When I was pregnant, I developed a really bad rash that covered my entire stomach and itched endlessly. It was so bad that I could only sleep in short increments because I would wake up with the desire to scratch. (This was probably just preparing me for a newborn!) Sometimes I gave in and scratched, which relieved the itchiness feeling, but then my stomach just burned all over. My sister-in-law, Kari, is a nurse, and I always called her with every little concern about my pregnancy (I still call her with every little concern about Caleb...sorry Kari, but you're so knowledgeable). She told me of someone she knew who had a PUPPS rash that develops during your 3rd trimester and lasts the rest of your pregnancy. There are lotions that provide temporary relief, but pretty much this woman was miserable for the last 3 months of her pregnancy. She finally got rid of it by the UV rays from tanning after the baby was born. The rash is most typical in women who are having their first baby.
Matt did some further research about it, and I felt it was exactly what I had. I just broke down and cried one night because the itching was so horrible, and I just couldn't imagine doing this for 3 more months. I told my family that I was suffering like Job, and that this was my "punishment" because I never had morning sickness. In all actuality, the rash lasted only 4 days (a miserable 4 days with having to go to school and teach!) and was probably only a reaction to the cocoa butter cream I was using to help prevent stretch marks.
So I have had another Job-like experience for the past 3 weeks. One Friday night I was plucking my eyebrows. As I was plucking, one of the hairs broke, which I find so frustrating. Not to be deterred, I continued to try to remove the hair. Finally I gave up because it was too far underneath the skin.
The next night as I was looking in the mirror, I noticed my eyebrow was a bit swollen. I pulled Matt into the bathroom to point it out, but did not think much of it.
Sunday morning when I woke up, I immediately felt my eyebrow, and knew it was bad news. Sure enough, my eyebrow was even more swollen. It took some artistic abilities with my make-up, but I felt I covered it pretty well for church. At church, I did everything I could to ignore people, or only talk with the right side of my face showing. :)
When we get home from church, we like to take a nap when Caleb does since we have early-morning church. At church, Matt had invited a new couple over to our house for dinner (he likes to spring these things on me last-minute...he forgets that women need advance notice for this stuff!), so when I laid down for a nap, I held ice against my eyebrow till I fell asleep. Unbelievably, when I woke up from my nap, it's worse! I told Matt to cancel dinner and that I didn't want to see anyone looking like I did. Matt, being a man, said it wasn't noticeable and wasn't a big deal. So we have our friends over for dinner, and I just suck it up hoping that they either won't notice, or won't remember by the next time they see me (I had hopes that it would be better by the following Sunday).
The following morning, Monday, was supposed to be my first day at Bammel Middle School for my internship. (I did the first half of my internship at an elementary school, but wanted a change of pace for the last half.) The librarian there came across in her emails as pretty particular about coming in on the days we agreed on. But when I woke up Monday morning, and had difficulty opening my left eye, I decided that it was time to see a doctor and cancelled the library for the day. Not only was my eyebrow swollen, but my eyelid was really puffy as well. It seriously looked like I had been in a fight...little did I know it would still get worse.
After spending three hours waiting to see a doctor (I won't be going to that place again!), the doctor gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way. Come Wednesday, there is no improvement; in fact my left cheek is now slightly purplish. I am doing my best to avoid going out in public, and if I have to, I wear sunglasses, but I needed to get my hours in for my internship. I had scheduled my hours so that I would be working right up until the last week of school, and I had already missed Monday. So again I sucked it up and braved the public as I went to work on Wednesday. (I was back at the elementary school for this day since the middle school librarian went to the TLA conference.) It was really, really hard! There were a lot of stares, but kids are just so honest. One kid just straight-up asked me what happened to my eye. Matt and I had worked on good stories to tell to try to make light of the situation. So I told him I got in a fight with a kid. "Can you believe a kid did this to me?" I asked him. The boy responded, "He must have been really tall."
After I finished the antibiotics, which took care of the purple coloring in my cheek and my puffy eyelid but not my swollen eyebrow, I was beyond frustrated. I had been going around like this for 2 weeks and was just so embarrassed. I felt like it looked like I had a huge pimple just below my eyebrow, but who gets a pimple there? I finally scheduled another appointment with a new doctor, but of course the soonest appointment I could get was 5 days away. With the help of a friend, I figured out what I think the infection was called, an abscess. It described my situation perfectly..."a tender mass generally surrounded by a colored area from pink to deep red." It is basically an infected hair follicle, which antibiotics won't take care of. It sometimes drains by itself, but generally needs to be lanced and drained by a doctor.
My doctor's appointment was two days ago, and I actually ended up cancelling it because the swelling has gone down a little bit each day. Now that it is almost better, I can look back more easily and laugh, but I learned two important lessons...
#1 Clean your tweezers frequently (we think that might have been a large part of the problem because Matt and I share tweezers)
#2 I realized just how vain I am and I obviously needed to be humbled in this area
I took pictures, but I'll refrain from posting. The next time you look in the mirror though, just take a moment to appreciate your nice, normal-looking eyebrows. I will from now on!
