Molluscum Journey Insights From a Family Who’s Been There

Molluscum contagiosum is one of the most common viral skin conditions in children — but a diagnosis can still leave parents full of questions. In this episode of Skincredible, Dr. Lisa Swanson, board-certified pediatric dermatologist, speaks with a family who navigated the molluscum journey firsthand.

Through Grace and Max's story, you'll get an honest look at what life with molluscum really looks like: the initial confusion, the emotional weight, the social questions kids face, and the path toward treatment and resolution. Though patients and their parents aren’t responsible for the insurance journey when seeking coverage for therapy, we discuss how helpful it was for Grace & Max’s mom and dad to stay involved and advocate on behalf of their children when it came to coverage. This ultimately made a positive difference in outcome and they do not regret the amount of time and energy this took. 

Key Takeaways:

• Molluscum contagiosum is common, contagious, and generally harmless — but can last longer than expected
• You do NOT have to treat molluscum, but if you decide to, open communication with a dermatology provider makes a significant difference
• Children can learn to discuss their condition with peers confidently
• You are not alone — and treatment is available for those who would like it

Keywords

molluscum contagiosum, molluscum treatment, pediatric skin conditions, molluscum contagiosum family, dermatologist, skincare, skin virus, parenting, zelsuvmi, imiquimod, cimetidine, Candida

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Introduction

01:20 Grace Gets Molluscum

03:00 Molluscum Journey Length

04:23 How Grace Handled Questions

05:40 Changes In Habits or Schedule with Molluscum

08:11 The Spread of Molluscum

09:00 Imiquimod for Molluscum

11:00 Cimetidine

12:30 KOH- Potassium Hydroxide

15:44 Zelsuvmi

17:30 Dad Gets Involved in Insurance Struggles

25:00 Zelsuvmi Application

29:00 Max Gets Molluscum

31:00 Other Kids Asking About Molluscum

32:25 Candida Injections

36:0 Advice for Other Parents

37:40 Max’s Advice for Other Kids & Goodbye

The information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Always consult your  physician regarding your health.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Skin Credible, where we tell you what you should know about skin and how to blow.

SPEAKER_05 0:17

Welcome everybody to another amazing episode of Skin Credible, the podcast. This is going to be a really good one today, you guys, because we are going to talk about the Molluscum experience. We've had an episode where I talked about what Molluscum is. We've had an episode about the treatment options available. And now we're going to hear from a real live family what the lived Molluscum experience is all about. Hello, you guys. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks. So lovely to have you. So excited for you guys to be here. For the listening audience, we have a lovely family here today that's lived through the Molluscum experience. They're not going to be on video just to protect and preserve everybody's privacy, but we're still going to get to hear their wonderful, beautiful story. And so we have mom and dad, Catherine and Jeremy. Hello. And we have the littles, Grace and Max. Hello and welcome, you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:12

Yes, yes. So let's start by um talking about the beginning of your guys' Molluscum journey. Life was going on just normal. Everything was fine. And then lo and behold, little Grace started to get some bumps. What is your guys' recollection of that? Who noticed them first? Did Grace notice them or did you guys pick them up?

SPEAKER_04 1:36

I'm pretty sure I noticed first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

Yeah. She just had bumps that started kind of on her neck and then started appearing on her face. And it was really confusing. First, I thought maybe it was a hormonal thing. Is this some early acne? But she was like six years old or seven maybe at the time. And uh so we talked to her pediatrician, and right away she said, This looks like molluscum.

SPEAKER_05 1:59

Yes, yes. And what did the pediatricians say? Like, did they tell you what molluscum was, or were they like, this is molluscum? Google it.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

She gave us a little more than that. I remember her saying it's it's not harmful, but it might be around for a while. Sure. Also sharing that it's a viral-based thing and that it can be contagious. So um that's kind of was our initial takeaway. And it wasn't bothering Grace too much, except that they were a little itchy. Oh, she was complaining about that a little.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Sure, sure, sure. And so you were given the diagnosis and the pediatrician did a great job. Yep, it's it's viral. It is considered contagious because it does spread from kid to kid. Um, but it's the sort of thing that pretty much every kiddo will have. And so after you heard about it, were you did it creep you out? Were you like, oh gosh, we've got the cooties? Or no. Or were you were you like, oh, okay, this this too will pass, you know?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

More more in that camp. But it has been a slower passing than we initially expected.

