The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2018

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LTS3

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I swear Leroy throws up hairballs on purpose if I don't get out of bed to feed him breakfast :frustrated:He whined for awhile and walked all over me but I ignored him because it was too early (and I didn't want to leave a toasty warm bed). Then I heard him :barf::barf: I finally got up to clean up the mess. Leroy looked proud of himself :angrywoman: The cats got fed, I got ready for work. I'm hoping to not spend all day at work today like I did on Christmas waiting for an alarm that never went off but who knows what the supervisor wants me to do last minute:gaah:
 

artiemom

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arouetta arouetta The rash you were describing; Could it be shingles? The reason why I mention it: It is confined to one area, burns, stings... rather than itches... and I had it on the left side of my body, tracking from the belly button back...
 

arouetta

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My place is always dim even with most of the bulbs being 100w, but last night I thought I saw another rash on the other side. Daylight, good light, and yep another rash on the other side, down the insides of my upper arms, down my hips onto the outside of my thighs and down along the inside of my thighs.

It is definitely different than the eczema, even though it's near some of the same areas, I can visually and physically feel the difference. It is an allergy rash and has undefined borders and some hives and is hot to the touch. The eczema has clear borders and the classic symptom of scaling and the redness is totally different and not hot to the touch.

I reviewed yesterday and there's only three things that could have caused it.

First is the medication. But last night's dose didn't make it worse and the worst area is actually a little less red today.

Second was using a new towel. I had bought some towels because ours are worn enough to be very scratchy. But like everything else, first place it went after getting home was the washer, and I think that particular towel had been washed twice. Plus I had used another new towel three days ago without problem.

Third is all the ice tea I drank yesterday. About 15 years ago a doctor decided I needed an allergy test and the results were scary. I have a nasal allergy to a LOT of things (literally the only things I didn't have any allergy to were dogs, one kind of grass and one kind of mold). I also showed two food allergies, wheat and tea. Eliminating wheat from the diet is hard and when I gave up I had no symptoms. Later on I read that being allergic to a lot of different grasses can cause a false positive to wheat on skin prick tests, which is what I had.

Tea though...I went two weeks without any tea, had a cup of hot tea and horrible, horrible headache shortly after. I suddenly realized those horrible headaches always got a lot worse in the summer, which is when I switch from mostly soda to mostly ice tea. Despite ice tea being my favorite drink, I cut it out of my diet for 10 years. Tried a glass, no headache. I went back to drinking tea, typically half a gallon a day, sometimes more. Then beginning of last year, after 2 years of drinking tea, I started coming down with the symptoms you have when horrible sick, the full body icky feeling where all you want to do is crawl into bed. I realized that always happened shortly after drinking tea. I avoided it for 6 months, tried a glass, didn't feel sick. Back to half a gallon a day, including several glasses yesterday before the rash showed up.

But why would an allergy to tea show one allergy symptom, then not be a trigger after no exposure for a long time, then suddenly come back with a completely different symptom that I'm not sure is a traditional allergy symptom, then not be a trigger after no exposure for a period of time, and then come back with a completely different symptom from the first two?

Today I'm trying elimination. I just took my medicine and will wait a few hours and re-examine my body, since medication is necessary to live. Then I'm going to take a shower and use another new towel, re-examine my body since a contact allergy isn't going to be dangerous. But I'm waffling on the tea. I should try to eliminate it. But if something ingested has a rash over a large area of my body, that's a pretty nasty systemic allergic reaction and without husband and transportation I'm not sure I want to risk making it worse.
 
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NewYork1303

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But why would an allergy to tea show one allergy symptom, then not be a trigger after no exposure for a long time, then suddenly come back with a completely different symptom that I'm not sure is a traditional allergy symptom, then not be a trigger after no exposure for a period of time, and then come back with a completely different symptom from the first two?

Today I'm trying elimination. I just took my medicine and will wait a few hours and re-examine my body, since medication is necessary to live. Then I'm going to take a shower and use another new towel, re-examine my body since a contact allergy isn't going to be dangerous. But I'm waffling on the tea. I should try to eliminate it. But if something ingested has a rash over a large area of my body, that's a pretty nasty systemic allergic reaction and without husband and transportation I'm not sure I want to risk making it worse.
This is possible in situations where people have a lot of different allergies that aren't such a big deal. For me, I have environmental sensitivities, which basically means I am just a tiny bit allergic to just about everything and when enough things combine I am suddenly having allergy symptoms. This happens to my dad with his more major allergies. Being exposed to a lot of dogs and then a lot of dust while cleaning under the house made him practically anaphylactic while being around either one of those things normally wouldn't have been a big problem. It was the combo that tipped things. Maybe sometimes the tea is a tipping point for you and sometimes allergens aren't so bad so you can drink it with no symptoms.
 

