itching and wheezing

[winterbadger]

I don't think I either drink so much or have cut back so much suddenly that I would be having the DTs, but I hardly know what else to make of it. Lately I've become plagued by a feeling of something tickling its way over my skin, or a sudden itching like a bug bite. At first I thought I might have picked up fleas from the pets of friends that go outside, but I very carefully survey the tickly itchy bits when the feeling comes up, and there's nothing there. I've lived in a house with fleas before (our dog used to get them every summer when I was a kid), so I know well what fleabites look like, and I don't have any. A few things here and there that look like spider bites (at least, that's what we always called them when I was a kid--like chiggers, but much, much smaller--BTW, did you know, all the stuff they always told us about chiggers getting under your skin and breathing through a hole that you could seal with nail polish: totally false! By the time you see a chigger bite, the chigger is long gone.) So, it's a mystery. I notice that after I shower and right after I wear clothes I've recently washed I get itchy, so I wonder whether it's something in the water. What could I possibly do if it is?

And lately on several occasions friends and acquaintances have remarked on my being out of breath, making a joke out of it but in a way that suggests that I exhibit extreme signs of respiratory distress. I know I'm a bit out of shape, but I'm kind of surprised that they seem to think I'm so alarmingly out of breath. It seems natural to me that one would be panting a bit after trotting briskly up several flights of stairs or running up a hill to reach a meeting one is late for. I'm always out of breath when I take the stairs at work (two sets of three flights from the ground floor to my office) and when I stride briskly up the stairs in the parking garage at the end of the day (three sets of two flights). Maybe I need to go get that lung x-ray after all...

OK, time for bed. Got to sleep before 1 on Monday, maybe I can get to sleep before 12.30 tonight...

Comments

[dativesingular.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I was hacking and wheezing after running up flights of stairs to get to classes in high school, and that was when I was 30lbs lighter and swimming 6 days a week. In fact, I know very few people who don't get winded by running up stairs. I know A does, and he's in much better shape than me. Stairs just suck, and if you have a history of asthma (A and I both do) that counts double.

No advice on the mystery bite, unfortunately.

Soap and exercise...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

I think you're reacting to the soap in some way. Change your shower soap to baby bath and your clothes powder to non-bio and see what happens.

And, since you're spending a lot of time at a PC, you probably need to take more exercise.

[cmlc.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention the washing powder too - don't just switch to non-bio, find one that's specifically for sensitive skin. And do the same for whatever you wash yourself with too. (Been there, done that.) Oh, and set your washing machine to do extra rinses.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Another vote for washing powder, plus do the people commenting on your being out of breath realise you are trotting briskly up the stairs or running up hills? Maybe they think you're walking slowly like wot they do?

[reasdream.livejournal.com]

I'd say change your detergent, change your body soap, and see a doctor. Just in case.

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

Funny, Melissa and I have been having the same itchy skin problems here in Vermont. We've decided that it's because there's so little humidity around here, but surely that can't be the case in DC in summer. My advice is "moisturize, baby." Slather on the lotion after you shower and again before you go to bed. You how what a lotion fanatic I am.

As for being winded, you come from a family of mouth breathers (not lowlifes, just people whose noses don't work so well). You may be breathing no heavier than someone else would from exertion, but because you use your mouth more, it probably sounds more like panting. Just a hypothesis . . .

[ethanninis-mom.livejournal.com]

I am too slow, I was thinking the same thing about your laundry detergent (bath soap is another idea).

[azbound.livejournal.com]

How long has this been going on? At what point in time do you actually go to the doctor? You know, people who have gone to school for years on end, studying the human body?

[winterbadger]

Mmmm, less than a week.

I'm kind of embarrassed to go to the dr because when I saw her in Feb she gave me a scrip to get a chest x-ray (for what I suspect was a sarkoid attack, which has gone now) and work got so busy I never actually got the x-ray. :-) But....

Re: Soap and exercise...

[winterbadger]

Sadly, I need to do MUCH more exercise than I do. Hard to build good habits, but one must keep trying.

[azbound.livejournal.com]

I understand the embarassment. I have a prescription for a mammogram (a baseline) from last fall that I honestly don't know where it is.

That being said, my boobs aren't making me itch. If it keeps up for more than the weekend, please go see a medical professional.

[winterbadger]

Yes, ma'am! :-)

[winterbadger]

Funny, Melissa and I have been having the same itchy skin problems here in Vermont. We've decided that it's because there's so little humidity around here, but surely that can't be the case in DC in summer.

How right you are! :-)

You may be breathing no heavier than someone else would from exertion, but because you use your mouth more, it probably sounds more like panting.

I think that's probably it, plus very mild asthma aggravated by being so overweight.

[winterbadger]

Yeah, at least some of the people at work who comment would never even consider taking the stairs--they always take the elevator.

Re: Soap and exercise...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Exercise is essentially boring, unless you have a zen thing going for you. A competitive sport or martial art, on the other hand, offers all sorts of rewards to keep you going.

Re: Soap and exercise...

[winterbadger]

True, but it requires scheduling with other people, which intensely complicates the process. :-)

Re: Soap and exercise...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Or you could get fat and die early.

Re: Soap and exercise...

[winterbadger]

Or I can just run and cycle by myself. :-)

Re: Soap and exercise...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

But if that worked...

Re: Soap and exercise...

[winterbadger]

It does, I just need to do it more often. Hence my original reply to you: "Hard to build good habits, but one must keep trying."

Doing *anything* is going to take more effort--I _know_that. Something I can do on my own and enjoy is going to happen a lot more often than something I have to schedule with other people. And "more often" is key. Half an hour to an hour of exercise every day is going to do me a lot more good than an hour or two of exercise once or twice a month (if that).

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

There you go then...

ETA: though having read other comment conversations, I think going to the doctors to double check there's nothing nasty lurking is a good plan. Exercise is supposed to get your heart rate up and leave you a little breathless, but gasping and red in the face and in distress is a stage too far, obviously (that's how I knew I had to really start making more effort..)