On Itching a Scratch

I'm off my meds. This is fair warning.

My antihistamine meds, that is - I believe it has now been a week. I am torn between waiting to see what happens when they wear off entirely, and running back to my nice, nice little white pills. (That do not taste at all of frogs. Just want to be clear on that).

Weirdly, they seem to be taking much longer to wear off than they used to - whether that's some side effect of years of taking antihistamines, or because Cetirizine just works better for me (Razene did nothing, although some people swear by it; Loratadine was fine, but I had apparently been taking it more than it should be taken).

I haven't been sneezing hardly at all; no cat hair or hayfever attacks. Course, that could be because it's the middle of winter and I just de-furred the surfaces in my room. But it's weird.

More importantly, the dermographism is extremely annoying and itching and burning but still not completely back. So I am wondering if there's simply a lack of allergens around, or if it's just lingering antihistamines. Or if severely cutting down on dairy (mostly just cutting out the milky stuff; smoothies, cocoa and so on) is actually helping.

Thing is, I'm pretty sure it took this long last time, and when it did fully return, it was far worse than it had ever been, with welts lasting over an hour. 

So the scientist in me (you know, the bit that sticks fingers in light sockets and lies to people to see how long it takes them to realise), wants to see if that's still the case. (Being able to prod yourself and see what happens can be quite fun).

The prankster in me is dying to scare the people who've not seen my dermographism yet (although the constant explaining is tiresome). Plus, semi-instant Harry Potter scar.

And the artist in me has been sulking over the pictures I got last time, and wants to make better ones (although taking photos is really hard - might have to conscript someone, as you have to hold the camera one-handed, and my Pentax is a little heavy for that, but I need it for the macro focus. And lighting. Indoor lighting = terrible weird skin colours that don't show the welts much in the photo).

And the rational coward in me is going "Oh god, no! No! REMEMBER THE EVIL LIST OF EVIL BAD ITCHY HURTY THINGS"


On the same subject, sort of, the polls on my dermographism page are getting quite interesting. I want 200 responses in each poll (currently it's from 80-274, WHY DON'T YOU ANSWER ALL THE POLLS PEOPLE?) and then I'll post the results. And analyse them.