Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I have to be a shirt- I'm allergic to the sun

As everyone knows, I have very sensitive skin. There aren’t a lot in the way of lotions and soaps that I can use that won’t set me into attack. Heck, I’m surprised I’m not allergic to clothing. (OK, scratch that. I actually was once allergic to a shirt I wore.) I am uber careful about what I put on my skin now-I use unscented lotions, and soaps that I know I can use, all of which I found out through intensive testing. And by that, I mean, I tried these once, and when I rashed out, I stopped using quickly. I use a natural non-scented shaving cream, and a specific deodorant to keep everything kosher. The chances of me having break-outs now are pretty slim.
Last night, I was doing my running at the local high school track. In between some laps, I’m supposed to stop and do 200 crunches. Yes, it’s as hard as it sounds. Since I don’t think it would be very comfortable to do it on the track, I scooted over to the grass to have a softer ground. The grass was kind of irritating to me, but I was like, oh, it’s ok, it’s just pokey, it’ll go away as soon as I stand up. I got done with that and ran some more, and (can you believe it?!) sweated a little. I was psyched when that happened. I didn’t sweat a whole lot, just on my arms and my neck and a little on my face. I knew that meant I must be working hard.
When I got into my car, my neck was kind of itching. Assuming it to be just the sweat, I kinda swiped at my neck to get the stuff off. Oh, what a mistake that was. All of a sudden, my neck was burning. I had no idea what was going on, but I got home in a hurry. As soon as I got into the house, my legs started to itch like crazy, and my arms too. I knew then what a mistake I had made getting on that grass. I was scratching at my legs like nobodies business (I know you’re not supposed to do this, but it was itchy!) as I made my way downstairs to my bathroom. I thought the easiest way to stop all this was to wash the grass of my skin, so I began doing that. Also a mistake. As soon as I started to try to get it off, my skin started burning. The plus side to that was that the itching stopped! I ran in place for a couple of minutes, trying to get the burning to go away, and after a bit, it did. I just had to deal with itchiness for the rest of the night, and luckily, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was before.
Today the itching wasn't bad, and the rash isn't noticeable. Sadly, when I was getting my weekly massage today, when she was doing my neck, it was totally burning, but it was over pretty quickly. And as it turns out, the grass poked through my tank top, so now my back is all rashy and itchy. I’ve been pretty good about not scratching it, but it’s difficult. Running tonight was an extra special treat, too-turns out when I sweat, even just a little, it creates a reaction to the rash, so I am all burny and stingy right now. Good goodness! At least now I know to avoid the grass at the track-or wear a full body suit.

3 comments:

Chelle! said...

Hey, I think that you should go for a full body suit...I have to see that!!! Maybe, you should invent a human bubble that surrounds you when you are at the track.

Maleen said...

Lame. I am allergic to grass, but even I don't get it that bad. Then again, I am careful not to have too much actual physical contact with it...nasty stuff.

PJ said...

I'm allergic to horses.