The Insane Rash!

Shana, where are you?

Here I am, Mom!

What happened to you? Have you joined the Circus?

No, I’ve joined the Peanuts Gang!

Have you moved out?

No, I’m helping to promote the new Peanuts Movie coming out in November! (Which, by the way, I want to see!)

Oh, promoting! Well, that’s different. Never mind! Where did you get the shirt?

Mom, it’s not a real picture of me!

It’s not?

It’s a thing, on the internet!

Oh, the internet! Well, that’s different!

It’s still me, but it’s not me.

I’m glad we cleared that up!

And now for my announcements. James Taylor was on “Ellen”.

He was on who?

Geez mom, don’t you know who Ellen DeGeneres is, the lesbian talk show host?

The what?

She’s a lesbian, she’s married to someone named Portia De Rossi. Don’t ask me how I know these things. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Not that there’s anything wrong with you not knowing how you know these things?

No! Not that there’s anything wrong with Ellen and Portia being lesbians! I’m fine with that! I just want to put that out there.

And so, is James Taylor a lesbian too?

No, Mom! James Taylor is married to his wife Kim!

And Kim’s a lesbian.

No!!!!! She’s married to James Taylor!

Well, I’m really confused.

Well that is your problem!

Are you finished making announcements?

James Taylor was on “Ellen” and it was very emotional. “The Big Bang Theory” started its 9th season and I’m all excited!

And on that note, I have to do the dishes.

Wait! We have two deaths to announce. Ben Cauley, founding member of the Bar-Kays, died at age 67.

I had no idea he lived so long because I’m sure everyone remembers the plane crash that killed the Bar-Kays in 1967, the crash that also killed Otis Redding.

I didn’t realize there was a survivor!

It truly shocked the nation! (And by “the nation”, I mean me.) The Bar-Kays were Otis Redding’s back-up band, and right after Otis died, his very next record went to #1–“Dock Of The Bay”. He never knew he had a #1 record. Sometimes I think Life makes absolutely no sense!

Same here! Also Shari Lewis’ husband, Jeremy Tarcher, died of Parkinson’s Disease. This is Shari Lewis and Lambchop:

Oh, and the Pope was here.

And so was the Queen of Soul.

Now we can present the case.

What case should we do?

Why don’t you do the case of your mysterious rash?

Oh right, the insane rash!

Is that what you’re going to call the quiz?

Brilliant idea, Shana! What would the Quiz do without you?

Um…

You don’t have to answer this second. But do try to get your answer in before the end of the show. OK, it was a dark and stormy night in August–August 6th, to be exact–when we went to visit our cousins Nancy and Janet in Penn Valley.

Mom, it was sunny and clear in the afternoon!

Ah yes, I remember it well. We dined at 10.

We dined at 8!

You had the crab.

I ate a steak!

Ah yes, I remember it well.

Alright Mom, I get it, you’re doing “Gigi”; but the ’50’s called, and they want their Musical back!

I guess I got carried away, or maybe I just really don’t want to talk about this insane rash!

These eruptions that you see in the picture only appear AFTER scratching! And at first, the area, due to scratching, would be completely red and the bumps raised almost like ridges, and the scratch marks were red; and then it would quiet down to almost nothing. The picture depicts the rash only after the itching has died down and moved somewhere else!!!! Insane itching, which scratching doesn’t ameliorate. After scratching, there’s just more itching and a kind of burning or irritation until it makes up its mind to stop and then appear somewhere else.

In trying to recount how it happened, I remembered writing to Claire; see below:

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August 11th

Meanwhile Claire, I don’t know what my problem is. It’s like an allergy. All of a sudden, I’m itching here, there and there–it moves around, and there are no eruptions, but if I scratch, eruptions of a sort appear, then go away, it makes no sense at all! It keeps me up at night; and I wake up scratching. Like right now, it’s itching under my left arm, but it will surely move and be itching somewhere else in due time. I do know that the last time I mowed the lawn, there was a weed that I tried to pull up and I said to myself, “You probably shouldn’t have touched it,” because it was unexpectedly irritating. Yes, it’s still there, it (the weed) was very tenacious! But I don’t know if that’s it. I’ve tried Rhus tox and it didn’t help. I just ignored the itching at first, thinking it would go away, now I’m coming to realize it’s not just a passing thing. Now, my right thumb itches, my left elbow itches, and my left lower back itches. It’s ridiculous! I wonder if it’s feathers? I had to throw out a down comforter because feathers were flying all over the bedroom and I finally said, Enough!

Did you try Urtica urens?

No, I will try it now.

Do you have homeopathic Histaminum?

I tried that, and I thought it was working at first, but repeated doses haven’t helped. Maybe I need to plus the bottle. I will try plussing Histaminum right now. Maybe it’s the orange juice I’ve been buying from Whole Foods which they make fresh. Maybe the oranges aren’t organic. Maybe I should make a remedy out of that.