SPEAKER_05 3:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

But but definitely not tremendously concerned, right? Well, it didn't feel like a health concern or anything.

SPEAKER_05 3:09

Okay, okay. Did the pediatrician give you any time frame for when she thought it would go away?

SPEAKER_04 3:16

I don't remember. I wasn't at that appointment. I think I I remember her saying that it was, you know, it could last for a while. Yeah. But I definitely did not expect it's been like a year and a half for us now. Almost two years. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

Yeah. And for the listener, molluscum can last up to two to three years. The average is one year. So it does tend to be a little bit of a journey for folks. Um, what prompted you guys to reach out and come see me? Did the molluscum was at the itchiness, or, you know, was Grace just annoyed by them?

SPEAKER_04 3:51

I think because they were on her face and her neck, they were very visible. And so uh I was getting questions from other parents. She was getting questions from other kids about, oh, you have some bumps, what's that about? And just that can be fatiguing over time to answer that question again and again. And and that plus a little bit of itchiness and irritation. We thought, well, let's see what we can do to get these taken care of.

SPEAKER_05 4:14

Sure, sure, sure. Uh do you guys know how and and Grace, feel free to pipe in if you feel comfortable. How did Grace handle the questions about them?

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Amazing. Amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

It didn't, you know, she didn't get embarrassed or I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

I she did a great job of um explaining the uh that they were viral, that it was normal that lots of kids get them and that they will go away. Yeah. She was very fact-based response.

SPEAKER_05 4:41

I think that's wonderful. I think sometimes kids they get self-conscious, you know, which is normal. And uh when people ask questions, I think sometimes they can, you know, go into their shelves a little bit about it. Um I I praise you guys as parents for kind of preparing her to answer those questions. I had three hemangiomas on my face when I was a baby. And my mom tells me I was destined to be a pediatric dermatologist because hemangiomas go way back. But I have zero negative memories about them. And they were like on my eyebrow and on my um forehead and on my nose. Um, but I have zero negative memories of it. And I think it's because my parents were like, oh, they're just your hemangiomas. And so if anybody asked me about it, I'm sure I said, Oh, they're just my hemangiomas. You know, like get over a dude. And so I praise you guys for kind of giving her the confidence to be like, oh, this is what they are, and it's no biggie and all of that kind of stuff. Some families will stop doing certain activities when their kiddos get molluscum. I never make them stop anything. I don't believe kids need to be quarantined for molluscum. But some families will be nervous about if other people see the bumps and what will they think and just you know, potential negative attention. Did you guys shy away from any activities? Did you change your behaviors or your, you know, no, we did not.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Uh-uh. No.

SPEAKER_05 6:03

And so swimming is a common place to pick up molluscum. The virus spreads like crazy in water, including swimming pools. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

That checks out.

SPEAKER_05 6:13

It yes, yes. It most commonly kids pick it up in swimming pools. And while I acknowledge that, I still don't tell kids they can't swim when they're dealing with molluscum. I say go ahead and swim. But I often will tell them like cover up, mostly to avoid unwanted negative attention, you know, swim shirts and stuff like that. Were you guys doing anything like that?

SPEAKER_04 6:37

We always do rash guards for our kids anyway. So they were kind of already covered up and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

They're used to long sleeves when they're swimming, for better or worse. So it was not a change.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Good, good, good. I love that because it's also very good for sun protection. Yes. Right? Yes. So as a dermatologist, yes. Kudos. And the swim shirts these days, the rash cards these days, are so cute. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Hers are they're really cute. They're so cute. I will say the kids love wearing them because then we don't have to spend 20 minutes doing sunscreen everywhere, which is nobody's favorite activity when they just want to get in the pool. Right.

SPEAKER_05 7:12

Yes, yes. No, they make life so much easier. My brother is a redhead, and we grew up in Arizona, and my my mom had my brother wearing like generation 1.0 of swim shirts. It was awful. Like I flash back to those memories of my poor brother being the only kid in the whole world wearing one of these things. And they were like these white, gauze. Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 7:39

I my dad was my dad had had a couple of um melanomas, and so we were very yeah. And so yeah, they felt like crinkly canvas. I think they're called frog shirts.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

Oh my gosh, and you had to wear them too?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Sure did, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:52

Oh my gosh, you and my brother should connect and you know have a little therapy over over your shared experience. Yes, yeah. But now it's like Jay Crew makes swim shirts. It's like there's so cute. A lot of kids are wearing them too, yeah. Um, so Grace was dealing with the molluscum, and some parents and kids get freaked out as they like watch them spread because molluscum like to have molluscum babies. And so one quickly becomes two, quickly becomes five, quickly becomes ten. Yeah. How did you guys deal with that? Did that wreak havoc on your psyche?

