Allergies

You might think ill of my allergies? I mean, who is allergic to laundry detergent? But it isn't something silly. My skin rages. I have scratched until I started bleeding in some places.


This is not restricted to any one part of me. My abdomen is most affected, then my legs, then my male parts. Parts covered by clothing.

Add to this the dry skin typical of this time of year and the itching is damn-near intolerable. I can manage but for how long? Do I have to hurt my skin scratching  as time goes by?

I cannot get a ride to the store to get more All Free-Clear and to the lavandería to rewash the Tide out of my clothes. This may be an overestimation of the problem but I won't feel it is all right until this is done.

I say it in Español because that is what is on the sign on the building in my hometown. I like saying that better anyway. I did take many years of Spanish in school and some of it bubbles up in the mental froth occasionally.

This itching is getting on my nerves. The rashes mar my pale skin. Dry skin is only making it worse.

Get this, last night, I normally use Old Spice Dry Skin Defense when it is bad. I couldn't, the hot water ran out and it was 40-ish in that bathroom. Ya! Cold! That hurt.

In the summertime when it is very hot, I like the cold, not in this time of the year at all.

My primary allergy, to mt. juniper, the most common tree in this area, is waffling because the pollen goes down and up depending on weather conditions. It is 33 degrees F as I write this on the highway bridge a little under two miles east here. Somehow, the government put a sensor there. You can see its antenna on the concrete railing.

It is the closest sensor to my house.

Curse this winter. Bring back the 80s! Years and temperature both!

18 Degrees

It is my bedtime, yes, I sleep in the daytime roughly corresponding with the hours of a school day. This has to do with light, really, I won't go into why I won't sleep in a dark room.

It is 18 degrees F outside. That's -8 C and it feels it. I am so cold, not so badly because I am right by the heater but if I have to pee, something I do with great frequency, that bathroom is so cold.

My allergies are making me feel miserable. I am badly allergic to what is known as mountain juniper here, by far the most common tree in this area.

They pollinate when it is subfreezing and it's going strong right now.

I have lots of blankets for this reason. My body does NOT like cold. My feet especially. They get so cold, I wonder if they have stopped working but I can walk and stand fine. My toes tingle though.

Not so long ago, it was 80 outside. A  strong appealing temperature.

I am wearing the best sweatshirt I ever bought, a Wilson one I got 15 years ago. It is heavy and warm and that is what is needed here. I color matched it, lol, same color as my gray heather sweat pants.

It is going to stay cold for the foreseeable future. A miserable time.

Never never will I curse it when it is 99 degrees outside. I like just wearing my underwear and a T-shirt. Definitely not today.

I will go now and hopefully not be cold on my uncomfortable bed.

Soap Allergy

Yes, I am afraid that I am allergic to the Tide I got. I have developed a rash on my abdomen, back and arm and itch all over. I am wearing clothes not washed in Tide but eventually, that will run out. I will get more All Free-Clear because it is hypo-allergenic.

Stupid soap allergy. It is not exactly easy to go anywhere with a vehicle that isn't yours. Who knows when I can get more All and rewash my clothes?

It's not yet real cold but it will be later. I felt pretty much okay taking a shower, not that bone-shaking cold like usual.

I mean, having to wear the MeUndies brief with that hole in it? It is in an inconspicuous place but still....

It can only get worse the more it is washed. I don't think that HE commercial washer is so hard on the clothes like a normal washing machine is. I like watching through the door window. Power spin, sounds like a jet engine powering up. I like that.

Allergy Risk

A long time ago, when I was a kid, I'd say 9 or 10, I had a severe skin irritation on my leg near my crotch area. It became crusty and bled a lot. What caused this? Many things were looked at but it became clear that the laundry soap was the blame.

What was this laundry soap?

It was Tide, the kind that comes in the red jug. There is something in Tide that triggers a severe skin allergy reaction in me. This happened when I worked at Solectron and our antistatic smocks were washed in Tide. I had to tell them.

I handled Tide while working in the stores. Yes, I was careful. I never used Tide in all the time I have done my own laundry. I have been doing my own laundry since I was a young teenager.

Maybe I have things in my laundry I don't want others to handle. I mean, MeUndies briefs may be male cut but they look like panties in the laundry basket. Especially the 'raspberry' colored one.

I am not particularly shy about my purple colored shirts. Yes, I wear purple sometimes but not for the reason you might think.

I go to the Laundromat, it doesn't bother me. The one I used for a very long time closed last summer and I have either used an expensive new one down 4th Street from the old one or this shiny big one in Cove, where I met that woman.

I went there after getting my new vz internet thingy. It was on the way back. I was very anxious because I wanted to see if it would work. It did or else I wouldn't be writing this.

Two days ago was the monthly trip to wm to buy groceries. The store was blown, shelves empty, items unavailable, I mean, there were no potatoes to be had in the produce section.

This was not restricted to any department. Even the soap aisle was blown. I looked for All but I ain't paying $12 for a big jug of it.

I saw a small, affordable jug of something I have not tried. Something I have avoided like the plague for years.
What is it?

It was this....

This may be hypo-allergenic like All Free-Clear is. I don't know. I got it because it was only $4 something.

I first used it hours ago. I will let you know if I have an allergic reaction to it. I find red spots on my skin interesting. Remember my ant bites?

I am not itchy because of the soap, dry skin sitting by the heater, you know?

You might find this interesting. Why not? What laundry soap do you use? I may keep using this kind of Tide if it has a positive result. It is about being powerful enough to clean.

I mean, a commercial washer. No telling who used it before. Or the employees of the laundry cleaned it? I don't know.

Soap Allergy

I am allergic to a few things. Grass, typical, any kind of conifer tree, that's also typical. I am virulently allergic to cedar, pine and juniper. Try working in the Garden Center with that.

However, I am allergic to certain kinds of laundry/bath soap. The one I am most allergic to is Tide. I discovered this when I was a kid, I broke out in the inside of my right thigh and *gasp* my scrotum. It took months to heal.

As I got older and began stocking in the stores, I discovered powdered laundry soap triggers my allergies.

I do not know exactly what bath soap is making me break out, it is some kind of Axe I think, I have been using an unfamiliar kind instead of the excellent and safe Snake Peel.

I have stopped using that. I use Snake Peel when I feel sweaty/dirty. I use Dove Sensitive every other time. Sensitive skin ain't just a girl problem. I have sensitive skin. I always have and always will.

Because whatever made me break out now, I have red spots all over. You can see this in my nudie blog, though you need my permission to access that.

I have three real bad areas on my back and right shoulder that picking at draws blood. I am self-injurious when my anxiety is provoked. Anything can cause that. I kinda like seeing blood on my pale skin, which is kinda disturbing.

I can say with certainty that soap and stress and diet play a part in this. I can't 'not' feel anxiety. It is like asking you to not breathe. A panic attack is stress magnified. I had one yesterday while visiting a small wm.

I avoid things that cause anxiety. That keeps me in an agoraphobic loop that keeps me in the house all day for months at a time.

I avoid things that cause allergies. I don't roll around in the grass or go anywhere near the million juniper trees around here.

I use the Sensitive soap and it should be okay.

You can e~mail me at arthelius@gmail.com if you want to see my nudie blog.