Plague-ridden

If you were thinking that it’s been a bit quiet here, you’d be right. I’ve spent the whole weekend trying not to scratch at the HUGE rash that broke out all over my legs on Friday.

Ok, so it was just the inside of my thighs and the backs of my knees, but the rest of my legs decided to itch in sympathy.

It actually started a couple of weeks ago and I thought at the time it was just chafing from walking in wet jeans (thanks to mad Sunday morning activities which I promise I will post here for your amusement eventually). It was doing ok, not getting better but not getting worse either, right up to last Friday.

The backs of my knees started itching that morning, and the rest of the rash kind of stepped up the itch from Occasionally Itchy to Constant Background Irritation. I had Wookiee take a look on Friday evening and he said that it did look quite bad but there was nothing to see back of my knees.

02:00hrs Saturday I was rudely awoken by the rash stepping up the itch once more, from Constant Background Irritation to SCRATCH NOW OR DIE B**CH!

Being half asleep I did so and the resulting oooohs of pleasure emitted made me worry that Wookiee was going to wake up and accuse me of having ‘fun’ without him. After about 30 mins of trying to get back to sleep I gave up and went downstairs. I decided to call the NHS Direct helpline to get some advice on what I could do to stop the itching. I got a very nice nurse who asked me several questions and eventually suggested that I take some antihistamines and get some lotion to put on it, and to go and see the doc on Monday. Since I had neither in the house I made do with an antiseptic cream which eased the itching enough that I was able to get back to sleep.

9:00 am I was up and at ‘em and off out to the local pharmacy to get my fix. Took the anti-h pill and slathered the lotion all over my legs. Now on the lotion it said that it relieves itching for 6 – 10 hours. Like hell it does. 1 hour tops. Of course by the time I realised this I was on my way to collect my good friend H for a day out at the Supreme Cat Show at the NEC.

It was a great day, despite the itching. Major cuteness overload, loads of adorable moggies to coo over, and damn I wanted to cuddle them all, and you can’t touch at these things because of the potential to transfer diseases, but they don’t know that. SO they look at you with those pleading eyes saying ‘Pick me up’, ‘Cuddle me’, ‘Look at me I’m cute’ and you can’t *poo*

Anyway, despite the pills and the lotion I had another very restless night on Saturday. On Sunday I discovered that keeping it cold pretty much stopped the itching (bloody marvellous, it’s November) so I then spent the rest of the day, lounging on the sofa trying to keep the enrashed area cold and the rest of me warm. All achieved with the aid of a hot water bottle full of icy cold water.

Monday morning rolled around (after slightly more sleep) and after 30 attempts I finally got through to the docs and made an appointment. She took one look at it and said…

‘You’ve got eczema’

Oh great.

Fortunately she’s given me some hydrocortisone cream and something to put in my bath, Oilatum and they seem to be working, I’m hardly itchy at all now.

Oh and the suspected culprit of it all… Imperial Leather Foamburst Shower Gel in Menthol flavour for that extra little bit of fun in the shower – eh Gem *smirk*