SPEAKER_04 8:29

I don't think so. I mean, fortunately at that point, we were seeing you already. We knew we had a treatment plan in place, and so I yeah, it's frustrating to watch it continue for so long. I think that was the hardest part for us is just like she's dealt with this long enough. How long is it gonna be till we can get rid of it?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

We knew they were gonna go away, but we also were looking for a way to maybe expedite that just maybe some frustration that it was took the time it did.

SPEAKER_05 8:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I commonly tell families that like while treatment of molluscum is never mandatory, right? There are options to treat to speed up the process. Yeah, yeah. And so we met for the first time and we talked through some treatment options and we ended up selecting a Mi'kwomad to start with, which is a cream. And I recommend people apply it to two or three Molluscum Monday, Wednesday, Friday at bedtime. Helps trigger immune response. One of the best things about a Miquel mod is that it's cheap and it's also a pretty easy routine. What was your guys's? We we of course eventually moved on from that, so it wasn't a perfect treatment for Grace. But what was your experience like with the Michelmod?

SPEAKER_04 9:35

I remember that one. We started with it. Um, we would just do it uh Monday, Wednesday, Friday, like you said. We did it after bath time. We do baths every night, and so that was an easy time before you put your pajamas on. Let's just do this quickly. Um, the cream is easy to apply and it wasn't super irritating to her skin, especially if you spilled a little bit on the non-molluscum skin. That's the part that's more sensitive. Yes. Um, but yeah, that was that was, I would say, probably the easiest to tolerate treatment. We tried.

SPEAKER_05 10:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Didn't seem like a whole lot happened.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

I also remember I it was hard to get the right amount of those little foil packets. It was like sometimes I'd squeeze the whole thing out, and it's like, oh geez.

SPEAKER_05 10:16

Yes. I always warn people about the foil packets because they're small and like they tell you you have to open it up and then use what you're gonna use and then throw away the rest, but you can't do it. No, we did not do that. Crinkle the thing close and then use it for subsequent applications. Um, but yeah, I think Emicwimod, it's it's not perfect, but it works for a lot of kids and it's just so easy. It was definitely easy. Yes, yes. So Grace didn't get the kind of success we wanted. At moments, I remember we started to see some of those pimple-like molluscum, which we call pseudo fronculoid molluscum. So that made us feel like maybe we were starting to head on the right path because that tends to imply immune responses taking place. And so we ended up choosing to add cemetidine to it to try to boost the efficacy of the amicamod. And cemetidine is a medicine that's used to treat heartburn, but for reasons we don't understand, it can help with molluscum and with warts and things like that. It used to be available in a liquid, but it got discontinued, and so it only comes commercially in a pill. And so we had a liquid compounded for grace. What was your guys' experience like with the addition of the cemetidine? Short-lived.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Yeah, I was I was excited to try it because I thought, okay, this will make it work a little better. We're doing like the next line therapy. Hopefully, this works even better than the first. Um, she just could not tolerate the taste. And the she described it as chalky. She just didn't like the liquid. So I think we made it through one, maybe two doses, and she just couldn't tolerate it. And she's a pretty tolerant kid. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:51

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

That would that one didn't work well. That was short-lived. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Okay. I tell my patients when I prescribe it the most common side effect is get increased gassiness. Um, and the kids always get a giggle out of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Would you have tried it more if it was gonna make you toot more?

unknown 12:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

No, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 12:09

Or fluffy more, like they say on Bluey. Bluey is a big hit. Yeah. I was watching it this morning as I got ready. I love I love that show so much. So too. The episode Stickbird was on, which is one of my absolute favorites. Do you guys know Stickbird?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

They probably I'm sure they do. Yeah. Yeah, you'd see.

