THESE 
PLUS THIS:
EQUALS THIS:
After coming home from Ireland, we immediately jumped right back into our 70 hour a week schedule. About 3 weeks ago we had a problem with the baby pygora goats getting under/around/thru/over the sheep fence in the pasture. They loved to graze along the road & the rock wall. The neighbors would call & we’d go try to get them back in. Sometimes the only thing to do was pick them up & carry them back to the barn.
Pygoras/cashmeres love to eat weeds. Poison ivy is a weed. It grows quite well around here. Both Brandon & I broke out with the rash on our arms. After the past 2 weeks of every available remedy, Brandon cleared up within 7 days. Mine is still healing, but my arms look like I’ve been thru a fire and feel as if they have too.
Yesterday I woke up with a NEW breakout, on my legs, my feet, the palms of my hands, my stomach, basically all over except my bacck & head. Itch itch itch. I haven’t gotten much sleep the past 2 weeks. Today I decided that this new outbreak would put me over the edge. I just cannot stop the itching/oozing, 1000s of needles being stuck in me sensation. So off we went to the emergency room. It was worth the $500 to get the prescription for steroids, which will reduce the swelling and help with the itch. The doctor was not sure if it’d actually STOP the blistering/weeping. He said “Have you tried Calamine lotion?” I think the withering look I gave him told him that I certainly had tried everything, and I do mean everything, and that I had reached the end of my rope. I begged him for something to knock me out, but he said no, just start the steroids and take DOUBLE Benedryl at night.
Meanwhile, my hands are on fire, so is my stomach, and I’m so looking forward to being a weeping/red/scratchy mess when we head out to nice warm North Carolina at the end of the week to go to the Jacob meeting. That heat ought to make me nice and swollen and help me get the full effect of miserableness.
So, I’ve been dealing with this and not well, I might add. It’s hard to type & sell stuff and wait on customers when they think you’re contagious (not) and when you’re scratching like a dog with fleas. Scratching is too mild a word — digging my nails into my red, swollen skin is a better vision. I read on someone’s website that they had taken a steak knife and SCRAPED the blisters off their arm, and while that might be tempting & I can see why they did that, I am scratching too much to look for that knife right now.
Oh, did I mention that I have big huge welts on my butt? Now, that certainly is attractive— I look like a burn victim, my fingers look like breakfast sausages, & when I go to the store to get more Benedryl and Calamine, I have the overwhelming urge to scratch my butt.
If the goats get out again tonight, we’ll be having stew tomorrow night. But someone else will have to make it, as I’m not touching them. Ever. Again…..
