I finally have a diagnosis for my constant itching and I am happy to say it is not an allergy to any of my critters. I was really concerned that I was allergic to the piggies or the hammies but I am not.
You may remember that several months ago I broke out and I determined that I was probably allergic to the hay I was feeding the guinea pigs. So we stop the hay, unfortunately the skin problems continued. At the time my neighbors were moving and the conclusion was drawn that there must be some sort of mite that was migrating to my apartment and biting me. But they exterminated and I exterminated and we all lived in a toxic world but the irritation continued.
It went on and on and I was miserable. I could not stop scratching, my arms and legs. It would get better for a day or two and then come back with a vengeance. To top it off, any sort of heat aggravated it horribly. So this meant no hot baths and no hot showers. I would take a cold shower or luke warm bath so as not to start itching. Do you know how miserable it is to take a cold shower in the winter? It is not fun.
One day on the verge of insanity, I drove to my doctors and showed them my arm where I had scratched IN MY SLEEP. I looked like a heroin addict. My arm was covered with scratches. I got in that afternoon. My doctor, Deborah has been my doctor for several years. She is use to me coming in with the oddest problems and having me demand she fix them. So this was really not much different than any time before.
She diagnosed my condition as Neurodermatitis. Yea a name for what was driving me crazy. But what the hell is neurodermatitis? She explained it as best she could without upsetting me because there is basically no cure you can get it under control but it will always be there. Oh boy. She prescribed 2 different antihistamine and more ointment to add to my growing supply.
When I got home I started my research to see if I could figure out what this was. Basically it is a condition that is mostly mental. Yeah, I know it is all in my head. But then again it is not in my head. What probably started out as a small reaction to they hay that caused my body to start producing too much histamine this then would trigger a cycle of itching and scratching. The more you scratch the more your body produces the histamine. Add heat to that and you get more histamine because the heat allows your blood vessels expand which causes…you guessed it…itching. So in order to fix the problem you have to get the itching under control so you do not scratch.
It sounds easy but it is not. Because I think I have it under control during the day with my multitude of pills and ointments only to go to bed and scratch in my sleep. I wake up looking like I was attacked by a werewolf in the middle of the night. And since my house does not smell like a wet dog I can only assume no werewolf was in my house during the night.
At this point I have it about 75% under control. I will start scratching if I get hot, so I sleeping with my back door open at night. Yes, I am aware that it is about 30 degrees outside but I would rather freeze than scratch. If I get stressed I start scratching so my friends and co workers keep an eye on me and call my attention to it so I can analyze what is stressing me out and re-ground myself.
At this point, I am just happy to have an answer to my problem and even more happy that my critters are not to blame. Now if you will excuse me I have to go and scratch a bit.