There are all sorts of things we miss about Monterey, but one of the things we were happy to leave behind was the poison oak that plagued us every winter. Like clockwork, every October the identifying leaves would fall and the boys would somehow come in contact with the “dead” twigs that remained and pick up a fresh case of it. Horrible, horrible stuff.
It always played out the same way — a mystery “bug bite” that overnight turned into an explosion of rashes, swollen eyes and mouths, and ended with trips to the doctor for steroids, money spent on creams and scrubs to get rid of the oils, and a very unhappy mom who was always infected just as badly as the original victims.
So yea for desert climates and no poison oak! Except . . . it’s October 8th and for the past week Carter has had crazy itching, swelling, and rashes all over his body. We think it’s related to the rugby field because 2 weeks ago all the kids were itchy and red after practice, lasting even into the next day. But since practice last Sunday Carter has been miserable. His one eye has been swollen 1/2 shut, he has tiny blisters and a raised rash all over his torso and under his arms, and he can hardly sleep at night. Omani “benedryl” doesn’t seem to be helping, so for the past two days he’s been getting doses of Josh’s Allegra. The longer it goes, the more it looks like how his body reacts to poison oak. And I don’t know the source.
He’s never had grass allergies. He played on that field for 2 months when we first arrived and never had an issue. I’ve been getting these crazy bug bites where the swelling is the size of my palm and looks just like the bullseye rashes you get with lyme disease. Yeah, I looked it up using Google images — it looks just like it, but Lyme disease doesn’t happen here. Supposedly. So I don’t know if Carter is reacting to an exotic bug bite, a particular fertilizer that they use on the field, something that he’s eating . . . totally puzzled.
Especially since I’m now noticing vague allergy symptoms in the other kids and myself. Calvin has red patches on his face that have persisted for a month, in spite of the various creams I’ve tried on them. My mouth has what my sisters and I identify as “mango mouth” where my lips feel chapped and burning and I have tiny blisters above my upper lip. Even Caleb has had a similar rash to Carter after each practice, only not nearly as severe or as long lasting.
Josh seems to be the only one unaffected by the mysterious allergy thing we have going on at our house, but even he isn’t immune to the itching. He never gets bug bites, but he’s been getting eaten alive here and it’s driving him crazy. We left the poison oak behind in Monterey, but October 2011 has been just as itchy as Octobers 2008, 2009, and 2010.
I think it’s time to head back to 29 Palms . . .