My son started his first biologic

My son has his loading dose of Dupinex yesterday. It was heart breaking. I can handle my own pain and deal with the injections, but to see his face made me so sad. He has hand and feet eczema that will not go away. Leaving his hands and feet raw all the time. Also some other allergies and rashes. He’s 10 and just wants to be a boy, playing outside. So he asked for help to get rid of his rashes. We tried many things this summer but now we are left with a biologic.
He cried during the shot but said he was fine afterwards. He’s tough, so I know he was stressed about it. Here’s to clear skin for my son!

I know you guys will understand.

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Hopefully he has a really good response, and that will be motivating enough. Did you have him ice the injection site first? That may help if you didn’t. It’s still a mental game though. The first time it’s not the pain, it’s the mental anguish before hand. I almost threw up the first time that I ever gave myself a shot. Now I’m just fine.

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My grandaughter was 9 when she started. We worked hard to teach her to self inject. Despite her special needs it didn’t take long. She was on both Enbrel and MTX at the time. Camp Limber Limbs sponsored by the Arthritis Association made a huge difference. Cool Camp. Anyway check out their resources. They still send out a backpack of goodies for the kids and some great parent materials as well as stuff for the schools.

https://www.arthritis.org/diseases/juvenile-arthritis#:~:text=Juvenile%20arthritis%20affects%20nearly%20300%2C000,under%20the%20age%20of%2016.

And especially: https://www.arthritis.org/juvenile-arthritis/get-your-ja-power-pack

I don’t want to sound preachy, but I hope in addition to the hard work you have done with Dermatology, you also involve a pediatric Rheumatologist. ( they are differnt than a egugular ol’ rheumy - much different) Genetics is against you. Your son is at the age where his regular pediatrician will often blow off things as “growing Pains” One of the major themes of the Arthritis Association is empowering parents to say "NO, what my kid is experiencing is not “just growing pains” A pediatric Rheumy will treat very aggressively “growing Pains” (far more than what an Adult rheumy would do) Doing so has incredible results. In fact numbers indicate that aggressive treatment of Possible Arthritic conditions at this age has a high probability of “retraining the immune system” through developmental stages to the point by age 19 or so, adult arthritis just doesn’t happen…

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Thanks. NO we didnt do ice since we were in the doctors office. We will do it next time. He didnt sleep the night before since he was so worried. I think next time will be better, at home.

Thank you @tntlamb!! He does complain about growing pains. I asked his pedi and they blew me off. I had “growing pains” at him age but there were not growing pains. No one listened to me. I will find a pediatric Rheumy for sure and at least let them assess him. Thanks for the reminder.

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:heart::pray: Bless you both. I hope he will have good results. It’s so hard to see our babies in pain.

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Thank you. So far he was only groggy the day after. He’s back to being a normal kid. Next injection is in a week. Still taking care of his hands with steriods.

Oh good. I pray he will have continued relief :heart:

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Oh gosh. You paint a picture for sure and it made my heart hurt.

You do realise that very soon he will be Little Mr Macho Self-Injector don’t you? Seriously, he’ll be unbearable and you’ll be relieved!

Hope he gets a great result.

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I’m sure he will put me to shame one day. Its first maintenance dose is Tuesday. It will be at home and I hope that makes things easier.
So far we havent seen any improvement with his rashes but it is too soon. His stress level has been high so we are making some changes in his routine to bring that down.

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