Have you ever just looked at yourself in the mirror and told yourself to seriously grow the f up? I’ve never been so mad at myself like I was on New Years Eve. I should have been enjoying the last day of 2015 with my kids, instead I was sitting in a labtests office having yet another blood test that I hate. All because of a little vanity. Sigh.
See, I’m not a girly girl. I don’t do my nails enough, don’t see the point when it scratches off 5 minutes later. I don’t do make up, mainly cos I’ve never found foundation that suits my skin tone plus all I want to do at the end of the day is drop into bed without spending half a year removing the damn thing 😛
BUT, the thing I will stop to do is my hair. I have mainly black, going grey haha, hair which is wavy. Thick, afro, combination/oily wavy. Not curly or straight which would have been nice. So I straighten my hair with a straightening iron. And I like seeing if there are products that’ll keep it smooth and straight for longer. I found a shampoo and conditioner about a year ago that I thought worked perfectly, so of course when I saw they did a leave in treatment too I thought why not. Woo-hoo, I thought, smooth and straight hair for up to 4 washes! No more fluffy flyaway hairs. Great 🙂
So come Sunday morning, I washed my hair & put in the recommended amount of the product into my towel dried hair. Then hair dried & straightened said hair just like the box said.
Sunday night, I had a headache, which I thought was probably just the stress of the last week. Then it was worse Monday morning. So bad it was like my head was in a vice, and being squashed. Then the sore throat started, and I thought ok I’m coming down with something. Felt like I could sleep for days! Paracetamol helped with the headache so thought nothing of it, and continued trying to enjoy the holidays with the family. Same deal on Tuesday, but still managed to continue the day with good old paracetamol 🙂 By Wednesday though, even eating seemed like too much effort. My sore throat was now so bad, it felt like I was swallowing a ball of sand. Said to hubby ok if I don’t feel any better tomorrow I might get the Dr to check it out. By Wednesday night, a few bumps had taken residence on my face. I’ve never been one to have a completely unblemished face so I put it done to me coming down with something so immunity was low.
So Thursday morning, New Years Eve 2015, i woke up to find itchy red annoyed bumps all over my back, forehead and stomach. Awww crap, the dreaded pox I thought. Master 4’s been immunised but wee miss hadn’t yet as we had gone to do so, but she had cold, so thought we’d leave it till after her 15 month imms. So here’s me, itchy as anything but can’t scratch incase it’s the pox, and cursing myself for not getting wee miss immunised.
So off to the Dr we went, who said it doesn’t look like chicken pox, but he hasn’t seen anything like it before so here’s a blood test form, and some stuff to take as it looks like it might be an allergic reaction. Allergic reaction!?? To what? I’ve not eaten or had anything different over the last few days & all the symptoms don’t add up. So WTH?
Now in my younger days lol, I’ve chemically dyed my hair and I’ve permanently straightened it too. Both without problems, despite my mother being deathly allergic to any chemical hair dye (since around the age I am now scarily). So you’d think I’d figure this out quickly, but I’m a bit slow in my old age 😛 So I’ve started taking the stuff the Drs given me, whilst waiting the 4(!) days I need to wait to get the blood test results back. And 4 hours after taking the first lot of medication, the bloody itching stops. So I’m thinking, ok its probably not chicken pox, but what did I have that I’m allergic to?
When it suddenly hits me; the new hair product that I thought would be safe because it’s not permanent and I’ve used the shampoo and conditioner before. You’d think I’d have hit it sooner, seeing as the worst and most bumps were on my scalp, forehead, down my neck & back.
I’m three days into taking the medication now, and the big angry itchy bumps have calmed down and no more have come up. I’m still waiting for the test results, but I think I can safely say I’ve given up using any chemicals on my head for a while (if ever!). As hot as it gets in summer, the hair straightener will do for me.
I will update this blog post when the results do come in though. Hopefully, then I can get off this medication; which, as helpful as it was & it does give me a lot of energy during the day, does have the lovely side effect of insomnia! Hence, the blog post at 2.30am 😛
Much love,
I’m NOT SuperMum
