1 am and unable to sleep.
There are reasons. One major one actually.
I have poison ivy! ick and such an annoyance. :(
Bet you're happy I'm typing from the other end of the internet right about now.
I assume I got it fishing two Sunday's ago. But the first spot didn't show up until the Wednesday after. Whatever... however long it took to show up, is how long it took. But I'm telling you, no matter how hot it is, next time I will ensure I wear long pants in the woods!
There is a silver lining to this cloud.
While walking through the woods we came upon a doe, munching away at foliage. As we approached she didn't run away. She stayed there, lifted up her head to get a better look at us, and we stopped about 15 feet from her just because it was so novel. Nothing about her seemed tense, and eventually she bowed her head and began munching again. Didn't she know she was only a quarter mile from a trap shooting range?
Anyway we don't hunt deer, just fish. And right about then I caught movement out the opposite direction, quite a bit further away... a big raccoon was standing on it's hind legs trying to get a better view of us. When he saw me see him, he took off running, then turned around to check on us again. I laughed and pointed out the irony that the raccoon was scared but not the deer. We trudged onward, heading back to our car.
Spaceman has a history with deer. He used to go to the woods to meditate often and one day he felt a presence near him. When he opened his eyes a deer was standing beside him, curious. On another occasion, he was walking near a creek when he heard a high pitched noise coming closer and closer. It turned out to be a baby deer, complete with its fawn spots, lost or abandoned. He said it followed him for quite a while and he hand fed him some foliage and eventually they went their separate ways. I've always admired his up close encounters with deer, and finally we had one together. So cool!
As I sit here not feeling the least bit sleepy, I'm trying to stay positive about my condition. It's not easy. Poison itchy anything really does a number on me. It's one of the only times I get truly OCD, trying to keep clean and limit spreading it. No matter how hard I try, it spreads across my body without obvious reason. Hence I usually end up at the doctor asking for a cortisone shot and some prednisone meds. Benadryl has been my constant companion, which also has made working a bit miserable, feeling so like medicine-head. But the shot and prednisone, which I got yesterday, must have started having an effect because I forgot to take Benadryl before bedtime and felt wide awake in comparison. And of course, being covered in long sleeves and long pants under the blankets has overheated me and made me itchy all over again. (I'm really trying not to spread it to spaceman!) But I was too late in taking the Benadryl. Sometimes taking it in the middle of the night just doesn't do it for me. Tonight seems to be one of those nights. It's hours later and I'm STILL wide awake.
So I'm munching something heavy on my tummy, a baked potato, hoping to cause a digestion-induced sleepiness. It might be working??? If I can't get some decent sleep tonight, medicine head tomorrow will really suck!
I'm so done with this. It's not the itching that gets to me the most; I've learned to never scratch it. I have that much steel will. It's the constant worry and excess care I take caring for it. It's taxing. I'm ready to be well now, thankyouverymuch. As it looks now, I will have a scar for a while on my shin, and I'm keeping vigil over an infection trying to break out - for which I refuse antibiotics, except topical. Topical is okay. Topical is good.
Okay, enough typing. Off to try sleep one more time tonight. Wish me luck.
