Ooopsy

I thought this was going to be a really funny blog. But now that I see the pictures, I don’t think it’s funny. It was probably a bad idea for me to go swimming today.

Here’s the scoop: A week ago, I stopped to pee in the woods on my bike ride. Apparently, I peed in a patch of poison ivy. I always look for the stuff when I am hiking thru the woods, but this time of year it’s hard to spot because the leaves have not sprouted. I am extremely allergic to the stuff, and my whole leg broke out in a horrid rash. It was so itchy, I wanted to cut my leg off with a chainsaw. I wanted to hire this guy…

The only thing that relieved the insane itching was Benedryl. THAT made me very sleepy. Which is probably why I didn’t feel like working out earlier this week. I avoided going to the doctor, because I knew he would prescribe Predisone. Last time I took that stuff for a spider bite, it made me hyper for three days; then moody and depressed for three more days. My friend, Alice from BT , told me that there are some really good Rx steroid cremes that can help; so I finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday. Alice was right – the doctor was able to give me a topical steroid creme – and it did help alot.

I hadn’t gone swimming in a whole week, and hesitated to go with this big ugly rash on my leg. I knew there was a sign at the pool that says “No person with a communicable disease allowed in the pool”. Well, poison ivy is not communicable, right? It’s just a skin rash. In the locker room, I took a picture of the sign, and that’s when I noticed it also says “No person with a skin infection allowed in the pool”. Ooopsy!

I rationalized that my skin was not infected, it’s just an allergic reaction. The rash was well beyond that icky oozing phase that is characteristic to poison ivy. And it doesn’t look THAT bad, does it? I really needed this swim, I had already paid my $3…so, I wrapped a towel around my waist and entered the pool area. I tried to get into the water quickly, and didn’t linger at the wall between sets. I wanted to keep moving, hoping that no-one would notice. I had a lane to myself, and the lanes on either side of me were also empty, at least until the very end of my workout.

I had a great swim. When I got home, I took a picture of my rash. When I look at this picture, I regret having gone swimming. Even tho I know it’s not contagious, the gross out factor is just too much. I wouldn’t have wanted to swim in the lane next to me! I hope it looks alot better by next weekend. I may have to bail on the Riverwood race. I don’t think I could bear the embarrassment of standing in a pool start swim line, with this rash on my leg! And I don’t want to gross out 500 triathletes! I will gross out all my blog readers, tho. LOL!