STOP THE ITCH

How long has my skin been itchy? I'm not sure. It seems to me that since this summer, I keep looking for the Aveeno assortment and benedryl creams we used to have -- finding only calamine lotion, which seemed awfully messy for lazy me. So I bought Benedryl Gel -- 4 oz! before going to Costa Rica.

But, because Benedryl has something in it that I'll probably be reducing -- propylene glycol? I think that's the estrogen mimic in it -- I didn't use it until the NIGHT OF THE CALVIN KLEIN WOOL NIGHTGOWN.

But now I'm itching like crazy. How / why? Well, it is very interesting:

I had some lymph nodes removed.

A side effect of having lymph nodes out -- or swollen, or damaged, or -- is itching. All body, non-rashy, itch. Can you find this info? Unfortunately, only on the lymphoma pages. So I'm going to put some stuff here:

The estrogen system is: estrogen made; estrogen broken down by liver; broken-down estrogen removed from body by healthy intestinal tract.

The lymph system is: liver, tonsils, spleen, thymus, lungs, bone marrow. Symptoms of lymph problems: fever, night sweats, itchy skin.

DUH. This itch is not from the small scars healing (they are, but they don't itch). This itch is not (well, hopefully) Hodgkin's Disease or NHL. It is not dry skin/dry air from being in surgery or turning the heat on now it is cold outside. AND IT IS SUFFERED BY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WHO'VE HAD LYMPH NODE BIOPSIES. See? Cause - Effect. Sure, lymphodema might be a serious side effect I might have. But the minor one I have right now is that just by having a dozen or so nodes missing, I have an ITCH. THAT THIS IS A FAIRLY NORMAL THING TO EXPERIENCE IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. Well, here it is: when you go to the pharmacy to get more dressing for your lovely and attractive drain (like all the crappy drains around here, I had to basically "snake" this one to get it working, too!), get some REALLY STRONG anti-itch cream -- not the namby pamby stuff in cosmetics. AND FEEL NORMAL, not like you might have NHL (well, I am afflicted by national hockey league, but that's something else).

For me, going to the scary sites was interesting, though, because, as I mentioned, I had a teeny tumor (all gone!) and no one expected this lymph thing. But I did have mono TWICE as a child. I do have immune problems (severe allergies). Thewy have a tie to the environment, the environment I was in when I had mono twice. I had such severe tonsilitis/strep/scarlet fever until I was about 30 that they kept my tonsils IN, and my throat's been a bit sore since Friday -- nothing terrible, and again, no sign of infection, inflammation -- but another sign of a lymph system adjustment.

And how is lactic acid involved, exactly?