[5-15-2014] Worried (Day +2003)

The most annoying part about having Hodgkin's was the itchy scalp. For years, I had scratched my head until the scratching itself became a problem and I had to seek treatment for it.

• At first I thought I had lice, so I surreptitiously went to the local drug store and sheepishly bought a lice kit. When that failed, I believe I let the cat out of the bag and asked Barbara to check my head for the little critters. Nada.
• Next came the shampoos, if I recall correctly. I thought my condition might require some sort of fancy "therapeutic" shampoo or something. After all the OTC shampoos failed, I finally sought the help of a dermatologist. After that failed, the dermatologist attributed my itch to stress and recommended I look into ways to mitigate that (e.g., meditation). This didn't quite add up because, at the time, I wasn't really all that stressed about anything.
• At around this time, my skin began to itch as well. This caused me to come up with the "hard water" theory. Perhaps I was allergic to hard water or something. I looked into water softening, but that seemed like too much work, so I just paid attention to how I felt after I showered away from home. The same darn itchiness persisted!
• Then I found Benadryl. This worked perfectly, but left me in a semi-groggy state that wasn't really sustainable. Funny, I just now remember complaining to my sister about this as we were out clothes shopping or something. I said something like, "It works great, but it leaves me so darn sleepy!" At that point, I pretty much chalked it all up to allergies or something, and sought to just learn to deal with my overall itchiness.

Naturally, having an itchy scalp all the time isn't pleasant. You can scratch a little bit, but after a while, your head starts to get a bit sore. You've got to train yourself to stop scratching so you don't make things worse. This was quite difficult, as scratching comes naturally to me (e.g., while pondering something). Nevertheless, I trained myself to stop. When I found myself reaching up to scratch my head, I'd stop my self and pet my head instead, as one would pet a favored cat. It actually helped a bit to soothe my sore scalp. If that didn't work, I'd pour some water on my head, which always helped for a while.

This is why I'm worried. A few days ago, for the first time since I had Hodgkin's, I caught myself petting my head to soothe my poor over-scratched scalp. Over the years, I've learned to not panic whenever I itch because it was always transitory. It's never been like this, though.

I talked to my GP about the above, and she's not too concerned. Though she didn't really allow me to go into any detail about any of the above. She was concerned enough to recommend I monitor my temperature, get blood work, and to see a hematologist.

So I went home and took my temperature. It was 99.3. Naturally, I start listing my symptoms:

1. Itchy skin/scalp 
2. Tired after work. I mean, who isn't? But I have been feeling more tired lately, taking naps and stuff. 
3. Intermittent and very mild dermatographic urticaria. An interesting phenomena where you can write on your skin. For me, it usually is more apparent after drinking (done with that!), but I don't really worry about it because it so mild (i.e., Them: "Dude, when you scratch your skin, of course it's going to leave a mark." Me: "But it's more so than usual!" Them: "Uh-huh") 
4. Mild fever 

No night sweats though. Still, I'm officially worried. It's time to revisit my blog.