Scabies

I have horrible skin. In my early 20s, I got the acne of a pubescent boy who sleeps face down in a pizza box. Most makeups, soaps, lotions, etc. compound the problem.

In addition, my skin has bizarre and mysterious reactions a few times a week. Today alone, some kind of hives or rash popped up on my arm and neck. Both have disappeared, but now my forehead itches. It's not just itchy, I actually get hives that are white and red little bumps. Once in my life, I got a case of hives that broke out over my entire body, lasted for over a week, and caused me to end up in the ER because I was scratching so hard I was bleeding, but they wouldn't give me steroids because they raise your blood sugar and I'm diabetic. My whole body swelled, I was out of school for a week, and I barely slept. It was horrible, and I still don't know what caused it. About once a year I get a crazy case of hives from stress.

One time, I started to get a rash across my stomach. Because I worked in an elementary school, where gross things spread rapidly, like lice, pink eye, and ringworm, I always freak out when I think I have something like that. So, I decided to try and diagnose my rash. I determined that I might have scabies.

I didn't really. The hives went away a few hours later, but I love the sound of the word scabies.

So now, every time there is something wrong with me, by default, I say, "I think I have scabies!" The husbo and I enjoy it.

Besides never having scabies, I have also been spared lice and ring worm. The pink eye finds me almost every year that I spend in an elementary school. Since I haven't been in one with the regularity of years' past, I have avoided it so far.

Here's something that I am relieved to never have been afflicted with. I remember a friend telling me about them during lunch one school day. Needless to say, I couldn't eat or be at ease for the rest of the day. When I learned about them in biology, I felt like I might pass out. I dissected a cat and a cow's eyeball with ease, but the idea of those put me over the edge.