What's Eating Me?

Right around when I turned thirty, I received a wonderful gift from myself; my nails, once thin and pathetic, started growing longer and stronger. I was pleased with this sudden change and proceeded to paint my nails lovely shades of the rainbow. However just after my last birthday three months ago, they started to become a hazard.

Back in early July I awakened in the middle of the night to find myself scratching at my legs. I assumed it was dry skin, applied lotion and went back to sleep.  The next morning I climbed into the shower and was startled by the blood and bits of skin under my nails. This continued for the rest of the month and because of the length of my nails, I was leaving claw marks down my legs; deep, bloody gouges over toned calves. This posed a problem in Las Vegas when I wore a LBD to a party. I continued applying lotion and stopped taking hot showers, so convinced was I that it was merely dry skin.

By late August my legs looked like I’d attempted to climb over barbed wire and I realized this was only happening at night. Dust mites! In my bed! I got rid of my expensive feather bed, body pillow and bought new sheets. That night I sat on my couch, pleased that I’d found the culprit. I sat on said couch scratching at my butt. Horror! I’d transferred the mites from the bed to the couch! The next day I set off two bug bombs at my house, then cleaned like a meth addict to remove any traces of the pesticide.

Still I was being awakened at night with incessant itching and it was at this point progressing father up my legs and down to my ankles. In my mind I went over all products I’d used but there was nothing new. Friends began asking about my choice of lotions, detergents, anything to help me find relief may a suddenly-developed food allergy?

I made an appointment for my general practitioner, who took blood because this is an early indicator of kidney failure. You see, I’m on blood pressure pills and this is a potential side effect. However the results showed no cause for alarm, my organs were fine. Because she didn’t think it was an allergy to my medication, she gave me a prescription for a steroid, telling me she didn’t think it would work but to try it anyway. Then she sent me on my way, asking no other questions of me or recommending I see an allergist or dermatologist, telling me it was my choice to see specialists. This is the downside of having a nurse practitioner born in the 1990s. She’s still a kid and didn’t understand my needs.

 Labor Day weekend was spent indoors scratching and looking up the names of dermatologists. The following Tuesday I had an appointment with a doctor after hearing recommendations from several coworkers.

After my exam, she concluded that because there was no rash, bug bites or anything obvious, she gave me a prescription to relieve the itching and help me sleep at night, since I was no longer able to due to the intense itching/scratching cycle I was in; she also sent me to a lab to have every liquid in my body tested. I’m still going through tests and will be for the next two days. After that I’ll have to wait another seven to ten days while everything is reviewed by the lab.

Yesterday at work the itching got worse and with only three hours of sleep I called the dermatologist again, telling her its spreading to my chest, arms, bottoms of my feet and scalp. Oh and my nose and shoulders are now covered in tiny bumps that itch and its raw to the touch, as is my chin. What a sight I was becoming! Lack of sleep and leper skin! Great! The sleeping pills I’d been prescribed are typically given to meth addicts coming down but they haven’t really helped me sleep. I was told to double my Zyrtec intake but until its been decided what’s waging a war within, I couldn’t be given anything else, including a broad-spectrum medication.

Thus far the doctor has determined its not my kidneys, liver, most likely not my thyroid, but a parasite. Odd, since I haven’t visited any third world nations or jungles. The culprit is most likely from under cooked meat products. Since my diet consists mostly of chicken, that’s what she’s leaning towards. In the meantime I’m using the Cetaphil shower gel and lotion she gave me, refraining from perfumes or anything scented, and trying my best not to scratch. The skin on my legs is starting to heal, the deep cuts dry with blood, bumpy while trying to heal itself. When I run my fingertips over them it feels like braille. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on prescriptions, doctor visits, lab work, hydrocortisone creams and Benadryl in the last two weeks.

Today’s lie: this will all be over soon.