Taking A Pit Stop

Warning:  What I am about to type may be considered whiney, but I will get to a point-I promise!

I have not felt like myself for probably over a month now.  I have been under quite a bit of work-related stress for several months, and it has started to take its toll on me.  Then when my hubby left for the missions trip to Haiti corresponding with the start of back-to-school and some other issues, I went into stress overload.  The stress has caused me anxiety-and I combated that by listening to praise and worship music to keep my mind focused on the good rather than the bad and by eliminating coffee and soda from my diet (which tends to increase anxiety).  Then, one day a couple weeks ago, I had been noticing that I had been extremely thirsty and was drinking probably 2 gallons of water a day (typical for me is only about 20 ounces), and my body was itchy all over.

I did what I always do when I have symptoms pop up:  I googled it.  And I saw the one word that I had long forgotten:  eczema.  I had it in high school, but it seemed to have disappeared.  The more I read, the more that I have become convinced it must be eczema: it tends to occur when the seasons change (yup-we have been having some cooler weather the past week or so), is brought on by stress (double-yup), and pushing yourself extremely hard during exercise aggravates it as well (guilty as charged).  I tend to take hot showers on days I don’t exercise, and that is another culprit.

So I did what I knew to do:  using lotion, trying (normally unsuccessfully) not to scratch, and taking Benadryl.  I am one of those people that usually hates to take medicine, so on the rare occasion I convince myself to take it, my body is not used to it, and has a more severe reaction to it than those more accustomed to it.  So when I took the Benadryl, it caused me to become extremely tired (I blogged about the fog I have felt like I have been in the other day).  After I had enough of the exhaustion (so much, in fact, that I had to get a ride home from work one day because I didn’t feel alert enough to make my commute), I decided that I would drink coffee.  Well, the coffee did what it does-it stirred up more anxiety in me.  Are you starting to see the vicious cycle?

So, I have decided that enough is enough!  It’s time for a pit stop to get life back in control!  I have not gone on a run since Sunday, so as not to push myself too hard.  (As soon as symptoms go away, I will resume where I was at.) And in order to avoid the caffeine, I am not taking any more Benadryl (unless there is a day that I will be at the house and taking a nap is not an issue).  It has been out of my system for 24 hours now.  I took a cool shower, and used lotion to keep the itching at bay as best as I can-I plan to purchase to good lotion tonight when I get off work.  Thankfully, my itchy-factor seems to be reasonable considering no Benadryl so far.  The tiredness has mostly worn off, and my anxiety seems to be under control!  So thankful God gave me the presence of mind to take a pit stop-and praying He helps me stick with it!