The Rash of Death

I flew back to the East Coast ( landing at BWI- Baltimore, my favorite cheapie airport) last weekend for a wedding in Northern Virginia, and got to visit some old friends/clients/"family" (kith), and do some shoots. It was a great weekend, very busy, but I had so much fun. It was definitely one of those weekends where I felt so incredibly grateful for the blessings my job as a photographer has had on my life. The opportunity to travel (even when my free time is so limited), and meet new people and see new things is amazing. As I dial back a little bit on the business as I continue to grow in my new field, I have been more able to recognize how precious this time is in my life. I am so grateful that I have been given this positive perspective, finally!

I am very excited to tell you all about DC and the friends I saw, but first, we need to get down to business. I have contracted the RASH OF DEATH.

What, pray tell is that?

I have no idea.

I spent Saturday an Sunday crawling around in the woods with different clients are various locations so it basically could be anything. When I got on the plane on Monday, I felt a little itchy, but nothing too bad- barely noticeable. Thought I had a mosquito bite.

Next morning at work, my leg looks like this:

Hmm... that's funny. Definetly a couple of scratches, but quite a few welts for it to be mosquito bites.


I slapped it with some creams and powders, and then my leg looked like this:

It was getting pretty itchy at this point, and as you can see, had spread/shown a reaction on the right leg now too.

Then it started looking pretty scabby. Hmmm.

Ideas about chiggers, poison ivy, and a variety of other ailments started being thrown around at this point. Meanwhile, I am treating with hydrocortisone, gold bond powder, Advil, Benadryl. Sort of a lot of drugs, right out of the gate.

Then we get to Thursday, when I already had an appointment with my PCP to go over my random body ache and general health.

It was here I was starting to panic a little. Two doctors and a nurse all discussed my legs and decided on chiggers or fleas, with the majority opinion swaying towards chiggers. They gave me a prescription for 60mg of prednisone and sent me on my way.

But the itch didn't stop there. It started waking me up in the night. I'd frantically begun texting my friends that I couldn't handle how itchy it was. I am not being melodramatic here. IT ITCHES SO FRAEKING BAD. It quickly escalated to unbearable and I started loading up on numbing spray and blister band aids in addition to what I already had been taking. Pain relieving cream is your friend here! Even so, that was still not enough. Getting out of a hot bath one night I scrubbed all my skin off until it bled. (It felt amazing). Then I got a washcloth to "dry" it, and of course, used that as a scratching tool too and scrubbed all of the pretty scabs my body had made.

Out of desperation, I decided to shellac my legs with clear nail polish, as many friends told me was the easiest solution and Dr. Google said was a very bad idea.

I appeared to have angered it.

This is pretty accurate as to what it looked like for most of Sunday and Monday.

Sunday night I couldn't fall asleep until after 5am, and then only slept an hour. What a miserable experience that was! I cried, argued with myself, texted people and generally speaking, got very whiney.

My friend finally got me to call the doctor again on Monday afternoon and they got me an urgent appointment with my PCP in 25 minutes. I was soaked in sweat when I got there after rushing in the car and then across campus and was totally disgusting looking. They kept asking if I had a fever, but no, I was just being gross and wearing dirty clothes in humid weather.

When we took off the bandaids on my toes, we got a lovely surprise!

Hello, infection!

(My nail polish is missing because I SCRATCHED IT OFF).

This time I got the benefit of FOUR MORE DOCTORS and ANOTHER nurse weighing in on my leg drama. They all poked prodded, examined me and asked a million questions. Everything from scabies to allergies was thrown around before they finally agreed on a diagnosis of poison ivy, and an allergic reaction to go with it.

The loudest doctor said the directional lines around my ankles looked precisely like the grass/vines brushing up against my feet as I walked through ground bushes. My PCP was concerned it was really mite tracking, not scratches (aka scabies).  It took them about 20 minutes to come to a consensus on the poison ivy, and then they went all out with treatment.

Extend the 60 mg/day prednisone, topical prescription strength anti itch gel, an oral antibiotic FOUR TIMES A DAY, a sleeping pill/anti-histamine to get me to sleep, gelly burn pads around the biggest points of infection, and a couple other things I have now forgotten.

I walked out of the office like this:

They bandaged both of my ankles like I had tried to slit my wrists. It was pretty attractive, I must say.

I managed to sleep last night with the help of the sedative, but I am still itchy. Less desperately so though, so that must be recognized as an improvement!

I still am not sure what this is. People who have had poison ivy say my initial rash didn't look like it. I have no idea. I just hope this works. We are on day 11 of this hell.  Anybody got an opinion?