Logistics

I have been battling hives for a little while now.  In mid-February, I woke up on a Thursday morning with hives all over my legs.  About a week later, they exploded and were all over my stomach, arms, chest, back, everywhere.  It was miserable.

I already go to the allergist regularly so I just asked him about it, and the basic advice was to increase my antihistamine daily dosage until the hives went away.  So for a while I was on two Zyrtecs and one Allegra a day, plus calamine lotion everywhere, and it finally went away after about 5-6 weeks.  I'm currently kind of battling a comeback - since they 'went away' I've had some mornings or evenings where they will appear again, but only as a shadow of their former selves.  Yesterday and today though have been a little more steady.  Yuck.

Anyway, when someone has hives, people tend to impart two gems of advice:

1) DON'T ITCH!

So annoying.  Even some of the students I work with, who saw me scratching constantly, would tell me not to scratch or even swat at me when I was absentmindedly itching.  And to that I say: forget that.  You try not scratching where it itches somewhere, when 80% of your surface area itches.  Scratching a wrist is nothing.

2) Take an oatmeal bath!

Okay, great!  Simple solution!

... until you actually turn on the bathwater and are about to pour in a cup of oatmeal.  What?  This can't be right.  Big fluffy oatmeal flakes going down tiny drainholes... it doesn't make sense.  What are the logistics of taking an oatmeal bath?

Well, in case you have ever wondered, here are the instructions:

It's that simple.

Take a cup of oats.  They can be whole rolled oats, organic, or even the quick oats that your neighbor gave you when she moved out two years ago and you forgot you had.

Whirl it through the food processor until it is really fine.  I think I had my whirler going for 2-3 minutes, and I started with quick oats!

Then run your bathwater to the temperature you want it, and dump in your whirled oats!  Do a little stirring with your foot and let it simmer a bit, and then you are good to go.  It should wash right down the drain when you're done!