August 16th

Well, Claire, the rash update ain’t so great. Bottom line: remedies work in the beginning, then stop working. I made the remedy from orange juice. It showed promise in the beginning–I made a 6C. It’s up to 11C now. It’s not doing anything. Apis showed real promise, then stopped working. Histaminum 30C showed real promise, then stopped working. It seems it’s possible to get a remedy to work once, maybe twice, and that’s it.

Also, case management is difficult in terms of knowing when to repeat, because sometimes I don’t know if what I’m experiencing after a remedy is an aggravation, and therefore I should wait? Or if it’s just the wrong remedy. I’m thinking my best shot is an auto-nosode, but of what? Blood? Urine? Saliva? Rash “scrapings”? Last night I was literally up all night trying to find a remedy that would stop the itching long enough for me to go to sleep.

This rash started as an annoyance and is turning into a nightmare. The most recent remedy to be “working” is Dulcamara. The 30C let me finally sleep last night. When I woke up, I was itching again. Repeating Dulcamara 30C, didn’t work. Just took a dry dose of Dulcamara 200C. It seems to be working but like previous remedies, may fizzle out by the end of the day or night. I hope not but that’s how it’s been going. Very scary because it’s taking over my life.

At the moment, Dulcamara is working, but I’m starting to itch again, so I have to redose.

Fingers crossed!

August 17th

The truth is, I don’t know what is going on here, it’s one of the worst things to ever happen to me. I only got 2 hours sleep last night. It’s severe itching, you can’t sleep with it, and scratching doesn’t make it stop at all, and it can itch in several places at once. It’s really murder. Maybe it was the Chinese food from visiting my cousins; we ordered out, and the Chinese are so famous for adding MSG to everything. I better order some Dulcamara 1M. I don’t know if this is the right remedy or just another disappointment.

It suddenly occurred to me that this could be a yeast rash! Candida albicans!

I looked up natural treatments for candida rash and followed advice on mixing apple cider vinegar with witch hazel and I’ve been dabbing it on my body the minute I start to itch and it’s been a life-saver! I actually slept last night. I think this might be the solution! You know, I didn’t suspect a yeast rash because the way it moved around from one place to the other really had me baffled! I have never seen that before, and still don’t know why I have it but at least I now feel I can take steps to minimize it, and that’s the important thing!

August 19th

Still using apple cider vinegar, Elaine?

Definitely, or I’d be in big trouble!

Well that’s good! Are you taking any ACV internally?

No. Maybe I should. I still have itching, it’s just that now I can put ACV on it and stop it. I did take Dulcamara again last night because it seemed like I was up and down applying ACV from one minute to the next and it got to be too much.

I can tolerate it in sweet juice (not orange or pineapple or grapefruit, in other words). Does the rash wander?

Definitely. It’s funny, the rash breaks out from scratching.

Would Pulsatilla have any relevance just for the wandering part? Have you tried taking extra Vitamin C, it is an antihistamine, right?

Yes, all these are good thoughts. Here’s what I did 3 hours ago, it seemed like the ACV had reached its limit in terms of being able to help. I scratched a particular spot until it bled. It was near my elbow; so I said, OK, here’s my chance to make an auto-nosode! So I did. Rash 6C. I’ve taken 2 doses and the itching has died down considerably to just one place itching now, much better.

It’s funny, the rash breaks out from scratching! That is bizarre!

I know, but it is in the Repertory: Skin, itching, scratching, eruptions after. Something like that.

September 26th

Claire, I still have that mystery rash I told you about; only, I have a theory now! Yes, I know, I said that before! I had a million theories that didn’t pan out; but, I saw a commercial on TV by Perdue Chicken that said, “We don’t feed our chickens antibiotics!”

I went, “Huh???”

Chicken? OMG! The Chinese Restaurant we ordered from at my cousins’ house, I ordered chicken! Then simultaneously I remembered your antibiotic rash we published in the ezine and how you described it as “Insane itching!” I thought, “Yes, that’s exactly what this is, insane itching!”

So luckily, I have _________30C here so I took it immediately! I’ve been taking it just about every day, and even though the itching is not completely gone, it’s much better than it was, I would say 80-90% better, and it doesn’t prevent me from sleeping anymore, which is really big, let me tell you!

OMG! I had no idea you still were dealing with that rash! So it is insane itching like the kind *I* had! WOW!

In fact, I should take another dose now because I’m starting to itch again. I’m telling you Claire, you can’t eat out anymore, you take your life in your hands! Buy organic and cook at home!

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So, OK everybody, what do you think the remedy was? Was it… uh-oh! Wait a minute… What did I take again??? Ah! Yes. I remember it well!