Itchysaurus and the (Almost) Birthday Bunny

Summer Part Three. Basically in the PNW we have Juneuary. Then we have July - peak summer with likely some good warm weather and general adventuring. And then August. Which might be cooler and full of birthday fun and family visits (limited this year due to Plague). It also might be the most likely time for crazy heatwaves and forest fires plus smoke. Who can say for sure?! This year, the year of uncertain pandemics, itchy rashy mommies, and FAAAAAAAABULOUS Bunnies

Amazing that it's been just about a year since we found out Andrew was Blue Origin destined. I believe this time last year he was just done with an arduously long interview. Then right before Allan's birthday party, we found out it was set and we needed to move in a month! By the terms of his team, he's a veteran now. 

We're nearly veterans in our new house at this point. I mean it's been a month and a half. Things are hitting familiar patches. The school year is even lurking behind a curtain or two. Luckily for us, we already have our solution. It may be catastrophic. And without nap time, mommy may slowly go insane, but we're all in the same boat this year!

And in the meantime, we previewed out future preschool experience with... Bear camp!!! Finally! It's been long awaited, but - on whole - worth it. Can't wait until next week when she realizes it was just a one week camp and we don't actually get to bring home a live bear as a pet at the end. There was definitely consternation after the first class when she asked when did we get to actually hunt the bears? Mostly the sessions involved doing crafts and singing the bear hunt song. This was lacking in legitimacy for her. 

The first class was awesome and full of glee and art. The second had some technical difficulties. Allan showed her kinder egg toy to the other kids several times while yelling "I have a kinder egg toy". They eventually did start their Bear adventures. Allan cried when class was over because she wasn't done with her project yet and wanted to show it to the teacher. The third started with a great little moment with just-Allan and her teacher talking about their favorite colors and how much they liked bears. 

 

... and ended with Allan crying because (1) she wanted to record the session and Zoom requires permission from participants for that, and (2) it was over and nobody had told her what to do with the beads we got. 

(Mommy scavanged the house for a string that we could turn into a necklace string)

Miss Allan was so set to explain to the other kids that "Allan" is two kinds of names. Sometimes it's a boy's name (she must have overheard me saying I was sad that some day a kid would tell her it was a boy's name and that would be the end of Allan). But other times it's a girl bunny name. And hers is the girl bunny name. She was disappointed to dismayed that nobody asked or commented. 

So this will be our school experience come fall. And it's something!

It's not perfect. I'm a little sad - a lot sad - that she won't get a "normal" year of hanging with friends and doing "normal" child things. But part of me has also acknowledged that the world she's growing into is not going to be the world that Andrew and I lived in. A lot of her friends are going back to school in some form or other (preschool and private). It's not something we think would work for her right now. Its been a crazy year - moving twice, some travel excitement, adjustsing(ish) to a new school and then having it just vanish, and all the weirndess of lockdown. She's got such a rich imaginative world inside of her that it still blows me away. Our childhoods were right for us (mostly) and the present, but she's going to grow into an entirely new world. She is so vibrant and creative. I think somehow she'll be ok. 

In other adventures, we went to the Arboretum with a family friend/high-school-bud-of-Andrew's Dad. They had three shelties whom Allan adored. And plenty of free spaces to "play tricks on ducks" (I'm not sure exactly what she thought she was doing to trick the duck, but Allan just kept yelling that she had tricked the duck... so... something). The ducks were extra friendly. One of them actually pecked at her (if you can peck with a rounded bill, I'm honestly not sure). 

And we rounded out last weekend with a little birthday dinner rehearsal for Allan with her grandpa Tom. This weekend, Gramma Lisa. We'll just go one by one until all the birthday candles are done. 

 

But enough about the adorable family. Let's pick back up on my allergy test cliffhanger. Last I wrote, I definitely had one new contact allergy and suspected a couple more. I was off antihistamines (ugh) and letting strange angry marks develop on my back as a guide to future avoidance. 

Staring at the test area on my back in the mirror, when I wasn't staring at the random spots where hives would pop up and then vanish like some strange itchy whack-a-mole.

I'm scratching with my brain right now. 

On Monday, I walked through a haze of cleaning solution (which, yes, I'm allergic to probably since I doubt they used straight alcohol or water and vinegar). To put on an exam gown I'm probably allergic to (given what they probably washed it in). And wait for the official word. 

And yes! A couple more. 

Final tally of Contact Allergies: 

MCI/MI/Any Isothiazolinone - which as previously mentioned, has a million names and is in a million places. They're preservatives and antimicrobials most commonly found in personal care items, detergents, paints, sealants, dyes, treatments, inks... most non-edible liquid things and some solids. 

It's also used to treat and store a ton of stuff that comes into the house - clothes, furniture, etc. Makes it likely anything with fragrance is no good even if it isn't listed. That leather is a problem (something to do with leather treatment). Paper has the potential of being problematic (used in the process of making). Anything touted as "antimicrobial" or "antifungal" is a potential problem. It's even used in air conditioning. 

This one is the worst, both in terms of my reaction and in terms of difficulty avoiding. It's used in so many things and often in things where it isn't labeled. It "aerosolizes" so just being in a space where a product is being or has been used can easily cause contact and reaction. Forget about hugging a person with cologne or perfumed soap or whatever....  