SPEAKER_05 12:26

Yes. Oh, that's one of my favorites. And then they throw away all their upset and all their angry. Do you remember that part at the end? Yes. Oh, I love that. It always makes me so happy. Um, so the addition of the Smetidine was not a big hit. And with that, we eventually decided, okay, let's just do something different. And I told you guys about a couple of studies that have shown success with a compounded potassium hydroxide KOH. And it's also cheap because it can be, you know, compounded very cheaply, um, not covered by insurance. Typically, a lot of treatments for molluscum aren't covered by insurance. So if you have a treatment that's cheap anyway, that's a real benefit. So the amical mods cheap, cemetidine's cheap, KOH is cheap, so that's nice. Um, so we tried the KOH, and the KOH we compound into a 10% strength, and you're supposed to apply just like a teeny dot with a Q-tip. With KOH, you're supposed to treat every spot. So there's just a little bit more work involved with that. What was your experience like with the KOH?

SPEAKER_04 13:30

I remember the first time we tried it. Well, first I was glad to be done with a tiny foil packet. Yes. I was like, okay, this one we can do. Uh, but the first night we applied it, she was in tears. Oh, it was just really painful. Um, and so it was not a good, I it just she just didn't tolerate it very well. I think we we probably didn't even get through all the spots, and then we wanted to try again the next night. We I think she let us do it a couple nights, but we just decided that's too painful. It's not not a good experience. It made her really, really itchy. Yeah. So it was like it kind of stung a little bit and then was very itchy for her.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

So and then we were also a little bit concerned because it wasn't affecting all the molluscum, right? It wasn't triggering that immune response. Yeah. Given that somewhere on her neck and on her face was already so sensitive. Right. And then if it was gonna make some red spots and just scarring.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Um, KOH, you know, they've done studies looking at different percentages, different strengths. And 10% was in at least in the studies that have been done the most tolerable. But they did note irritation and stuff, especially with the higher strength. So I wasn't terribly surprised to hear that Grace had those issues, but disappointed. You know, sometimes when something does cause a little bit more irritation and inflammation, sometimes it'll actually work to get rid of some of the molluscum. Right. Was it capable of doing anything or was it there's simply not enough time for it to I think there probably wasn't enough time.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

I actually think that one may have been more effective for her, but it just was like not worth the cost. Talmobility was an issue. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

Yeah. I commonly tell folks we never want the treatment to be worse than the condition. Exactly. And some of the treatments can kind of cross that line. Yeah. Yeah. Where you're like, she's suffering more with this than she is with the molluscum themselves. Yeah. So during that time period, a new medicine came out. And I had been kind of telling you guys about it. Like, hey, there's a lot of it. It's coming, it's coming. Um, we're gonna have something specifically for molluscum because throughout the years, we've just kind of multi-purposed other things to treat molluscum, maybe things that have worked for warts or something like that will multi-purpose it for Millescum. But we were getting our first topical FDA approved specific for Millusca Medicine. And while we were dabbling in all that stuff, that happened. And so Zell Suvme got approved. And Zelsuvmy's other name is called Berdasimer. And I kind of wish they were able to keep Berdazimer because I always think Bedazzling. Yes, yes. I mean, I would have so much more fun with that than with Zelsuvme. Um, but Zelsuvmi is a topical medicine, it's a nitric oxide-releasing gel, and you apply it at bedtime to every spot. It is unique in its mechanism of action, and it is unique in that it's FDA approved officially. Now, since it came out, I have been overall impressive impressed with its efficacy, but access, what we call access, has been an issue, meaning getting insurance companies to cover it. And it's because, you know, it's multifactorial, it's because molluscum's self-resolved, it's because historically insurance has not been great about covering molluscum treatments. And so that's why we've done things that are typically cheap without insurance coverage. So we were headed into kind of uncharted waters with this first FDA-approved topical. And when I started to prescribe it, almost immediately I learned that insurance was just gonna be a little bit of a bear with it. You guys encountered that. And um my staff was working diligently to try to um, you know, fight, you know, give the good fight and um stand on the fact that we had tried a lot of previous treatments, they hadn't been effective. Here we have this FDA approved agent, we want to give it a whirl. And so while my staff particularly shout out to Aubrey, who really, really worked hard on this, we were still um having some roadblocks and speed bumps. And dad, you got involved.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

I did. I made a lot of phone calls, I filled a lot of paperwork. Um, so initially insurance denied it, and then I called them and they said there's not anything we can do about it, but you can appeal it. I said, Great, let's do that. And they sent me some paperwork, and so and I filled that out and appealed it, and your office sent some some supplemental information, and then they rejected it again, and I said, Well, let's appeal it again. You know, I'll do this all day.

