Oh Yeah, Oops

I realized this morning that after my doom and gloom entry on lichen sclerosis, I never said much else about it. We've had two appointments with the pediatric dermatologists at UNC, and now know that her prognosis is quite good. At the first one, we learned that they're seeing more and more pediatric cases stick around past puberty, so we just won't know until we get there whether she'll be one of the lucky ones or not. But we also learned that the earlier and younger the condition is diagnosed and treated, the lower the chances that the child will suffer from the long term effects. We were given medications, and told to return in two months.

At the second one, which was on Monday, we were told that for some kids, if the treatment is effective, they never get another outbreak. That doesn't mean they're cured, just that they're not having a problem with it at that time. We were told to stop the medications, and don't use them again unless it comes back.

She will need to be seen annually (more often if she's having outbreaks), by a pediatric dermatologist, which is why we'll need to make sure that won't be a problem in Germany. With adults, they know it increases the risk of skin cancer. With kids, they just don't know yet if it does or not, so they like to monitor them just in case.

She also has keratosis pilaris - which explains why her upper arms are bumpy and sometimes itchy. That's minor though. Like eczema but bumpy. No biggie. We just thought, "hey, we're at the dermatologists office, let's ask about every condition we might possibly have!"

Anyway, she'll be fine, and other than when I give her the medicine, it's not something we even have to think about. I'm very hopeful that this is the end of it, or that future outbreaks will be mild.