arouetta

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Well unless I've got a case of psychosomatic symptoms and a really strong placebo effect it was the tea. Roughly 30 oz, mixed between ice and hot tea. The rash is bigger and parts of it are darkening and I have a mild headache and I kinda have a yucky feeling (though the latter could be ice tea making me feel cold and 30 oz of liquid in the last hour and a half in my stomach). Time for Benadryl.

Oh, for the allergy testing, most of my allergens were rated as severe. The doctor looked at the results and was shocked by my mild symptoms. He talked me into allergy shots and they were worse than the disease. Not only was the hive on my arm where the shot was given huge, but I felt really sick for three days after each shot. Definitely allergic, but my nose simply is ignoring reality. I justified getting a cat because that allergy was only rated as "moderate".
 

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I don't think arouetta has shingles, she is a little too young for that, she probably also had a vaccination against chicken pox which would preclude her from ever having shingles. It's us "old folks" who get shingles because we all had the chicken pox before there were vaccinations against it.
Since she suspects the tea it would be good to eliminate that and see what happens.
 

arouetta

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Definitely too young for shingles (44), but too old for the shot. It was just becoming a thing when my daughter was born.
 

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Where I live chicken pox vaccines weren't common until my sisters were school age. I'm only 29 and most of my friends has chicken pox rather than getting the vaccine. I never caught it and got the vaccine twice as an adult but still don't have immunity markers in my blood. It's weird.
I would try to see a doctor about that rash. It sounds pretty bad. Can you use calamine lotion or hydrocortisone cream? They might help, especially coupled with benadryl.
 

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Just got a call from the owner of the Snowshoe. She does not think the cat will do well with another cat around but will consider me if nobody else wants her. I don't think she knows much about cats. She says her job now requires her to travel several times per month and the cat gets stressed when she is not around. We'll see, that poor kitty needs a stable environment with lots of petting.
 

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Happy New Year! Never really understood this particular holiday. Just the calendars turning over really. But oh well.
Well, until fairly recently (100 years or so), in some cultures debts not paid at the New Year were forgiven, which would be reason to celebrate!
 

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My place is always dim even with most of the bulbs being 100w, but last night I thought I saw another rash on the other side. Daylight, good light, and yep another rash on the other side, down the insides of my upper arms, down my hips onto the outside of my thighs and down along the inside of my thighs.

It is definitely different than the eczema, even though it's near some of the same areas, I can visually and physically feel the difference. It is an allergy rash and has undefined borders and some hives and is hot to the touch. The eczema has clear borders and the classic symptom of scaling and the redness is totally different and not hot to the touch.

I reviewed yesterday and there's only three things that could have caused it.

First is the medication. But last night's dose didn't make it worse and the worst area is actually a little less red today.

Second was using a new towel. I had bought some towels because ours are worn enough to be very scratchy. But like everything else, first place it went after getting home was the washer, and I think that particular towel had been washed twice. Plus I had used another new towel three days ago without problem.

Third is all the ice tea I drank yesterday. About 15 years ago a doctor decided I needed an allergy test and the results were scary. I have a nasal allergy to a LOT of things (literally the only things I didn't have any allergy to were dogs, one kind of grass and one kind of mold). I also showed two food allergies, wheat and tea. Eliminating wheat from the diet is hard and when I gave up I had no symptoms. Later on I read that being allergic to a lot of different grasses can cause a false positive to wheat on skin prick tests, which is what I had.

Tea though...I went two weeks without any tea, had a cup of hot tea and horrible, horrible headache shortly after. I suddenly realized those horrible headaches always got a lot worse in the summer, which is when I switch from mostly soda to mostly ice tea. Despite ice tea being my favorite drink, I cut it out of my diet for 10 years. Tried a glass, no headache. I went back to drinking tea, typically half a gallon a day, sometimes more. Then beginning of last year, after 2 years of drinking tea, I started coming down with the symptoms you have when horrible sick, the full body icky feeling where all you want to do is crawl into bed. I realized that always happened shortly after drinking tea. I avoided it for 6 months, tried a glass, didn't feel sick. Back to half a gallon a day, including several glasses yesterday before the rash showed up.