SPEAKER_07 17:57

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Um, they rejected it again and said there were no further appeals, and I said, That's all right, I'll go to the state.

SPEAKER_07 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

And the state said, as long as the insurance is within their contract, then there's nothing they can do. So the state was a very polite but very immediate dead end. Um And then what did we do after that? I started calling further up the chain at the insurance company. I got not their director, but kind of the the I guess the deputy director, and asked what sh that person would be doing in my shoes, and she said exactly the same thing that I'd been doing. I was like, well, that doesn't really move the needle though.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

Yeah, you're like, well, that's nice to hear, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Um and they the rationale they gave is they said that the their pharmacists had met and that the efficacy of Zelsuv me wasn't greater in their eyes than what was already available, and so they just weren't gonna be persuaded. And so we pivoted to some degree. We tried to go with the patient's assistance program from the drug manufacturer, but we fortunately for us made a little bit too much, we were above the threshold, so they could there was nothing they could do there. Um they're they were tough to navigate only because each time you talk to someone, they didn't really know what had happened previously. I think I got the sense that since it's a new medicine, they're also all very new and it's an entirely new patient assistance program.

SPEAKER_05 19:24

Yes, which is true, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

And they're all nice about it, but not the tremendously helpful even if they had intended to be. And so w what ultimately happened is I don't know if this person had stopped by your office, but Aubrey made a connection with their regional sales director who basically said, Use my name and we'll just shoe you into the patient assistance program. Yeah. So I did that, and they said, Oh, we've never heard of this person.

SPEAKER_05 19:51

No name dropping didn't help at all.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

No, and I was like, Aubrey, help. Um and she's like, That's odd. That pretty sure that's the correct name. And then so the the this regional person called in and said, Look, you guys, this is who I am. Like and so ultimately we got into the patient assistance program and they started initially they tried to send it to several different local pharmacies because they didn't realize that they couldn't. Oh, and then they and I kept saying, Hey, you know, what's going on? Where is it? And ultimately they had to send it to uh pharmacy with whom they work regularly, which is in North Dakota. And then they said, Well, when are you gonna come get it? And I said, I said I'm not.

SPEAKER_08 20:32

I have no plans to travel to North Dakota.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah, but now but now it shows up, you know, once a month in a lot of dry ice in a little pouch, and it's it's I do have to call each time and I have to remind them each time. Yeah. Um, which has been odd, but everyone's been nice about it. It's just been a lot of effort. Yeah. A lot of effort. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's yeah, I do it between meetings. Like it's not it hasn't been a tremendous burden, um, which is a lot coming from me because I couldn't my mom when I in high school, she'd be like, Hey, you can order a pizza if you want, you just have to call it in. I'd be like, I guess I'm going hungry. I'm not I'm not making that phone call. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Um things you'll do for your kids are a little different than the things you'll do for yourself, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:15

Yeah, but putting on my headset and making a 10-minute phone call while I was out for a walk or something was not not a huge burden.

SPEAKER_08 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Um I do have the phone number saved in my phone that made it easier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

I will also say I think part of what you did really well was both being polite and and agreeable to the people you were talking with. So they they wanted to help you. And also you shared some of Grace's story. I did. And that this is a kid that has been dealing with this for over a year. We have tried so many different treatment combinations and they're not working and they're not well tolerated. And now for the first time, there's something that could really help her. And can what can you do to get that for her? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:53

So yeah, I think what's the expression? You get more with honey than with honey.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Something else. I think it's flies with honey than vinegar. There you go. Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 22:05

Why do you want flies though? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:09

Where do these expressions come from? But yeah, when I'm always when I'm talking to these people, I do try, even though sometimes there's like a fury inside. Yes. I try to be just so nice. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah. My sense was always that they're so calm. Yeah. That with a few exceptions who might have been at the end of their shift or something, folks generally wanted to be helpful. They just largely didn't have the avenues to be helpful. And so I tried to keep climbing the ladder and ultimately got to someone with a lot of letters in their title at the insurance company who basically said, I'm sorry, like you're doing the right thing, but we can't.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Yeah. Yeah. And so the way you guys finally got it was through the patient assistance through the name dropping and all of that. I do really appreciate the effort that you made with the insurance company. While I never ask my patients to do that, I feel like the burden of dealing with insurance companies is my burden and my staff's burden.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

And your office was amazing about it.

