Should I ask to see a dermatologist?

[firefly11]

I have had eczema all my life. I had a corticosteroid injection when I was about 11, and it cleared my eczema up for almost over a decade, before it returned with a vengeance when I got pregnant with my first baby at 24 - it was mainly around my belly. Then it cleared up after pregnancy, but returned as patches on my knees. I've kept it somewhat under control with topical steroid cream but when I was 30 and pregnant again, I started having eczema on my scalp. Or so I think it is, and even the GP thinks so. I have tried lots of different shampoos, Nizoral, Polytar, SLS free ones, herbal ones, etc. Nothing worked. I was prescribed different steroid creams, but I find that they only keep the condition under control - the itch disappears and then a few days after I stop applying the cream, it returns. I really don't think that using steroid cream every week is good for me.

I went to the GP again this evening only to be sent home with a new shampoo - Capesal. Luckily I haven't gone to the pharmacy yet because I went online to check what are the active ingredients in it, and it is coal tar. I already told her I've tried Polytar and it didn't work, so why did she send me home with this? It's so frustrating. So when will they refer me to a dermatologist? It seems like all the GPs at my surgery does is send me home with creams and lotions of different names but more or less the same kind of ingredients. She told me to try dabbing Tea Tree Oil neat on those eczema patches on my scalp. Is that safe? I seem to recall it isn't! Then I asked her if my eczema could be due to a food allergy or soap allergy perhaps. She ummed and ahhed and said no it couldn't because if it was a soap allergy it would only be at the points of contact. I didn't realise she never answered the question about the possibility of food allergy... until I walked out the clinic and came home.

Just in the last 3 months I've had 2 big episodes of hives which made my entire face and limbs so swollen I was unrecognisable. And the funniest thing was I didn't eat or do anything different so I could not even figure out what could have triggered it. Except maybe for the fact that on both occasions I was about 1 or 2 days into trying out new medication to cure the "eczema" on my scalp - first medication was Nizoral. Second time I was using the Trimovate. A midwife friend told me it may well be the medication, but who knows?

I am so frustrated. Not sure what to do. Even the GP who saw me just now acted quite weirdly with me. Like she wanted to say more to me but didn't say it. She just kept looking at me and smiling and waiting for something. I was just befuddled. I said thanks and left. When I went home and Googled up the medication she gave me, I realised why she looked so odd. Probably cos she knew she was prescribing me yet another of the same old stuff I have already tried! Also she told me to rub oil into my scalp. But I suffer from oily scalp and dry hair ends! Not only that but if I do not wash my hair with shampoo every day, my hair becomes a stringy greasy mess and also it starts to itch like mad and the eczema patches become huge and swollen - so I suspect I am even allergic to my own sebum?

Is the GP never going to refer me to a dermatologist or is it that my problem isn't worth referring? I am even contemplating seeing a private dermatologist if my GP won't refer me. But is it worth it? Or will they be just as clueless and send me home with something that won't work?

[topsi]

Yes just come out with the fact straight 'I want to be refered to a dermatologist please!' I think you have the right to say this at this stage.

[seoda24]

Have been through this myself with another skin condition which gp could not treat.i was having no relief with what they were giving me.i needed to see a specialist and you need to see some one too who knows what they are at...no point suffering.hope you get sorted