Dealing with this one is a very "back to nature" kind of thing complicated by the subsequent allergy which we'll get to. Too bad I've always been allergic to nature (well so far just grass, but I swear I have allergic reactions to trees even if I was negative on that patch test)! Then again, not quite as much as to this one. 

But wait, there's more!

Nickel! Nickel is trickier than it sounds. It's not just about avoiding obviously metallic things (stainless steel may or may not be ok, depends on a lot of variables, but definitely not for cooking). It also shows up as a contaminant in many to most products that contain other minerals and metals (or maybe people allergic to nickel are just more likely to be allergic to them too). Almost all of our appliances, doorknobs, sink handles, keys, hair products, eye makeup, and electronics are suspect. My razor! Cellphones! Keyboards! (shit!!) It can also be in food and sensitive individuals can react to it when ingested. My doctor gave me the list of nickel rich food and said "it's probably fine in moderation but just keep a watch"... which is fine until I see that the list is pretty much "every food I eat every day except carrots and tortilla chips". So ... that. Moderation? PSHAW

Sob sob

And in a lot of the "natural" emolients that people with dermatitis typically turn to: oatmeal, shea, sunflower seed. It's not necessarily going to cause a reaction, but it can. 

Also tricky: it took about six days for any reaction to show up to the nickel. Meaning I will have a darned hard time tracing back what exposure might have caused a reaction. 

And going out with an itty bitty cymbal crash

p-Pehnylenediamine. Basically, hair dye. It could be on some clothes dyed with Azo dyes as well, but I guess that's less common. So, no more dying Andrew's hair. And I guess I get to age gracefully hair-wise when it starts graying. Oh and not have my own photo lab. And I shouldn't wear temporary tattoos, Could also be in black rubber, so while I'm avoiding whole categories of materials... 

Allergies and sensitivities are interesting! A person might kind of react to things as irritants from time to time, but they can also just go on using something right up until suddenly it's a problem. An allergic person has to become sensitized to allergens first. There has to be an exposure where one day their body says "this shiznet is whack" and freaks out and starts spinning antibody type things to attack any trace of it in your body.

semi-relevant analogy: We have a bird feeder that drops a lot of food on the ground. For a few days we thought that the creature eating the fallen food was a possum and thought that was awesome. Then Andrew looked it up and it turns out to be a giant fucking (adorable) rat. And King County strongly suggests that feeding rats is not a great idea. So now... well ok now we're just going to try not to feed the rat, but our attitude towards the cute creature in our yard has changed dramatically after a few exposures. So assume that actually it really is a possum. But now that we think it's a rat, well... that's sensitization. 

Such a healthy shiny rat!

I think the real moral of that analogy was "HOLY CRAP RATS GET BIG AND DARN THEY'RE CUTE!"

aaaaaaaaaaaanyways.

So far I've thrown out the "Free and Clear" laundry detergent we've used for a long time (not so free or clear after all), and rewashed almost everything in the house except Andrew's stuff (I don't touch his laundry) and some of the curtains.

Also gone: The shampoo I had already thrown out because when this all first started it made my scalp light on fire and, while I didn't know why, it seemed like a good idea (retroactively checked and yes it had MCI). Also deoderant. Most of the soap in our house. Andrew's shampoo and conditioner. My razor (that time I used my shampoo as shaving cream and used a stainless steel razor blade to shave... that admittedly was not comfy). Our dish soap. We mostly only cleaned with vinegar and water so that was easier. And my hippy dippy laundry tabs were legit free and clear. 

Also covered the metal doorknobs with socks and the sink with plastic wrap until I get a nickel testing kit and see what is ok to touch. Had to say goodbye - with a sob - to my glitter makeup. 

Anyways, not magically better so the hunt continues. 

I feel like friggin' Sherlock Holmes right now. Well no, I feel like Sherlock Holme's clueless cousin who has no idea what the heck she's doing but maybe a few more episodes of House, M.D. will lend some light (first off, it's never Lupus, so stop testing ANA duh!)... 

But something pops up (or just doesn't go away) and it's reams and reams of guess work and backwards deduction to indentify the cause. All the possible sources of exposure, possible allergens, possible lag periods before reaction. I'd need a perfect memory to even take a stab at it.

 I hear it gets easier over time to size things up and isolate down well enough for things to stand out. 

I've been mostly instructed to wash everything, avoid anything potentially problematic, wear cotton clothes that aren't heavily dyed, put nothing on my skin except super basic soap and vanicream and watch what I eat. Until then and probably forever after, gloves when I go out or touch suspect objects, avoiding perfumed and recently cleaned places and people, airing out as many rooms as possible, probably always  bringing my own linens everywhere I sleep, and rinsing down any surfaces that aren't mine with water and vinegar before touching them for a few months and then slowly venture out. But of course, is that remotely feasible even during lock down?

Ultimately, I have a little gremlin covered in lord knows what and I can't not hug her, so I just better get used to being an itchy flame ball. The little rashes are just new constellations telling new horoscopes of the future of my life. I'm gonna start charging to let people get their readings from my rashes!!

I foresee a long journey coming up with even weirder logistical challenges than before!

 But hey, one plus of the lockdown is wearing weird protective geare and not going out is kind of the norm now.