Thursday, July 10, 2008

Scratch Scratch Scratch

Last night I woke up at 3 am violently scratching my chin and neck.
What came of this is a long and sordid tale, which I will share, whether it's interesting or not.

Last Friday, the Fourth, was a cool evening and I grabbed a granny blanket out of my car that I had purchased from a neighborhood garage sale. Now, see, I just threw it in the car, didn't wash it, but figured I would use it as packing material or impromptu picnic blanket. Little did I know it was a Smallpox blanket.

So there I I was, wrapped in my cozy granny square blanket, and my neck starts to itch a little.

Later in the evening the neck itches more, but it never got beyond a little redness and some bumps. I thought little of it (except that I needed to wash it) and went about life - it cleared up by Sunday.
Done and done.

So last night, I lathered up my neck and face with 40 spf super sweatproof waterproof incredibly irritating sunblock.
Again, it stung going on, but went away in moments.

Then - 3 am.
Cortisone and anti-histimine got me back to sleep.

Then - 7 am.
Red.
Blotchy.
Bumpy.
Spreading.
HORROR.

8 am - I am seeing SPOTS on my neck and it's crawling up my face.

I got an appointment that day - 2 pm with a doc.

She agreed that (dust + heat + sensitive skin) * irritating sunblock = living, breathing, itching hell known as contact dermatitis.
So today I took 8 pills in 5 minutes: 6 steroids, an anti-histimine and a pepsid ac (apparently, also an anti-histimine... who knew?)
I'm writing this with a tepid water and baking soda dipped compress around my neck.
I pray that I will get to sleep tonight, because I am sailing tomorrow evening.

Mostly, I want my clear, itch-free neck and chin back.
I really, really, really want it back.

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