| 11:22p |
Prickly Heat Jan 2004
Today I breathed a great sigh of relief! For about ten days I have been bothered with painful prickly itchings—like tiny hot needles. It jumps around my body—sometimes my back, sometimes my tummy, sometimes my upper arms, etc. I began to get scared that it might be Shingles, so I went to the library and read about that in a medical book. Wow! That was REALLY scary! Shingles can be so serious and so painful that people have been known to commit suicide. But it also said Shingles is usually concentrated around one’s waist and there is a rash or eruptions. Mine has been everywhere, including the waist, and I have no rash or eruptions. Nevertheless I took the books advice and got an appointment to see a nurse practitioner.
Low and behold all I have is very dry winter skin. I’ve been using the wrong soap (DOVE is the one recommended by the experts), and worst of all, each morning I have turned the water on my shower as hot as I could stand it. The pain of that nearly boiling shower pounding against all the itchy spots was ecstacy. All wrong. They even recommend taking only three showers a week and having the water cool or luke warm. Once out of the shower it’s best to slather body lotion thickly all over the irritated places—which is most of my body except my legs. Even the lotion I’ve been using on them is wrong. Unfortunately, when I was in Baltimore I bought a package containing eight or ten bars of soap—all the wrong kind, it turns out. Anyway, it was a huge relief to know that I don’t have Shingles. Phew!! Tomorrow I start my three days of work again, so I’m off to bed. |