miserable

Sorry for the blog(s) silence... I'm battling my what seems to be kinda seasonal attack of the hives... We have yet to find ourselves an internist / main doc let alone an allergist, so I'm just using what worked in the past, but doesn't seem to be doing much right now, hence this post's title.

This was me about 2 weeks ago: just call me Lynne Dax??!*

* that's a ST:DS9 reference, in case you didn't get it

I have attacks on different parts of the body, depending on the phase of the moon or something. Occasionally I wake up with one finger or the other swollen such that I can't quite make a closed fist without discomfort. Or over the course of the day my belly, or back, or inner thighs, get covered in welts that of course get angry as I scratch at them...

.. I thought I had found a temporary solution: we all know that calamine lotion is the go-to anti-itch lotion, but I really didn't want to deal with the chalky flakiness. Then my sil introduced me to this clear anti-itch gel that functions like calamine lotion, but goes on clear. Its main active ingredient is 1% analgesic, so it gently numbs you just a wee bit... worked well for me when we were visiting with her last week. So well, that before heading back to Springfield, we got a bottle of the stuff for ourselves.

Turns out that there's generic, and then there's generic.

My sil had the Safeway brand generic (from Dominick's, if I'm not mistaken); we happened to drop by a Jewel-Osco and got their Equaline equivalent. The 'original' branded product is Caladryl Anti-Itch Lotion.

Guess who seems to be reacting to the Equaline product??!!

*sigh*

but again in an inconsistent manner... I slathered some on the instep of one foot and on a forearm but there wasn't a noticeable reaction... but for example this morning I slathered some on my belly and in the underwear region and omg you should see it now! Or rather, be glad I didn't snap a pic.

ugh