Monthly Archives: May 2006

I’ve been having severe allergic reactions lately which start late at night with my ear lobes swelling, becoming red, hot and itchy, then when I wake in the morning my eyes have swollen up so much I can’t see. My cheeks and throat also swell up sometimes. It’s quite annoying. It takes three days of strong antihistamines or a large dosage of steroids to get the swelling down. Every time this reaction occurs my throat swells up more and more, and I am becoming concerned that my throat will close up. My allergist is perplexed. The first reaction happened after my annual flu needle, so he thought it was the cause, but since then I have had more of these allergic reactions and they are not connected to anything I am allergic to. He thinks the reactions have something to do with my immunity, that the illness I have been through has servery affected the way my body reacts to things (such as; drugs, foods and environmental factors, viruses, etc) and has caused my current allergies (dust mite, pollen, corn, grasses, bottlebrush) to be more virulent.

He wishes to treat me with strong prescription antihistamines. The catch is they all contain lactose and since I’m servery lactose intolerant, I cannot take them. It really aggravates me. Drug companies use lactose as a filler, binder and coating and they use it because it’s cheap. Of course they could use different binders, fillers and coaters (as some lovely drug companies already do), alas, that would be too expensive and they want to make money, not save lives and help people! Don’t be silly… Lives… Does a life let you swim in a pool full of money (or pudding if you swing that way) or let you obtain that fast car so you can finally pick up ladies? Certainly not!

So what now?

We have decided to treat me with an Immunotherapy called Hyposensitization. This is not new to me. I have previously had this treatment as a child for about 9 years – which is a shockingly long time for even those in the medical profession – my first RAST and skin prick test were off the charts and I was allergic to so many allergens (wheat, pollen, grass, dust mite, you name it, we didn’t play well together) that I needed years of treatment before I saw any change, but it was worth it. I can now eat wheat without my throat closing up, which is a very handy thing indeed. Hyposensitization treatment consists of you having weekly injections of allergen extracts for a period (usually 11 weeks) and re-testing to see if it has made and impact after treatment. In the meantime, whenever I have a reaction I take a large dosage of steroids and/or antihistamines to keep my throat from closing up and take down the swelling. The treatment will start next week, as I am currently not well with a virus that has been going around, I hope that it alleviates the reactions.

So I dyed my hair torridly red and I fucking love it, but I am concerned that the Little Red Monkey has finally started to influence me.

I took my new hair out today to meet the world, the world seemed to like it, as I was buying some more shampoo from a salon the lady serving me commented that my new hair looked fantastic and said, “the hairdresser that dyed your hair did a great job!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her I dyed it and ruin the ‘packet dye is evil’ theory.

It is about thirty minutes past three in the morning and this is the fourth night in a row that my lower abdomen has woken me with pain, I give it two more nights and then I am so eBaying it along with my shoes. Who needs internal organs anyway?

Today I moved furniture around. (Yes, aren’t you jealous? Let’s act like you helped and tell NO ONE!) Furniture was moved from room to room and strategically placed so there is now more room in said rooms (room is one of those words that if you say it enough it sounds strange and un-word like). Things are in different places, stuff has a new home and it’s freaking me out a tad because I’m not used to it yet. My bedroom is a complete mess – objects lost have been found and other objects lost in their place – I found my yearbook in amongst the mess, so an hour was spent looking at it. It seems so long ago.

Sometime between dropping a book on my foot and getting rid of the dust bunnies I came to the conclusion that I have too much shit, but then I was humbled by the fact that I know girls whose shit surpasses my own.

I took a photo of my make-up for the ‘what’s in your make-up bag’ Flickr pool, and I was amazed at the amount of beauty products I have in my possession. Granted I don’t use most of it on a daily basis, but I do use most of it on a monthly basis. What’s funny is this is nothing compared to what I dragged around in a big vanity case when I did modelling.

I’m sure when my boyfriend sees the above photo (larger view available on Flickr) he’ll know exactly why it takes me four times longer for me to get ready and it will totally devoid the need for the “why do you need an hour to get ready” conversation from our relationship.

But I’m in good company, other ladies have displayed the contents of their make-up bags in the Flickr pool. I love this one, as one commenter mentioned “it look’s like Barbie’s makeup bag”, so pink and cute, I adore the compacts and pill boxes.

So I thought I would start this into a blogging meme – my first – and infect a few female bloggers with it.

Rules of the meme

• The infected are to dump out the contents of their makeup bag, take a photo of the contents and then post the photo on their blog, and if possible add it to the ‘what’s in your make-up bag’ Flickr pool.
• The infected must pass the meme onto five other female bloggers (or metrosexual men and drag queens).

Those whom I wish to infect

• Renee
• Angelah
• Karen
• Crystal
• Asa