Itchy. So very itchy.

I have prided myself on not having any food allergies. I feel bad for people (Chelle) who are allergic to my favorite foods. To not be able to eat delicious things…oh man. That would depress me. I know that for the most part, they usually don’t know what they’re missing, but still. I like my wide open choices that I have for eating. But sadly, this, like all good things, has come to an end. Lets recap.

Last night, Husband and I made Chinese food for dinner. When we were at Target on Saturday, we tried a sample of this frozen Chinese stuff that was pretty good, so we decided to get it. The kind we sampled (orange chicken) was sold out, so we got a different kind (sweet&sour chicken). Husband made dinner while I was reading, and it was smelling pretty dang good, I was looking forward to eating it. As we were eating, there was something in the sauce that was making my gums sting. Right now, I have a little tear or something in my upper gum, behind my teeth, and sometimes, foods hurt it. But I just kept eating, despite the stinging. After dinner, I was sitting next to Husband on the couch, and he looked over and asked if I was ok. I’m like, yeah, totally fine, and he said that my skin around my neck was all red. My chest was itching a little, so I said that, and then, right before our (well, his, I can’t see myself like that) eyes, my skin itching and rash started to spread, and all of a sudden, my whole upper body itched. It was on my chest, neck, chin, arms, back, and it was itchy. There were hives breaking out, and I was trying not to scratch. After a few minutes more, my neck area had swollen up. This was panic time, since this is the first time this has ever happened to me.

We quickly went to the local Target, and got some allergy medicine. I took it as soon as we got home, and after a while, the itching subsided. After a while longer, the redness went away. I’m still not sure what was in the food that did this to me. I’ve eaten frozen Chinese foodstuffs before, but never this brand, so perhaps that was it. Alls I know is, I’ll not be eating this again. I should probably find out what exactly it was that I had the reaction to, but I’m not sure how’d I go about it. Read the packaging, and the ingredient list? Get everything on there, and try them, one by one until I find out what it is? Luckily for me, it wasn’t a super bad reaction (It could have been worse!) so I got through it with flying colors, and lived to tell the tale.

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.