Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Only Me

My body likes to react to life in a variety of odd ways. This week's crazy illness is hives. I had them once before, when I lived in Minneapolis. That was much worse - I was miserable for three days. This is not as bad, presumably because I am already hyped up on tons of antihistamines for my allergies.

Why do I have hives, you might ask? Excellent question. After some thorough (and by thorough I mean "2 minutes on wrongdiagnosis.com") research, it seems I have these hives because I overheated on my long run Sunday night. That seems strange because I didn't get any hotter than usual, but I did run farther than I ever have. I can't think of anything new I was exposed to or that I ate recently, I am not experiencing any emotional stress that I am aware of, so I'm going with "overheating." I'm inclined toward this diagnosis also because it appeared in all the places where I was wearing clothes but not beyond. It's now spread and is at the moment delighting in torturing my elbows.

I shouldn't be surprised really. My doctor said I'm more likely to have allergic reactions to other things because my dust mite allergy is so strong. I guess I'll just wait for it to go away. In the meantime, I look a little freaky. We're going to the Discovery Centre right now - I think I'll wear a sweatshirt and jeans (thank God it's cool today!) so people don't eye me suspiciously, or run away screaming, "The Pox!!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gina,
I have a friend who also got hives when he ran. It was some type of reaction to his own sweat. As far as I know it only happened one time. Weird.

Rebecca said...

Hi Gina. Just a thought, but maybe you're allergic to running =) I think I am! That's why I never do it. . .

Also, for all your non-Singapore-dwelling readers, I feel compelled to clarify your comment about the weather: "cool" is a relative term. It IS cool today by Singapore's standards, but if you're from anywhere else in the world, the words for today would still be "warm" and "humid."

Hope the hives get better soon!

Gina Marie said...

I sure hope this only happens one time to me! I'm supposed to run 4 miles today for my training. I should have gone out this morning because it rained last night and still felt pretty nice even at 9 a.m. I might go run on the treadmill in the air conditioned gym, though running on a treadmill is BORING.

Rebecca, you're right about the relativity of temperature. After I posted that, I looked online and it said it was 81 degrees but "feels like 88" because of the humidity. It honestly didn't feel like 88.