But why would an allergy to tea show one allergy symptom, then not be a trigger after no exposure for a long time, then suddenly come back with a completely different symptom that I'm not sure is a traditional allergy symptom, then not be a trigger after no exposure for a period of time, and then come back with a completely different symptom from the first two?

Today I'm trying elimination. I just took my medicine and will wait a few hours and re-examine my body, since medication is necessary to live. Then I'm going to take a shower and use another new towel, re-examine my body since a contact allergy isn't going to be dangerous. But I'm waffling on the tea. I should try to eliminate it. But if something ingested has a rash over a large area of my body, that's a pretty nasty systemic allergic reaction and without husband and transportation I'm not sure I want to risk making it worse.
Could it be something you're not even thinking of. I had a horrible rash all over my hands and arms for almost two years. I'm talking bloody oozing blisters. Couldn't figure it out, nor could the doctor. Long story short, turns out my lotion had a steroid in it. Changed lotions and it cleared right up.
Could it be a soap or lotion or even shampoo that is running down that area when rinsed out?
 

arouetta

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After my little experiment today, I'm very sure it's the tea, even though I didn't try showering with one of the new towels yet. It was better this morning when I got up, though not gone, and it didn't get worse until after drinking lots of tea. And when it got worse, it is now worse than yesterday. I took a picture last night of the worst area, and that one is now covering more "acreage". The second worse area is also bigger than it was upon wakening and a lot more red.

I hope my doctor can squeeze me in tomorrow.
 

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After my little experiment today, I'm very sure it's the tea, even though I didn't try showering with one of the new towels yet. It was better this morning when I got up, though not gone, and it didn't get worse until after drinking lots of tea. And when it got worse, it is now worse than yesterday. I took a picture last night of the worst area, and that one is now covering more "acreage". The second worse area is also bigger than it was upon wakening and a lot more red.

I hope my doctor can squeeze me in tomorrow.
It might be the blend of tea that changes, or the brand. Some brands use different sources for tea depending on season or price, and it might be an environmental problem from the source of the tea.

When I was young I had a seasonal allergy to milk because the cows ate different spring grasses.
 

arouetta

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It might be the blend of tea that changes, or the brand. Some brands use different sources for tea depending on season or price, and it might be an environmental problem from the source of the tea.

When I was young I had a seasonal allergy to milk because the cows ate different spring grasses.
The allergy test said that the allergy is to the actual tea plant.
 

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John's getting a ride to Wal Mart to get a battery charger thing. We're borrowing from our rent money. The landlord is ok with us paying a little late if we talk to him about it and John gets paid Thursday night so it'll be fine. He's a really nice guy and he'll understand. We need a running vehicle - especially since the baby is coming so soon. We know more than half a dozen people with the same car problem. Apparently, vehicles don't really enjoy below 0 weather so they're protesting.
 

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I always look up everything on the internet and found really good info regarding freezing temps and car batteries. I just put this into my search bar "how to keep a car battery warm in freezing weather" and there was lots of easy to understand info including videos. What it boiled down to is to either physically keep the battery warm by taking it inside or to put a warming blanket on it. This seems to be too much trouble for the average person. The other is to charge the battery so that it is is completely charged. A trickle charger would do this overnight and the car would start the next morning. The charger would need to be plugged into an electric outlet and the other end connected to the battery. You would probably need a heavy-duty extension cord. If you keep your car in a garage that would be no problem but if it is parked outside you would need an extension cord to run to an inside electric outlet. The best but more expensive way and in the long run worth your while, would be to get a regular charger, keep it inside connected to an electric outlet and when the car is at home you can then charge the battery from the charger, once fully charged take the charger back inside and charge it from an electric outlet again. In essence what you are doing is "jumping" your car from the charger which looks like a big battery and in essence is just that.
Living in SoCal I will hardly ever need to do this as it never even gets to freezing temps, however, somebody who moved away gave me a big charger and it came in rather handy one time when I had left the lights on and the next morning the battery was almost dead, the engine would not turn over, just click-click-click, and I did not have to get a "jump", I just pulled the charger out of the cabinet, plugged it in and got a "jump" that way. I could have called AAA but that takes at least half an hour or more and I was in a hurry. The charger weighs about the same as a battery but I did not have to carry it very far and I just put it on the floor.
I hope this helps, get a trickle charger now because those don't cost a lot but think about getting a big one for next winter. Now I also know why my daughter who lives in Montana has a heated garage which I thought was ridiculous until she explained to me that frozen batteries are no fun at all.
 
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