The results

Wednesday evening the Fox carefully removed the taping from my back. Oh the liberation! Finally I could move.

Thursday we set off to the hospital for the results. It seems of all the 69 patches one had reacted positively. It seems I’m allergic to Myroxylon Pereira, Balsam of Peru to thee & me. It sounds all very exotic but it seems it is common in products listing “perfume” or “aroma”. It is also to be found in antiseptics e.g. nappy rash cream, haemorrhoid creams. Fortunately I haven’t got a baby around & I’ve never suffered from haemorrhoids.

 I was given a list of things I may need to avoid – perfumed cosmetics, toiletries, face & hand cream, suppositories, cough mixtures & lozenges, eugenol (found in dental products) & Chinese medicaments, particularly those using Chinese Balm & Tiger Balm. Out of that list only the odd scented toiletries & moisturisers, & toothpaste do I use.

More off-putting was on the other side of the sheet of paper. They reckon if you have this allergy then I am likely to have problems with other things that have similar chemical compounds in them. This list is more perturbing – spices, especially cinnamon, cloves, cardamom & nutmeg, citrus fruit peel, chewing gum, sweets, cola & cola like soft drinks, cough mixtures & lozenges, tobacco, eugenol & Chinese medicaments (as above). I thought of the duck à l’orange we had last Saturday, the orange I ate on Tuesday whilst touching the peel, the curry we had on Wednesday, the glasses of cola I have most days when we go out, the marmalade with peel in that I often have on toast for breakfast.

We retreated to the golf club to recover from the hospital visit. I had a tomato juice instead of my usual diet cola. The more I thought about it the more ridiculous it all seemed. If I was that allergic from these things I would be permanently blistered & itchy, after eating, drinking & enjoying, so many of these things, on an almost daily basis for over 60 years! I’m not.

What is more I’m not convinced I’m any nearer to knowing what caused the severe reaction I did have that day a few years ago. Whatever I came into contact with, I’ve not come into contact with before or since.

With this in mind I’ve gone back to drinking my diet cola. I may even dare to touch the orange peel when I eat the oranges that are sitting in the fruit bowl at the moment. I even had my usual marmalade, peel & all, on my breakfast bit of toast this morning.

I gather I shall have to see the dermatologist again to discuss the results. Until then, I propose to continue to live life as normal. I will, however, keep an eye out on the condition of my skin if I do come into contact with any banned product & avoid anything that causes an adverse reaction. That seems a more reliable way to discover if I’m allergic to anything. That’s how I discovered my allergy to nylon & neoprene. The blisters are undeniable if I ever try wearing them.

Strait-jacket & jazz

My back continues to feel as though it’s in a strait-jacket, unable to move naturally. The point of one shoulder blade is feeling very tender, but so far there’s not been an unbearable amount of itching, pain or heat, just general discomfort. Roll on the time to take all these patches off.

Meanwhile, yesterday we got along to the library. I’ve now started a new novel, “Dead Man’s Blues” by Ray Celestin. I chose it partly as a contrast to a rather heavy novel that meandered all over the place which I wasn’t entirely happy with. This book is essentially a detective story set in Chicago in 1928, the days of Al Capone & the great days of Chicago jazz, hence the blues in the title. My attention was aroused when the story started with a description of a young black man, suitcase & cornet case in hand, running to catch the train from New Orleans to Chicago. His name? Louis Armstrong of course. I’ve not read sufficient to gauge the quality of the book but it is a good start.

After dinner, we decided to leave the TV switched off, put on some jazz (Louis of course) & got down to the serious business of chuntering, putting the world back into perspective. Even from what little I’ve read we couldn’t help being struck by just how discriminatory the treatment of black people in America was in those days. Not so long ago the Fox read Bill Bryson’s “One Summer: America, 1927” so he has a reasonable idea of this period of American social history. From the news I sometimes wonder how much some parts of the USA have improved. Surely, regardless of skin colour, all people are first & foremost human beings & should be treated with respect as such.

Patches on

Well we got to the hospital yesterday. I’ve now got 68 patches stuck on my back. I return later in the week to have them removed & my back inspected.

The nurse is certainly right about one thing. You can’t forget you have the patches on. The muscles of my back feel as though they’re held in some sort of corset, unable to stretch & move in the normal way. It also feel as though my back is unable to breath & is rather sweaty.

As for any reaction I’m not sure. I’ve got the odd itch, the odd ache, the odd hot patch, but are they just in my mind because I’m so aware the patches are on? So far there’s none that is so unbearable it has to be removed immediately. We’ll find out the results when the patches are removed.

The Fox will have that unenviable job. Having worried that I would have an immediate overwhelming reaction, we’re now worried that when all this tape & patches are taken off, my skin will have blistered underneath & a great area of skin comes off with the patches, as happened when I used hyperfix on my knees.

We’ll just have to wait & see. Meanwhile I move around gingerly, feeling as though my whole back is being drawn into a particular unnatural position.