SPEAKER_05 23:13

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you saying that because they works they work so hard. They really do. You know, the prior off team at my practice, that it's like a thankless job. You know?

SPEAKER_07 23:22

Sure it is.

SPEAKER_05 23:23

It's like it's like being a field goal kicker. Like when you you can hit 99% of them and nobody really thanks you or thinks much of it. But the one you miss is like the end of the world. You know? And so I appreciate that that you appreciated them.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 23:39

Um, so I I view that burden as like our burden rather than my patient's burden. But the more voices insurance companies hear, the more advocates insurances hear from, that really speaks volumes. And I think it's through efforts like that that especially Zel Submi being new, I think if more parents were reaching out to their insurance companies, I think we would see a kind of a swifter adaptation of coverage for the medicine. So I really applaud you for taking the time to do that. Nobody enjoys those phone calls. And I'm so grateful that you did that.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Would I have preferred to be doing something else? Probably. Watching Bluey.

SPEAKER_05 24:23

How many Bluey episodes could you have watched in that time?

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Oh, that's a great question. So it really, so Bluey is what, like eight minutes?

SPEAKER_05 24:29

Seven, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

I probably none of my calls were much longer. My longest call was probably 25 minutes.

SPEAKER_06 24:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Yeah. I think most of the time though, but I probably had 20 or 30 of those calls. Yeah, yeah. But none of them were particularly difficult or any, right? It's just you have to kind of find the time and say, you know, I'm gonna go make a polite fuss.

SPEAKER_05 24:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so you finally get the Zell Souve me. It arrives. And for the listeners, Zelsuv me is is a little bit of an unusual, kind of different medicine. It's a a nitric oxide releasing gel. And so nitric oxide is a gas, it goes kind of poof, and so you can't bottle or put gas in a tube. Um, you'd so the medicine actually is supplied in two tubes, the active and the activator. And it comes with an application card that I think they did a really nice job with. And it it says, you know, put some from tube A here and some from tube B here, then mix and apply. How was the application experience? Was it easy? Was it hard? Did you learn any tricks along the way that might help listeners out there that are embarking on this treatment?

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Yeah, I I feel like I was the chief applicator, so I'll take this one.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah, I can I can add a little bit from the dad perspective, but yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

Yeah, you were the C A O application officer.

SPEAKER_05 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

So we did the same kind of thing after bath. We would get the card out and mix the two. It was really easy. There's a yellow tube and a blue tube. It's very obvious where you put them and how much to add, and then you mix them for 20 seconds and then it's ready to go. Yeah. Um, I will say that the thing that's the trickiest with this one is you really want to try to get it just on the molluscum. Right. If it hits the skin, it does become pretty itchy and irritating as well. If you can keep it just on the molluscum, it was really well tolerated. Yeah. Um, so I got better over time, and I will say having smaller fingers. Yeah. Which is why when he did it, you'd see these big rings around every molluscum when their little skin is all in flames.

SPEAKER_05 26:35

Hard to be that precise. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Well, our kids are wiggly and you're going, hold still, don't breathe while I do your tummy. You know, stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

And then it does start to dry out and get a little gummy. Yeah. And you're like, all right, stay still so we can do this fast.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Yeah, for people that remember rubber cement, I feel like that's the consistency it turns to within a couple minutes of being on that card. It starts out very easy to apply and then it gets like clumpy. Wow. Like that. And then it's very hard. Once it's clumpy, it's really hard to get on a molecule. I bet. So you have to move fast. So we always had it when mom's ready to mix the card, everyone's in the bathroom, ready to go. You can't be in a room over waiting to come because you really only have a couple minutes before it gets kind of goopy and then it's tough to apply well.

SPEAKER_05 27:17

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

So that's probably our pro tip is small fingers, or I think you could use a q-tip or something like that, and that would work well too.

SPEAKER_05 27:24

That's one thing a parent taught me from their application experience. It's really, it's really nice to to hear these things because while I get trained to understand and instruct people on a medicine, the knowledge you gain from actually utilizing it is is so much more. And I don't have any molluscum, so I can't try it on myself. Um, knock on wood. I do touch molluscum a lot. Yeah. Um, and so one of the parents that I see, she said, Oh, we learned a trick, like use a Q-tip. So, like do the mix and then you dab the Q tip and then just dab on the molluscum. She found you could also go kind of faster that way. Because some kids get a lot of molluscum, and so sometimes just the application can be takes a long time. It takes a long time.

