Wednesday, February 25, 2009

It's all Gene's fault.

On Saturday... Gene woke up with his glands so swollen that they touched his ears. It looked like he swallowed two golf balls and were keeping them in his neck for later. Three hours of medical aid unit fun later, we find out that my darling boyfriend and roommate has strep throat. As a child, I got strep throat at LEAST once a year for about 12 consecutive years. Usually on Christmas. I haven't had strep throat in a very long time (maybe 8 years?) but I know that if someone with strep looks at me, I'll get sick.

The next morning, I wake up to a scratchy throat. Great. So I go to the medical aid unit (beacuse it's Sunday and my doctor doesn't have hours) tell them my throat hurts and my boyfriend has strep, and they just hand me a prescription for an antibiotic. No throat culture (thank goodness) just drugs.

After a few days, I look at the side effects of the drugs. One of the side effects... eczema. What did I have as a child? Eczema. What's on my hands and all over my face right now? Eczema. My face is red and itchy and it bothers the crap out of me. I also have little patches of it at the base of my thumbs. I really hate having eczema, and loved when I was finally over this condition.

My best friend has eczema really badly... so bad that her hands literally just feel like sandpaper. At least she doesn't have it as bad as her poor youngest sister who has it all over her body, including her face. But one of our college friends felt my friend's sandpapery hands and when Colleen explained that it was eczema, our friend jerked her hand back saying, "Oh my god! Is it contagious?!" No. Eczema isn't contagious. It's super dry skin, ya weirdo.

It just sucks because it feels like everytime I put moisturizer on my face and on my hands, it just sucks it all up and my skin is drier than before. Boo to eczema and it's dry, itchy ways.

2 comments:

Joanie said...

Get Eucerin Cream. not the lotion. the cream... looks like cold cream. It worked wonderfully when you were little.
Did you take a picture of Gene with his squirrel cheeks? 'cause I'd pay good money (well, maybe some jelly beans and peeps) to see that.

*Di said...

haha, yes, definitely gene's fault. I was going to suggest Eucerin too... or Aquafor. Aquafor is kind of like vaseline, but so much better - you wouldn't want to put it on your skin when going to work, but you could put it on at home and it's major relief (I don't have eczema, but in high school I was on Accutane which dries the hell out of your skin.)