Dr Aron treatment - day 9

So, the whole process of signing up with Dr Aron was really easy. I filled out the form online, sent my photos and made the payment, and then I waited.

Within 5 days, an email popped into my inbox from Dr Aron. He had sent through a prescription tailored to me, based on what I had written and my photos. He also gave me very explicit instructions on what to apply, and when.

My prescription did not contain an emollient - I wrote back to query this and he replied within minutes (great communication!). He explained that he was not including the emollient for me due to how tough hand eczema can be to clear.

I decided to trust him, and do exactly what he said.

My prescription was for one cream to be applied 4x daily, and a compound to be applied twice daily. I already had the cream in my eczema arsenal (ha ha ha) so all I needed was the compound. Dr Aron said the private pharmacy, Landy's in London could make it up for me. But before I went that route I decided to try my luck with my GP. I saw him and explained what I was doing and to my surprise he prescribed the components for me. I then mixed them at home myself. What a result.

The treatment bought me relief within 2 days. My skin was nearly clear after 5 days. The past two days I have noticed those telltale brown spots on my palm - the nasty little pompholyx blisters fighting back, trying to win as they always do. But so far....I am winning. The blisters seem controlled by the treatment - some have shrunk back down. Some are still there lurking, but not causing me any itching or pain. They make me so nervous though! Ugh!

Here is my left hand the morning I started treatment:

And it here it is on day 7

You can't really see the blisters as they are tiny, but they are there. Still - a huge huge improvement.

One thing I have really noticed is my mood. I am literally ecstatic about not itching all the time. And I am pain free. One of the things that comes up time and time again is the role of stress in pompholyx eczema - it can supposedly exacerbate things quite significantly. I have been incredibly stressed about this, because nothing I do seems to help. It has occurred to me therefore, that if this treatment causes my stress level to go down, then maybe that will also help to improve my condition.

Anyway. It is very very early days for me and I am yet to begin the tapering down process, which is really scary as I dread the return of the blisters, and yet I don't want to be using high dose steroids and antibiotics long term. But I will follow his instructions to the letter, and see where it leads me.

My non-itchy fingers are very much crossed!

Another treatment fail. Could Dr Aron be the answer?

I haven't updated for a while. I could go on and on about this but long story short, the nystatin and candida diet didn't work for me. I really gave it a good go - I didn't miss a dose of the anti fungal and I was so strict on the diet - I actually lost a lot of weight on it and people started commenting on how thin I looked (and not in a good way).

I might have continued if I had even minimal improvement, but I didn't. My hands looked awful at the end of it all.

So I began to think through my options:

1. Do what the dermatologist had suggested: 2 weeks of dermovate (a strong steroid) twice a day, then a week off, then top up at weekends

2. Strong oral medication - methotrexate or toctino

3. Homeopathy

4. Dr Aron


I ruled out option 1 quickly - it was the same old same old strategy I had been trying for months. Yes, dermovate clears most of the blisters up, but they flare up again within a couple of days of stopping. Why would it be any different now.

Option 2 was very unappealing - both drugs have significant side effects for the liver/kidneys and neither are compatible with pregnancy should we want to add to our family. I put these aside for now.

Option 3 I did think about and have not ruled out, but the evidence base is poor. Would it just be more money spent on something with little likelihood of success?

And that left option 4. For those who don't know, Dr Aron is a dermatologist based in South Africa. Rather gallingly, he used to work privately in London, in a clinic just minutes from my house. But anyway, he is now abroad but you can consult with him online.

Dr Aron's approach is not startlingly different from the norm - he still believes that eczema needs to be treated with topical steroids, however he believes that the role of the staph bacteria in eczema is massively underestimated. For this reason, his treatment combines a steroid, an antibiotic and an emollient in one compound cream, which is applied regularly at first, and gradually decreased. He doe not believe in the "short burst" treatment so popular in the world of eczema, and which has never worked for me.

I was hesitant about signing up. Firstly I worry so much about long term steroid use - just look at my first post back in November 2016 where I adamantly claim that steroids are not the answer. Secondly, his success is mostly with atopic eczema in children. He does have good results with atopic eczema in adults too, but very limited examples of success with pompholyx treatment - not because his treatment doesn't work, just because it is less common and there are fewer case studies. Thirdly, as a newcomer to his Facebook group, the love and adoration for this man is slightly overwhelming....he is almost treated like a God of some sort. But to be honest, having suffered the pain of eczema as I have, I can imagine the utter relief people must have when something finally works, especially when it is their child who is affected. Finally, I guess the whole idea of consulting with a doctor via the internet with funds being sent online seems a bit dodgy.

But - there were a huge number of people in the group who had done just that and had success and honestly, I was feeling desperate. I decided to go for it.