Scratch That

Those two words have so many different meanings. To start with, I wrote a blog with the same title and hated it. In my mind I said, scratch that! Delete. Believe me it wasn't my finest work. Way too random and well, just ridiculous. And then there is the scratch that when you have an itch. This is the one I really want to address.

So I'd like to think that I'm superwoman. Yep, I can be a daughter, sister, wife, mom and friend. I can pull it all together. Especially in busy times or times of crisis. Really. I can make a dinner happen on a moments notice. People will have fun and so will I. I am a bit of a last minute person, but things still seem to always work out. I've been lucky. Or maybe I should say blessed.

About a month ago, in the midst of us finding out about Scott's cancer and the surgery, I started to itch. Well, I wasn't flush on time and I was taking short cuts. It's winter and cold and I usually have sensitive skin anyway. But time was short and I would forget to lotion up sometimes. Then I bought laundry detergent that I hadn't purchased before and thought that might be the reason. The itching got worse. I started taking Benadryl at night to alleviate the symptoms. I tried every lotion and potion sold over the counter. Nothing helped.

I will tell you this. I'm pretty sure that the sensation of itching could actuallly drive a person insane. It's torture. I was getting inventive with things to help me scratch my itch. I have a back scratcher. Somtimes a pen or pencil would work. I was whisking gravy one evening and thought to myself, hmmm, this whisk? My itches were on my arms, legs, back, chest---ugh!

Then it dawned on me. It wasn't any food I had eaten. It wasn't the lotions, potions or laundry soaps. I was at this moment allergic to the stress in my life. In desperation I went to urgent care and was diagnosed witth hives. Stress related hives. The doctor was so kind and said I can give you medicine for the hives. I wish there was something I could give you for the stress. I thanked her profusely and said if I could get a handle on the itching, I could take it from there. And I did. After a couple of days of no sleep, because that's one of the nasty side effects of the meds, I started to return to normal.

My hives are basically gone. The itching has almost completely left my system. So what did I learn? I am not superwoman. I can't do it all. I need to sleep. I need to eat. I need to breathe and read books. I need to destress. And if I do all of this I can scratch hive outbreaks off my list. Ahhh.