So much for Fat Tuesday

Today may go down in history as one of the most boring days of my life.  Unfortunately, however, I can't blame John for it.  Damn.  I put us in a self-imposed quarantine today due to Alex's skin condition.  I had high hopes that while we were here in Panama, Alex's skin would miraculously clear up and he wouldn't have to suffer the itchies for a whole month.  Everyone told me that the heat and humidity would cause the eczema to "poof" go away.  Well, turns out, not so much.

His eczema may very well have gone away, were it not for the necessity of slathering copious amounts of sunscreen on him several times per day.  It could be a number of things really; the chemicals in the pool, the bug spray, the 97 degree heat, stiff hotel sheets, detergent the laundromat is using to wash our clothes, the diapers that have a funny smell, the sausages he ate for breakfast the other day... 

Point is, he's not clearing up.  In fact, yesterday he had what appeared to be an allergic reaction to some unknown substance or food that caused him to break out in a red itchy rash from his nose to his nipples.  Hence the quarantine.  I wanted to keep him in a controlled environment to try to get his skin to calm down.  Poor Alex.  Kid doesn't even know what life is like to NOT be itchy all over.

The good news is that his skin did indeed calm down and he only has his "normal" patches of eczema and a little residual allergy rash on his chest that appears to be going away.  The bad news is that the three of us were stuck in this tiny hotel room with nothing but the Sudoku and Jumble puzzles in the newspaper and Spanish language television to keep us occupied.  John was in heaven.  Spending the day lounging around in his underwear, ordering room service and reading the paper is his idea of a good time.  For me, it was a very, very boring day.