SPEAKER_04 28:15

That's the case with our our second child, Max. Yeah, he had a lot more molluscum, so applying for him took a lot longer than applying for Grace.

SPEAKER_05 28:24

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Did you have any tricks, bud, for when mom was putting the salsevni on you? Anything that made it easier to get the m the medicine on?

SPEAKER_05 28:34

What did you think about the medicine, Max? How did it feel?

SPEAKER_06 28:39

Well, it felt kind of like it it made my molluscum really, really, really, really itchy. Itchy, okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:48

And sometimes that's good because it means your immune system is activated. How much did it bother you? Like was the itchiness so so bad you couldn't hardly stand it, or was it just a little bit itchy?

SPEAKER_06 29:02

It was like sometimes bothering me when I was at school, but like mostly it was mostly it was fine. Mostly it was fine.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

I will say that while while we were putting it on, it r the immediate contact was.

SPEAKER_04 29:22

And then it would kind of pass. And I remember you told me, Max, don't blow air on it. Because that was my instinct, was like to try to kind of cool it off or dry it faster. And both he and Grace said that made it worse when we blew on it.

SPEAKER_05 29:36

So yeah, I feel like that would be my first instinct too. Yeah. Okay, but that that worsened it. So for the listener, just to catch you up, so Grace, of course, had the molluscum first. And then, as so often happens, while we're treating Grace and trying to make hers go away, Max got it. And this is kind of the story with molluscum. Basically, once one kiddo gets it, the whole household of kids is gonna get it. And so often I have parents who ask me, like, oh, how can I prevent it from spreading to the other kids? And part of me wants to say, like, you can't, you know, don't worry about it. Yeah, um, it's going to happen. And sometimes they'll say that whether the other kiddo gets it from their sibling or from somebody else down the road, like pretty much all kids are going to get this. And there can be an advantage to just like the whole household getting it and then therefore being done with it eventually, and then you can you guys can move on because molluscum only happens once, you only get it once, and then you're immune, and so you can't get it again. Uh so then Max popped up with molluscum, and when he got molluscum, he got more of them than Grace did.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 30:42

And Max, how did you feel about your molluscum? Did they bother you?

SPEAKER_06 30:48

Well, like they did bother me a little bit. A little bit? Yeah. Yeah. Did other kids ask you about them? Yeah. When I first like went went to like back to my school. Went back to school, like other kids like immediately like, what are those bumps? Why do you have them? They look weird. Yeah. What'd you say? What'd you tell them? They're molluscum, most kids get them.

SPEAKER_05 31:19

I love that.

SPEAKER_06 31:20

And you only get them once.

SPEAKER_05 31:22

Wow, look at you. Such a good listener, and yeah. Did your did your sister tell you anything about what having molluscum feels like? Because she's older than you. Did she give you any tips?

SPEAKER_06 31:35

I can't remember. You can't remember. That's okay. That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 31:40

I I'm a big sister too. And so sometimes I would uh sometimes I'd give my brother some helpful advice, and other times I'd be like, Well, you're on your own, my friend. Yeah, yeah. Um, so because you guys had this elsewhere me through all of the efforts, when Max got the mollusca and we said, Well, let's go ahead and use it for Max 2. Um, he had a lot more, and so that created a little bit of a burden with application. And we weren't seeing magic. I think we gave it a full eight weeks. The endpoints in the Zell Subme studies were at 12 weeks. So we we thought about going longer, but in the end, we decided to switch up our our treatments and we chose to start Candida. And Candida is a teeny weeny SHOT, and we only have to treat one molluscum with it, triggers immune response. And you typically have a series of treatments, so you treat every um three to four weeks uh until they're gone. Typically takes three to five treatments to have them gone. But one of the niceties about it is you only have to treat one. So for kids who have a lot of molluscum, it can be a really convenient thing. And so, Max, you've had one of the candidate shots, one of the SHOTs. What did you think about it?

SPEAKER_06 32:59

Like, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. It just hurts as much as like a really quick fingernail poke.

SPEAKER_05 33:07

Oh, okay. That's a good description. And so it's really fast and it's not too bad. Yeah. And then did you get a prize? Yeah. Yeah. Which prize did you pick out? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_06 33:20

I picked out like a long 30 or maybe 20 legged like a bug. Oh, one of those spiders? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Like a millipede thing.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

Oh, yes, one of those.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

I know because he likes to throw it at my face.

