Yang's rash

It started in late 2023. Small bumps developed under Yang's left eye and the bit between his nose, upper lip and cheeks, but mostly under the eye. 

Think it was a couple of weeks after Sito's birthday dinner at Famous Treasure. The restaurant was very cold. Yang and Yu shared a scarf provided by the restaurant. As kids go, this boy buried his face with the scarf and goodness knows how clean - or not! - the scarf was! Right after dinner, we saw that his left eye was red and got him some eye lotion which helped.

It was super unlucky for him - and lucky for Yu who didn't have any issue.

The rash didn't go away. At one point, it looked like it was dry and peeling in bits. It was a weekend so we got some cream from the pharmacy. It didn't help. Managed to get an appointment at the polyclinic the next working day, 2 Jan 2024.

The doctor gave him some cream, which didn't work. At the review on 24 February, the doctor referred him to the in-house dermatologist. 

We managed to see the derm on 4 April. She took pictures and sent to National Skin Centre; I'm not sure why but I remember thinking they should have referred us there directly!

Anyway, that was our next destination..

So on 12 Jun 2024, six months after our first polyclinic visit, we met a dermatologist at the NSC. She seemed like a newbie but brought in her consultant to look at Yang. In the end, we scrapped a bit of the rash off the cheek part to test for molluscum, but it was negative. We agreed to a retinol treatment to slough off the bumps gently.

Yang's skin turned red after applying the retinol, an expected side effect. But the rash wasn't getting better; the bumps were still there.

At the review on 4 September, the doctor said it would be safe to continue with the retinol which would take time to show effect, but he asked us to apply a moisturiser 20min after applying the retinol to help the redness.

I decided to alternate the retinol and the moisturiser - Cerave, not my regular! - until our Japan trip. I was afraid the winter weather would make his skin even drier so I skipped the retinol totally and gave him only the Cerave. I didn't resume the retinol since then.

All this while, Yang's rash looked ok some days and less so others. But the skin was red though the redness has diminished a bit since we stopped the retinol. He also kept saying he was fine with the bumps, no need to treat. Think he was tired of all the nightly applications... 

We had another review on 14 January. To be honest, I didn't want to go back after September coz I found it all useless, and Yang was ok with the rash. But I was glad we did coz this doctor was the clearest of them all. 

He said that even though the molluscum test was negative, it could have been a false negative due to sampling. However, the retinol would have killed off any active virus. He suspected what we're seeing now is scarring, which would take time to heal. So we are to continue with Cerave, and avoid sun exposure. If there are new bumps, we can use the retinol.

Wa, I like this doctor. So clear, so willing to share his thoughts on this without just relying on tests or telling me ok la, just continue the cream... 

So now, we just put the moisturiser on the dots. To be honest, there were nights I forgot. But the dots look better, and Yang has no issue with his looks. We will just do our best and hopefully the dots will diminish more as he grows...