogether for a while, but even so he must continue with the moisturiser to stand a chance of keeping it away.

Old age can be a real bummer at times. And we don’t really feel being in your 60s is old age!

We were surprised to find our satnav was aware of the roadworks on the bridge & directed us home through the housing estates rather than the centre of Lancaster. We then got on the Bay Gateway & straight up to the surgery to get the hospital prescription for all this new medication organised. It probably won’t be available for collection until next week. There’s an outside chance it may be ready by Friday. Meanwhile he continues with the stuff he was prescribed a while back. It does ease the problem even it doesn’t eliminate it.

We’re both hoping the Fox is in for more comfortable times soon. It’s been a long couple of months since this rash appeared.