Tuesday, May 18, 2010

this bites

ok, so I think I have found the cure for my thrift store addiction: body lice.

But seriously, I have been getting bites all over my body for the past 3 days. At first I susspected bedbugs or something like that in the couch, but I have also been getting the bites when I am in the kitchen and even when I am out of the house. I haven't been in any seedy motels lately, the only way I think they would have gotten into the house would be some clothes I got at the Goodwill. I have looked and looked but haven't seen any offending insects or anything like that. Which leads me to believe that they might not be bites but in fact may be hives.

Some of the "bites" do look like hives, in that they are irregularly shaped, and also when I have scratched my skin it gets raised and itchy. It reminds me alot of the unexplained hives I had when I was pregnant.

Of course, it could be a combination. I could be being bitten by something, and also having hives in reaction to it. I don't know. It sucks. I go back and forth between thinking that its bedbugs and we are going to have to replace our matresses and furniture (which we cant afford), and thinking I have some autoimmune disease and I'm going to die.

And here's the best part: because of my anxiety disorder, sometimes when I start to itch I imagine that I am going into anaphylactic shock and am dying, then I have a panic attack, which feels like shock (throat closes up, head goes numb and floats away from my body), and is utterly terrifying. This happened today while I was in the shower. I started to itch and then I imagined that I was having a life threatening reaction to my Oil of Olay body wash, and I started panicking and the first thing I thought was "oh no, I'm home alone with Annie and I'm going to die right here in this shower!". Obviously I did not die but the experience certainly sucked.

So I am an itchy nervous wreck and I don't know whether to call a doctor or an exterminator.

Oh, tomorrow is my first appointment with the new psychiatrist. Hope it goes well.

I'm off to take some Benadryl. 'Night.

4 comments:

Lisa and Jim said...

While I believe it is unlikely that you have body lice, I can definitely identify with freaking out over strange body itchies. Last year I thought I had scabies, but it was actually my body's reaction to stress. Hang in there.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I start itching for really no reason. Itch, itch, itch. I'll end up scratching until I bleed or get a scratch-bruise. I usually have to take benadryl to get it to stop.

So, I don't know about bugs. :\ Whatever you're going through, it sounds sucky and I hope you feel better soon!!

jodilynn said...

While it COULD be scabies from stuff from goodwill or bedbugs or whatever...if you are the only one that is experiencing this in your family, this is highly unlikely. I actually get hives from anxiety and stress. So, maybe, with all the changes lately...that could be what's going on. I don't know, I'm not a medical professional. Just an idea.

Maeve said...

I don't know about the likelihood of body lice, but I do know a tiny bit about bedbugs. A couple of years ago my apartment building had them (although thankfully not my unit). Rather than replacing furniture those units that had them were simply sprayed (with something presumably harmless to humans since they were spraying dozens of units). Because it was a problem in much of the building (apparently common in even very clean apartments because of people moving in and out) it was paid for by the landlord. The point to this story being, if it is bed bugs you may not have to replace stuff :-)

I hope your itchiness eases soon!