The RASH -- The Comfort Zone - The Sissy

What must it be like to be in, or under, fire? How do burn victims manage the minute to minute discomfort?

This morning I got a big rash of some sort. We think it was from something I ate. I think it was from somehow ingesting some of my husband's niacin supplement by accident. I've seen and heard from my husband and my son about the "niacin rush."

By the time I was aware of what was happening to me I was too uncomfortable to look it up on the internet. I went upstairs and took a cold shower. I got dizzy in the shower and lay on the bed with a fan blowing at my burning skin.

It started on my extremities-- hands, feet, face flaming red. It marched up my arms and legs like a red tide-- backs and fronts hot and burning and itching. As I tried not to think about it the heat moved to my torso. It took about half an hour for an ibuprophen to begin to take effect.

The rash left in the same order it had come- extremities first, torso last. It's about four hours later and I'm still pinker than usual and a tiny bit prickley. My face is still rosy-cheeked.

What a sissy I am compared to people lying in the burn unit, or on the battlefield with burn injuries! My discomfort went away in a couple of hours. No one had to touch me. I woke up from my nap later on and it was "history" as they say.

We have a neighbor who rides around in his wheelchair with his leg prostheses sticking out in front of him. He has recovered during the past year from burns over something like 79% of his body in an accident. I don't want to know what he knows. I'm not going out for fireman any time soon.

We are very lucky there are people like our friend who is a fire captain, and those guys who run into the forest fire zone when everyone else has been told to evacuate. And the guys who decided to be willing to be in wars for us. And our parents, who would likely have run into burning buildings to rescue us.

No mitigating ending for this blog. Just some thoughts and no good clues.

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