Saturday, suns out, great day to be out in the yard getting things prepped for the upcoming year. Love these times when bushes start to bloom, birds are tending to their young and the thought of planting tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and herbs warms the soul providing anticipation of the crops to come. A day in the yard. It doesn’t get much better than this. Sunday morning waking up scratching, oh boy looks like I must have gotten a couple of insect bites. Boy do these buggers itch. Oh well, had them before, a little hydrocortisone cream should do the trick.

Monday and Tuesday, these nasty bites are still so darn itchy but it looks like they are less red and I’m on the road to recovery. No worries, just wish they wouldn’t itch so much. Wednesday morning beautiful day, get up, give a light morning wake up scratch to my mid section, head off to the kitchen for some juice, coffee and my morning reading. The weather is gorgeous so I spend some time out on the deck enjoying the Spring weather and thinking about getting ready to go to work. Off to the bathroom to get dressed, slip off my night clothes and… what’s this, a small rash on my mid section. What the heck could this be from? I know its not shingles because it the rash is on both sides of my body. Did I eat something different, no. Did I change laundry detergents, no. Did I use a different soap or shampoo, no. What the heck. I’ll call the doctor and nip this thing in the bud.

That afternoon, the rash seems to have spread around all the areas that had insect bites, two on the back of my right leg, one under my right arm and one on the back of my left leg. The doctor gives me some prescription ointment to calm the itching. It doesn’t seem like it’s spreading anymore. I put on the ointment and joyous relief. Ok, just need to ride out the healing process now. I sleep a restful sleep, no itching, yep nipped this thing in the bud.

Rash

Thursday morning I wake to some itching. No problem, got my cream and this will help. The day goes on, the itching becomes more intense. The cream appears to only be slightly working. What is going on? At night the itching seems to ease and so I go to bed with the hopes of a better tomorrow. I wake up five times during the night with itching that is about to drive me mad. Ok, this is getting crazy. When I get up in the morning, the rash has spread around my midsection to part of my back, down my one leg and up my right arm. This is nuts. I call the doctor, go in for another visit and it is steroid time. It is definitely an allergic reaction, but to what who knows. That remains to be seen.

The body is a strange and wonderful thing, but when an allergic reaction occurs it goes haywire. Every inch of the affected area is itching like there is no tomorrow with no guarantee that we have solved the problem. The steroids should do the trick, but if the allergen (and who knows what that is) is still present, the body will flare up again. If that occurs, the next step is a visit to the allergist. What fun. So here I sit typing away in the hopes that I will not be tempted to scratch praying for the steroids to take affect and hoping that this mysterious allergen is no where to be found anymore. It’s been quite a week. How was yours?