Before going in on Monday, I wondered what it would feel like to have these panels taped to my back for 48 hours. Turns out it feels pretty much how you would expect that much tape to feel: itchy. But the patches were removed and read today, so I only have one more trip to the dermatologist's office on Friday before I can shower again! The bath thing takes way too long. Plus, I've ended up dumping a lot of water on the floor while washing my hair in the sink, and my upper back is perpetually sticky. Definitely looking forward to the shower.
I didn't end up having a reaction to the contact lenses or the solution, but since that part of it was a pretty ghetto experiment, I'm not sure how much to trust the results. I had a couple weak reactions to two of the other substances on the regular patches though, indicating that I have contact allergies to colophony (also called rosin, which comes from pine tree sap) and black rubber mix. I got some information sheets from the doctor to explain more about what these substances are found in and how I can avoid them. The black rubber mix is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case a patient is confused, the sheet has some handy advice:
In general, avoid contact with black and dark gray rubber. If an object looks like it is made of rubber and it is black, it will probably be a problem.
Colophony is a little trickier. It's in many cosmetics and several industrial products like adhesives, varnishes, asphalt, soldering materials, drive belts, and linoleum. Kinda makes you think twice about using makeup if it's equivalent to rubbing asphalt into your cheeks.
The sheets also have some advice on how to test a particular product on yourself to see if you're allergic - put a small amount on the same patch of skin every day for a week and see what happens. The sheets caution, however, that you shouldn't do this for things like varnishes, solvents, or RUBBER TIRES.
No comments:
Post a Comment