I'm On Steroids!

It finally got to me... I tried to ignore it as best I could, but it wouldn't leave me alone... I thought I was going to go insane if I couldn't find a way to make it stop.

I'm not talking about Chana nagging me to go see a doctor... I'm talking about the itching!

The rash wasn't any better this morning. In fact, it was worse. The affected area seemed to have grown a bit, and the itching was definitely more intense. Still, being the guy I am, I tried to shrug it off and tough it out one more day before getting alarmed. Of course, the very second Chana saw me this morning, she demanded that I go get looked at or run the risk of killing her with stress.

Maybe someday she'll understand my point of view when it comes to doctors... but I doubt it.

Despite my "mind over matter" attitude, however, by the time I got to work I was ready to crawl out of my skin! As long as I had something to occupy my mind, I was fine, but it was a slow day and there was lots of time to sit there at my desk and think, "Damn! This itches!"

I decided I would leave work early and go see a doctor. I figured 2 o'clock would be good, so that I didn't miss too much time. We've got a cruise to pay for, after all! Well, I only made it to 11:30 before I told the boss I just couldn't hang in there any longer. Then I called Chana, and she was only too happy to come get me and take me to the clinic.

Big surprise, eh?

And if caving in like that wasn't a big enough piece of humble pie for me, Chana had to serve it up with a bit of ice cream. Here's how:

We were sitting in the waiting room and talking about all the things that could have caused the rash. As I said, I didn't do anything different on the weekend, didn't change any of my soaps or personal toiletries, and didn't wear any new clothes. It was then that Chana made a joke about me being allergic to my new camera. Ha ha ha.

Wait.

At that very moment, we both knew exactly what had caused the break-out. As stupid as it sounds, it had to have been my new camera... Or, more precisely, the neck strap. You see, there's a piece of soft rubber on the strap right where it rests against my neck. And this is the only new thing that was anywhere near me this weekend. On top of that, I remember having an identical reaction to a hands-free headset I bought for my cell phone. It, too, had that rubbery material on the behind-the-ear part. The resulting rash behind my ear nearly drove me nuts!

So, she not only got me to go to a doctor, but then she diagnosed me before I even got in the room... I'm not going to hear the end of this one any time soon.

Anyway, I've been put on this prescription cream that I have to apply 3 times a day to control the itching and reduce the inflammation. It's something called a "corticosteroid", but I'm going to go with "steroids" because it sounds cooler.

You can't expect me to give up all my Manly Silliness at once...