A Picture-Perfect Specimen

I have been so tired lately. I thought it was just stress, work exhaustion, and the fact that I hadn't seen the sun for nearly two weeks. But then on Friday night, I discovered spots.

And not just spots but blotches too, and they were all over my arms and legs. Of course they itched horribly, because my skin likes to irritate me whenever possible. On Friday night I was really too tired to care, and I went to sleep hoping they might magically disappear.

I woke up Saturday thinking that I had only dreamed about having large, angry looking red blotches on my arm. But I only had to look at my arms to know that the spots were all too real.

All day Saturday I itched. I slathered myself in hydrocortison cream and hoped for the best. But it was hard to be hopeful when it was raining and dreary for the 9th or 10th day in a row. I was feeling very depressed about everything. And what's worse, when I went into the office to work on the annual appeal database, I couldn't get the damn program to work. And our IT geniuses had locked me out of the server computer so I could restart the program database server.

I was supposed to go to the library and grocery store after my time in the office. But it was pouring rain, and I was too tired - and tired of getting drenched - to drag myself anywhere but home. I catnapped, sometimes with the cat, for the rest of the day and night. It was a dreadful, dreadful Saturday.

Sunday I briefly saw SUN! but then I went to Worcester to visit Kelly, and there was no sun in Worcester. It was nice to hang out with Kelly of course, but I was still really worn out, and my spots were transforming themselves into bulleyes - or "targets" as they are called in the medical world. I still had really itchy spots and continued to slather myself in cream as Kelly and I planned Halloween costumes.

Monday I woke up exhausted, as though I hadn't slept at all. I went to work in a foul mood, despite the bits of sunshine, and all of my efforts to be cheerful. My spots were so target-shaped perfect that it was freaking me out a bit, so I did some research. I had a "target rash" according to skinsite.com and the site suggested I see a doctor, as there were a million possible causes for the rash.

Of course lyme disease is known for it's target-like rash too, but there are other symptoms and I didn't have those. Plus, I've never been bitten by a tick. So, that was at least one thing I wasn't worried about.

In the end the nice doctor with the cute accent - and the other doctor she called in to ogle me (doctors are always fascinated by weird skin things) - declared it to be viral infection, a "systemic target rash" and of course, there was nothing to be done about it. They were beside themselves, though, over the picture-perfect nature of my rash. It was, one declared, "classic."

I have a "classic" rash. I have a photogenic rash. Wonderful.

As of right now, I think it's getting better. After sleeping away the day yesterday and last night, I don't feel exhausted! Hooray! And the targets are slowly fading away. I'm just praying I don't form any new ones.

I have no desire to a be a picture-perfect specimen.