Wednesday 4 June 2008: Heidi is too sensitive and Sarah's underarms are sensitive so she is too sweaty and smelly...

Sarah says:
My underarms are sensitive. I got a round rash around the outside of them last week and it's still sort of there. Going away, but still kind of burning itchy and a bit bumpy now where as before it was smooth. It's not from shaving because it's on the outside. The Internet doctor sites and forums make me think it's a fungus or something! Yuck! Anyway - to ease it a little, I have sort of stopped using deodorant and all that stuff except for a tiny roll of it just in my pit area. And the consequence is that I am more sweaty than ever (even more sweaty!!!!) and that I smell a little! I rarely smell! If I am kidding myself and I actually do smell and nobody tells me, please tell me because man I would really hate to smell! I do what I can to not have a smell! But today I even stink! My poor underarms....

Heidi says: I am finding out year after year that I am very sensitive. In any way. When I was about two years old, my parents saw that I had red stains in my armpits and knee cavities. That was the beginning of my everlasting eczema. I don't have it in a very heavy way, but I have it, and it has been worse and better and worse again. I have used all sorts of cremes and ointments and some have helped and others haven't. At this point in my life, I am using Protopic when the eczema is coming up, and when it's gone, I stop for as long as it's possible. I take really good care of my skin. When I was 11, I was at a camp in the Belgian Ardennes, playing in high grass, and suddenly I could hardly breath anymore and had such red eyes that I could hardly keep them open anymore. That was the beginning of my hay fever. I still have it. In those same years, my parents had to put the cat outside, for my sake. The doctors found out that I was very allergic to the cat. Goodbye cat, and hello stress between all the family members. When I was 13, I went to the hospital because I had a belly ache every day. The doctors did test after test. They didn't find anything and called it: irritable bowel syndrome. i still have that, and in times of stress or lack of sleep, I suffer from it. Nothing you can do about it.
When I was pregnant, I had to lay down at 6 months. My uterus was too sensitive and Yma could have come too early because of it.
Yesterday, the rheumatologist told me that I suffer from muscle pain in my 'monk cap muscle'. That is the muscle that runs from the neck, over the shoulders to the middle of the back. He thinks it is a combination of stress and sitting wrong that provokes this. I have been suffering with it for more than seven months. There is not much I can do about it. I need to keep on exercising, stretch, use ointment and cherry pit pillows, and especially look at the the ergonomy of the workplace and try to improve it by letting a specialist in ergonomy check it out.

Now, that is what I call a sensitive person... It's amazing.... thankfully nothing is really wrong with me :). That's what the doctors say anyway. I will have to believe them. I do. For now!!