So as you all know I went away to the Med for quite some time. I love love love getting a chance to jet off, submerge myself in salt water and relax (well almost, I was still blogging and working on other projects too.) However, not only am I a redhead in a tropical country, I also have very sensitive skin. This was also an issue when I was young which seemed to plateau in my teens and in my early twenties I'finding its came back.
So in my late teens I suffered severely with prickly heat every time I was abroad. I have now managed to tackle that as well as having contact dermatitis in cold weather and eczema from stress. Think its safe to say I need to live in a temperature controlled bubble for my skin to be safe ha!
So this time I went away, it was extremely hot as usual and it was lovely. I was using
Simple sun cream in factor 50 to protect my skin and the factor 50
Simple sun cream for tender places on my face. But on morning I woke up as normal, had breakfast..... then starting itching... and scratching. Just randomly all over my body.
So I needed to really figure out what was happening to me because I didn't want it to affect my time away too much and wanted it to clear asap. Initially it looked like hives (which I have never had before), but then some of them looked like insect bites, but I was also questioning what I had eaten too. The bugs out there can leave you with a nasty bite so this was a possibility and I'd also drank a new fresh fruit juice which I'd never had before.
Luckily I have a few friends who are doctors so I contacted them as soon as I could, described the symptoms and then sent photos of what I was seeing on my skin. Now I have a friend who gets hives just from exposure to the sun and I was praying I now wasn't allergic to the sun!
Diagnosis showed that these were most likely an allergic reaction (or hives) to insect bites. I found this very odd because I have been travelling since my early teens and been bitten before but never a reaction like this. I was advised to treat them with antisceptic cream and apply topically. I did initially apply sting ointment and only one of them stung which I thought strange. I still wasn't sure they were bites but I kept away from the fruit juice and was careful of what I ate. They eventually cleared up (I had a huge one on my leg I just couldn't shift.)
Then they cleared and in my last week I noticed a mosquito in my room - despite the mosquito nets the little crafty insect! And then I woke up again with the same thing!! And applied insect ointment and only a few stung. So what I realised is that only a few of them are actual insect bites.... they were itchy. All of the others were hives, which is an allergic reaction and an inflammation to certain substances. It can also be triggered by exposure to heat or cold or infection among other things. Sometimes the cause is a complete mystery.
I know this is a bit of a strange one but I hadn't experienced myself and I did find myself a little frustrated that now I have something else to watch out for regarding my skin.... but its better to know and how to treat it in case I do suffer this again. I'm not claiming to be a doctor folks, so if any of you experience similar things I would recommend seeking professional help and treating as they say. Just thought I'd put this post out because bloggers are known for their impeccable presentation of themselves and flawless images but we are all human too! I do apologise for quality of the images, I didn't really expect to do a post on this but thought it may be useful to put out there and let you all know that we all go through stuff like this at some point...
Until next time...
X