SPEAKER_05 33:37

And if you wind it, it like wiggles.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

This one's kind of gummy, rubbery. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 33:43

Okay, okay. Gotcha, gotcha. Well, that's fun. And so we are still in the midst of treating Max. And so I think actually I'm seeing him next week to do, you know, SHOT number two. Have you guys noticed any changes since this seems to have been the out of the four we've tried cumulatively, the one that got the most reaction.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

It's definitely because he had a ton right below his hairline on the back of his neck that were really hard to treat with the topical stuff. And those are largely gone.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

Um they so we had a bunch on his stomach and chest that reacted right away to the candidate that had not been reacting to the Zalsuve me. So that was great. And I feel like we forgot to say that the Zalsuv me worked incredibly well for Grace.

SPEAKER_05 34:30

Yes, yes, because it was like that. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 34:32

Yeah, like less than a month in, and these spots that we'd been treating for um almost two years were all of a sudden all flared up, all reacting, and now she's down to like three. She has like three little molluscum, which is so much more tolerable.

SPEAKER_05 34:47

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 34:48

So that's been great. But yeah, Max did not have the same quick reaction to the Zol Stu me and was finding it tough to sit still through that every, you know, every night with such long application time. But the candid has been great for him. He had a quick reaction to that, positive reaction, like an NACE immune response, I think. Yeah. And did not seem to mind the shot. It was not bad. He was a little nervous the first time, but I don't think he's too worried about going back. No, he's really not.

SPEAKER_05 35:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

And it's he's been complaining about some itchiness. As each one kind of flares up, that immune response makes them itchy. So you can tell which one's kind of next up because that one will get it really itchy. And he does say sometimes at school he's thinking about it a little bit, but that's a good point.

SPEAKER_05 35:34

It's not too bad. Sometimes I tell families like the uglier the molluscum look, the happier I am. Because all of that ugliness, anytime they're red, they're inflamed, they're itchy, oftentimes that means the immune system is actively attacking them. And all of those things are a good sign in the end. Yeah. Um, in closing, like, what would you guys as parents of two kids that have gone through the molluscum journey, what would you tell parents whose kids like they've just discovered the first molluscum or two on their kiddo? What words of wisdom would you say for them?

SPEAKER_04 36:08

I think, first of all, like you'll get through it. Yeah. You will. It does happen to just about everyone. And um, try like just be open to trying different things because I think every kid is going to react differently. That's why we're fortunate to have multiple therapies we can try. And just to keep keep going till you find the one that's the right one for that kid.

SPEAKER_05 36:28

Yes. So you'll get through it and treatments can help. And, you know, talk to your trusted medical provider, dermatology clinician. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 36:37

And then I think the other thing I would say is talk to your kid about it so that they're prepared to answer questions because they definitely will get them. And it can be really embarrassing. And it doesn't have to be.

SPEAKER_05 36:47

Right. No, I love that comment. Dad, would you add anything there?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Um, just some patience, too. Yeah. And that I think it's what worked for for our children, but going with the molluscum-specific treatments, it makes sense, right? Yeah, yeah. I was seeing much more effectiveness and more quickly than with the kind of adjacent, we don't know why it works, but sometimes it does treat.

SPEAKER_05 37:13

Right, right, yes. Which has been the world that we've lived in for so long.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Yeah, hands hands were tied, certainly. But now that there now that there are more options, right? Zelsuv me for one and candida for for the others definitely been I mean, I know we just started, but one small shot and reactions across pretty much all the molluscum we had at that point felt like a real win.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

Yeah. Max, what would you say to other kids that are dealing with molluscum right now?

SPEAKER_06 37:44

Like it doesn't really it like it distracts you a little bit if if you're not homeschool. If you don't have homeschool, then like if you're at a school, then you're like when during school, like it it might bother you a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 38:06

Sure, sure, sure. But sometimes the distractions of being at school help. Yeah. And do you think other kids should be afraid of molluscum? No, no, like it's just it will go away. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_06 38:22

And should other kids be afraid of the treatments for it? No, they don't really hurt, but they do make them itchy. Okay, good, good, good.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

I love it, I love it. Well, thank you so much, you guys, for joining us. This has been wonderful. I think it's gonna help so many families out there that are, you know, they're Googling Molluscum and its therapies as we speak. So hopefully this helps them on their journey. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode of Skin Credible. Please continue to watch.