Scratchin' the Itch

Well, I’ve been fairly distracted this week by itches all over my left leg.  It took until yesterday to figure out what in the world was going on.  I thought it was some kind of bug bite I got on the east coast, but I finally hit upon my symptoms via a Google search and realize I’m having an allergic reaction to poison ivy.  Lucky me.

When we were in New Jersey and I was cleaning out the stream for Connie, there were many vines and small branches floating down the swollen creek, so that must be when it happened. 

My first symptoms were what seemed like bug bites, but they went in perfect formation and grew over several days to be quite the streak on the crease behind  my knee.  Another streak appeared above that one and another one appeared on my ankle on my right leg.  They itched like crazy and I’m not a very disciplined person so I scratched them.  That was a big mistake.  I guess some of the poison from the ivy got under my nails, then every other little itch I had after that, I scratched and transferred the oil to that spot and then my leg got covered in things that looked like bites but really weren’t. 

All week I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with this growing problem.  I have five spots that are clearly infected.  At one point they were just an irritated dot but have now grown to be larger than a silver dollar.  They itch more than I knew a thing could itch and last weekend they began to “weep”.  I kept band-aids on them but they couldn't hold the clear liquid running down the back of my leg.  They only stopped oozing on Thursday. Totally gross.   So all week I’ve been mopping up the mess on the back of my leg.  Not fun.

Kory kept telling me to go to the doctor, but I hate spending money on such a thing and I have a $3,500 deductible so it would all be out of pocket money.  Fortunately, a good friend of mine is a nurse practitioner and she’s in a Bible study I attend in Seattle on Tuesday nights.  She looked at my leg and after a good grimace she told me what to do.  What I had been doing was the absolute wrong thing to do – covering with a band-aid and putting on antibiotic cream.  Who knew.  She told me to take massive doses of an antihistamine and put on cortisone cream and keep it uncovered.  So, that pretty much made me house bound because she said I had to wear shorts and not let anything rub against the infected areas.  I've been house bound and miserable because even with the addition of Benadryl and Cort-aid, I itch like crazy.  And new bumps have been appearing every day so there’s more and more spots that itch.  Ugh! 

I have a few people praying for me and things have slowly been moving in the right direction.  I hope the worst of it is behind me.  My friend, Barb, said I need to go on steroids, but that’s not going to happen so I have to tough it out. 

I’ve been sleeping terrible all week because of the itching and then needing naps in the day because of the antihistamine.  Kory’s been picking up the slack with Kaleb’s schooling because I’ve been kinda out of it.

I’ve found a few things that have helped a little, Oil of Oregano, tea tree oil, oatmeal baths and today I discovered 100% shea butter which immediately takes away the insanity when the itch starts up again. I am just thanking God it’s not something more serious than it is.  I would post pictures of my leg, as Kory has been obsessive about taking photos of them, but they are so gross it would just be rude to make anybody look at them.  He’s been wanting to see if I’m getting better or worse, but from what I read on the internet, this is a two week process before I really get full relief.  Ugh.

So that’s been my week.  What anyone else has been up to is beyond me.  I’ve been out of it and totally obsessed with trying not to scratch the itch.  I’m just thankful it was me, and not Kaleb, that got hit by this so that’s been my only comfort.  And as my daddy used to say, “This too, shall pass.”  I can't wait.