I went camping again this past weekend. Preferring not to set up a tent or to stay in someone’s house, I took a mattress and slept in the back of my van. I took all the stuff I needed to stay well, spent the majority of my time outside, tried to stay away from scented people, felt fine while there (other than a dry, itchy bottom lip), and my friend worked hard to keep scented people out of my sphere of ambiance. I washed off the day every evening. I was good. After I’d come home and showered, I had a rash all over my arms and neck. Go figure.
This weekend points out to me and my family perfectly how you never can figure everything out 100%. One day you’re good, the next day you think you’ve done nothing differently but you’re not good. It’s frustrating in the extreme. I would love to eliminate all triggers for my immune system and live without medication. I hate the side effects of the medications I have to use. I use almost none of the products I used before, and I literally have the only steroidal (or non-steroidal) cream available in Canada that doesn’t contain my allergens. Yet my situation can change daily.
And so you change the water filter refresh rate. You shower. You apply medication again. You get extra exercise to help your lymphatic system function better. You wash all the stuff you took away from home. You wash the stuff at home that hasn’t been washed as recently. You consider what other products you still use. You search the internet for clues. You hope something changes when you make changes. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Ultimately what I’m experiencing is nothing compared to what I have experienced in the past. For that I am grateful to the new doctor, to my friends and family for supporting me, and, minimally, to the allergist (due to the scented “unscented office” thing). I would love, for once, to be able to be carefree and stop thinking about my allergies. Just for a few days. Let’s see if that dream can become a reality someday.