Some days just suck

I survived my root canal yesterday.

The procedure itself was painless, other than having to keep my moth open for 3 hours straight. By the time I got home, though, I was definitely in pain- the anesthesia had worn off and everything was throbbing. I took some painkillers and used an ice pack, and it felt a lot better. The dentist put a temporary crown on and I go back in 3 weeks for the permanent crown. Right now it's too tender to chew on the right side, but I'm hoping that doesn't last too long.

In other news, I have poison ivy blisters all over my lips.

They're very uncomfortable (itchy and weepy) and not very pleasant to look at (swollen and weepy). I'm still not completely clear as to how they got there in the first place. The best I can come up with is that I'm really allergic to one of the pollens that are blowing around. I'd been outside wiping pollen off plastic toys so I could take pictures and post them on craigslist, and it's very possible I wiped my mouth with a pollen-covered hand.

I really can't come up with any other way I could have been exposed to something. And it's not necessarily poison ivy- I've had this same reaction to a tree that was in our back yard when we lived in Ohio, when I went for a walk in the woods behind my aunt and uncle's house in California, and when I tried to plant some flowers in front of our house in California (in bare dirt, so who knows what happened there). The only one of those instances that I think it really was poison ivy or poison oak was the walk in the woods.

In Ohio, I somehow managed to get the weepy blisters every year, usually just before school started, and frequently there was a patch somewhere on my face. So gross and demoralizing- it did not help my self-esteem, that's for sure.

The older I get, the more things I'm allergic to. It's getting to the point where I don't want to go hiking or camping because I know I'll be itching soon after we arrive, and I'll be paranoid about breaking out in soon-to-be-weeping blisters. Even doing yard work makes me itch all over.

Totally sucks. Especially since there's really not much I can do. During the 20 or so years that I've dealt with this, the only things that have been effective is to keep the sores covered so they don't spread (they spread like wildfire) and dry them out as quickly as possible. I've tried Ivy-dry, but had more success with the highest concentration of rubbing alcohol that I could find (90% + is best). I've even tried bleach, but it wasn't more effective than the alcohol, and it was a lot harder on my skin.

Today I'm staying home and trying to speed up the drying out process. This means frequent applications of 91% alcohol and Mr M's zovirax (it works for cold sores, maybe it'll help with poison ivy). Sure wish I knew what I was allergic to so I could avoid it in the future. And yes, I have had allergy tests, and they all came back negative. Hah! Fat lot of good they are.

I also get the fun task of washing all the towels, bedding, and clothes- just in case they're contaminated.