Now You Know Who To Blame!

From as early as I can remember until my mid twenties I itched, and sneezed a lot. And I could never breathe through my nose. You guessed it...I was plagued with allergies. All my siblings were as well. Claire just had hay fever, Georgia had serious asthma, even as a baby, AND she had eczema, and as for me I had hay fever and eczema. The front of my elbows, my wrists, behind my knees, and sometimes the back of my neck. And oh how it could itch. My mom and my dad were always telling me to quit scratching, but tell me, especially if you've ever had a case of hives, an allergic rash, or even the chickenpox, how you cannot help but scratch. I know I couldn't and didn't, as hard as I tried. I really wanted to be obedient to my parents. Sometimes I would scratch (my parents called it "digging") until I would bleed. It felt SO good! I would scratch a lot at night while I slept and my sheets would be covered with blood in the morning. When I was in my teens and had learned to control the scratching during the day (I would just rub), I had my mom tie my hands together at night so I couln't scratch. It's not too comfortable to sleep that way, but it was worth it not to wake up bloodied in the morning. You ask, wasn't there something thay could be put on the skin to help the itching? There wasn't much other back then but baking soda or calomine lotion. Neither helped that much or that long.

One time when I was about twelve years old, my whole face swelled and turned bright red. If you held your hand a few inches from my face you could feel heat radiating. I was miserable. Obviously I had had an allergic reaction to something. We didn't go to the doctor much when I was young, but this time I was taken. The doctor told us of somthing brand new that was still being tested, but was supposed to be helpful in treating allergies. That something was Cortisone. It only came in tablet form to be ingested, but the doctor recommended trying to mash the tablets to a fine powder and dissolve them in a neutral cream which could be purchased in the drug store, and then spread it on the skin. I was ready to try ANYTHING and so was my mom.

The redness and heat of my face soon went away but a a waxy crust formed making it difficult for me to talk or smile without it feeling like my whole face would crack. Sleeping at night was like lying on a pillow covered with cracker crumbs. AWFUL! I remember my mom trying to make me feel positive about this whole experience by telling me that when it was all over, I would have all brand new beautiful skin on my face...skin that most girls would die for. I told her she'd better be right. There just had to be something good come from all this. With the help of prayer, priesthood blessings, and Cortisone, the old hard skin flaked away, and TA Da,there was my new beautiful skin.(It didn't last long as I entered those "wonderful" years of puberty."

My eczema was somewhat better as I grew older, but I would still have frequent outbreaks even after I was married. I will always be grateful for Dunford Bakery in Salt Lake for hiring me knowing my problem. I worked for them several years while I was in high school, and when I would have a breakout and I was scheduled to work, they would let me work in the back filling cookie orders, and putting cookies on trays for the display cabinets. Or if there were not cookies baked that day, the would find something for me to. Eczema is not contagious, but it's not something customers want to see when being waited on. So if you ever drive down 21st So. into Sugarhouse, stop by and patronize Dunford's. That is the one I worked at for about three years.

Now about that stuffy nose. I never remember being able to breathe through my nose until I was twenty-two or three. Again, my parents would always tell me as a little girl to close my mouth when I breathed. I just couldn't understand how to do that. If I tried to close my mouth, I couldn't breathe at all. Practice didn't help much either as I tried to get enough air by just opening my mouth a crack. I wondered hjow other people could do it without opening their mouths at all. It was a while before I realized that you should be able to breathe through your nose, but I sure couldn't. I'm sure at some time my folks had to realize that something was wrong...something more than just allergies... but nothing was said or done. And I wasn't one to complain. I'm sure there just wasn't the money to take me to a specialist. Going through the dating years was kind of tough, however. Have you ever tried to kiss a date good-night when you can't breathe? Covering up your eczema with ong sleeves is one thing, but a stuffed-up nose is just a lttle much.

It wasn't until I married Grandpa that I went to a nose specialist. We didn't have money either because he was in school and I was a stay-at-home mom. But he insisted. The doctor said that not only was my nose broken at some time causing some of my problem, but that I had the largest polyps growing in both nostrils that he had ever seen. He removed the polyps and restructured my nose, and for the first time I could breathe. I will never forget how it felt having air go through my nose. It felt like they had drilled two large holes in my head and air was gushing in. It was wonderful!

By my mid twenties and after several major outbreaks that landed me in the hospital, I finally outgrew the the eczema. Even the scars that developed from all the scratching disappeared. And I can breathe with my mouth closed unless I have a cold or a bad case of hayfever, neither of which is too often. HOWEVER, in my mid forties I had my very first ever asthma attack. Oh, well, That was a whole lot better than itchy skin and not being able to have a nice long kiss from your Grandpa.

So all of you who inherited allergies, you know who to blame...Grandma