Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts

7.02.2005

Up and Down, Up and Down ..

Sleep is a good thing. Good sleep is a blessing. I used to be able to sleep without any problem.

Of course I took advantage of that and deprived myself of sleep for many years. In doing so I thought I was serving the better good by producing needed value for education - at my former job in education - and building my business for my own personal empirical desires.

However, academia din not value the extended efforts and I have no empire to show for my ego-driven efforts. What I do have, is a weakened state of physical strength, a compromised immune system and itching .. nerve wracking.. brain numbing .. I T C H I N G !! All due to the allergy to M O L D !

I now awake at least twice each night with my tail itching like a dog with worms: no, I don't have worms - I have an allergy to mold. I take the Allegra 180 and it's good for a while on the other 90% of my body but the blasted 'tail itch' continues. There seems nothing that can be done to curtail .. let alone stop .. this annoyance.

A good friend of mine suggested - several months back - that I try Organic Virgin Coconut Oil.

I asked my chiropractor - who is also a trained Naturopathy professional - about the use of coconut oil to stop the itching. I searched the web for information. I found a lot of information, much of very good. But initially, most of it was pretty confusing; imagine that! So, I needed some professional insight to help sift the value from the Online BS. Never underestimate the power of using someone who knows the subject to provide a ground-truth of the information.

My chiropractor had just received an order of coconut oil. He uses a product from the Philippines. called Tropical Taditions.

I bought the quart jar of the white paste-like material, went home and immediately tried it on for size.

I must say it's nice to go around smelling like a walking-talking coconut. Coconut oil remains a solid until you put it in your hands. It melts or emulsifies at roughly 98.6°F; standard body temp.

It worked!

Another nice side-benefit ( notice this is NOT a side-effect ) is that the oil does not cause your skin to 'grease up' causing pimples and/or other skin eruptions. Coconut oil is very gentile and it does relieve the itching. Unfortunately the relief is only temporary, requiring regular, frequent, reapplication.

Here we step into a most uncomfortable sociological problem resulting from this condition. Maintenance of mold allergy expressions are time consuming and tedious. They are also very private matters, at least this is what you hope.

For the most part it is, however, the reality is simple: when your butt itches - you are going to scratch it! Or go into extreme duress in an attempt to ignore the obvious. Unless a person is devoid of any social decorum, doing so in public is embarrassing. It can be quite detrimental to your employment status - if not your entire acceptance within society. This is definitely one of those topics in which no one really wants to read about, let alone be a first-hand observer! But (no pun intended) it is a reality. So, let's address it an get over it.

To get relief the sufferer must resort to all sorts of sneaky maneuvers and subterfuge to get at the problem. It takes time and dedication to develop the skill of scratching without looking like you're scratching. This function of social dodging takes work.

The mental gymnastics required to gain this new-found talent is, well ... taxing. It diminishes and demeans your self-worth, your self-respect and your willingness to socialize at all. You spend more time addressing the itch, increasing your time away from your work. Thus more time is spent on the dance than at getting work done. Besides with persistence and growing intensity of the itch, you hardly think of anything else.

After all this machination you may scratch the itch and end up loosing your job; or acceptance in public. So the question of.. "To scratch or not to scratch" becomes your life consuming act of mental turmoil.

Man! How low can you go? Well, stick around and you will find out. The really sad part is this, You ain't 'rock bottom' yet!
Believe me, I've been there - on a regular basis. That's why I constantly say, This condition SUCKS!

Yet, the real reason why you should NOT itch is missed or ignored.

ITCHING CAUSES DAMAGE.
When an itch reaches the level of intensity, caused by this condition, you don't just lightly scratch; you DIG THE HELL OUT OF IT! It's a near maniacal effort. It feels SOOO Good! That is until you stop. Because, in the next nanosecond after you stop, you realize you're going to scream your head off with the ensuing P A I N !!!!

Oh dear. That hurts!

You will stand there quivering in pain. Wondering, "What in the name of anything intelligent, was I thinking?"

NOT!

You then attempt to poultice the pain with the incantations that the wonderful scratching moment was worth the pain. As the ripples of pain continue to captivate your lucidity, the mantra is loosing its value - fast!

You know full well you'll be right back here - in this very same scenario - in just a few hours. Just like a junkie to his next fix - you will live to scratch that blasted itch! The cycle continues.

Oh... that this circle -WOULD- be broken!

I now return to my regular scheduled attempt at getting back to sleep. Man - we had absolutely NO IDEA how GOOD we had it as kids. Did we?

MoldChron



6.30.2005

First Event ...

Many say they can remember the first time they ____ , fill in the blank. Events in our life that set the flow of the following days, weeks, months or years of our lives remain close and easily remembered. I can remember -now looking back- to the 'genesis' of the expression of my allergy to mold.

At the time I didn't think it was anything other than an 'itch', but it was really so much more. The headaches were thought to be the results of just staying up late and not getting enough sleep; drinking too much coffee or being in need of a good chiropractic adjustment. The fact that I did not get enough rest, drank too much coffee and set for so long at a computer terminal that I needed regular chiropractic adjustments, added to a 'string ready to break' condition. But unbeknown to me, there was a more permanent condition at work.

What I noticed first - now looking back - were three prominent things: 1) anal itch (thought to be hemorrhoids); 2) headaches that came with 'set your clock' regularity (5-6 each week, most often as I woke up - or what WOULD wake me up); 3) flu-like congestion, aches and pains, and a typical low-grade fever (99F - but never above 99.5F). These continued and persisted - no matter how much salve, Tylenol, Excedrin, fluid or medication I took. Then almost as soon as they arrived, they were gone. But would return though; worse, more frequent and more persistent.

Reviewing the past 5 years, in hind-sight, I can see this all began its unveiling in October of 2000 - when my wife and I were in Panama City, FL for an annual church convention. I didn't know what the problem was - but I thought I had a hemorrhoid, didn't get enough sleep and caught a 'bug'. Why it began then, I don't know. Prior to this I didn't notice a 'regularity' to the pattern that began in 2000 and continues.

This was the FIRST EVENT, I see this now, but had not a clue of what would become a 'life controlling' condition. We either learn to live with these conditions and move on - or they will control us even more than they already do. At this stage of my 'mold allergy' I am very 'controlled' in what I can do ... when and where I can do it. But I try to not let it totally permeate my life, conversation and thinking.

The Journals help me to 'get it out and get on' with my life.

MoldChron