Feb. 19 updates

Feb 13: Changing my shirt greatly eased the itching along my abdomen and brought the redness down a bit, but it's still notably red. Slight itching above ears and on the scalp as it is affected by the back of my neck. Worst area is right shoulder; I'd poked the area and it hurt along the surface, like there was a pimple there. It's been days and the same pain is still present. Moving the skin around and poking seems to confirm that the pain has to do with a tiny ingrown-hair-sized surface bump that I can feel but not see much of (admittedly, partly due to its location). Wiped everything down with apple cider vinegar. There's a breakout of bumps around my right eye, only one of whom I can confirm is a pimple. I miss when these were rare. There's a similar bump on my left hand's middle index knuckle, looking like a bug bite but couldn't be one.

I hope this isn't a resurgence of the lymphoma and is just an unfortunate, reversible consequence of being a day late with my last shower. Things always seem to happen on Saturdays. Makes getting timely information to the few people interested in my status a week-long ordeal.

UPDATE: It is an inflammatory response, and a well-known one that I'd completely forgotten about since it's not an issue that I've had to deal with personally until now. I ate a few raw shiitake mushrooms along with some other fungi in a mixed experiment to help assuage my digestive problems (it worked). Raw shiitake are known to cause some nasty erythematous rashes in band patterns, exactly like the one that's grown on my shoulder and abdomen. It's itchy, kinda painful, and very reddish. Putting pure aloe on it seems to help a bit, as does eating fresh, raw turmeric.

If you ever want to get out of school or work, just eat a few raw shiitake mushrooms, but be aware that you can get the shits or fuck with your mucus membranes if you react badly to it. As much as I hate wine and the smell of it, I really like the similar smell and taste of raw shiitake. It took me 3 full servings to get a rash, so your mileage may vary.

Feb 14: Everything is very itchy, red, and hurts to touch. It's like a normal itch until you actually scratch the area, then (no matter how gently you do it) it feels like it's been rubbed raw with the edge of a huge, sharp blade and feels like you have no layers of skin left. I slept for a ton of time, which brought down the general itch, but didn't stop it from getting redder and spreading all across my upper body, limbs, hands, and face. Nothing quite gets you like red, itchy bumps on your eyelids and within your outer ear canal. It's also spread to my more sensitive areas, so any trips to the local WC are an experience in extreme care. It's added swelling to its repertoire around my shoulders and neck. The right side of my neck in particular has evolved from a small, zit-like contact-pain to a swollen mess that throbs upon contact. I'm not even going to comment on what my face looks like beyond "every disease seems to be determined to make sure it tries to mess with what I look like in some way". It feels like someone glued sandpaper to it from my forehead down. Also it's definitely on my scalp and rather itchy there when touched. The abdominal redness is still the worst overall, and looking at the location it seems to be because of the contact of my pants' waistband with my hips/stomach. It's not tight at all, so perhaps the constant touch/rub of the fabric is keeping it unhappy; I'll try wearing something tighter or switch to a robe. When I press upon the swollen left neck area, I can feel an enlarged lymph node in there. I think it's just a result of the general swelling in the area, so hopefully that goes down. Seems like whenever shtf, my right neck and shoulder are the first areas to get hit.

Feb 15: The intensity of the redness has gone down, but the more uniform pink replacement has spread to nearly everywhere. Most of the discomfort is centered around my hands and just below the belt (not on THAT area specifically, which thankfully only has a minor presence), and unfortunately includes my ass cheeks. You know, for that added primal cavebilly feeling whenever you catch yourself about to unconsciously and futilely scratch your ass. All I can think is that it's a good thing I have no general over-arching compulsion for any variety of fap like certain members of some chats I'm in. This one hentai VN motherfucker would probably shrivel up and blow away if he were in this position, and if he's reading this I fully welcome the ribbing that this indirect mention will result in (fucking fight me you low-T degenerate coward). As it is, it just causes some easily-ignored level of discomfort in the bathroom.

My limbs and right leg in particular are covered in petechiae through this, with the left just kinda... swollen. I've put a binding on it as a precaution, but this seems to be confirmation that this toxic reaction got my poor immune system involved. My fingers are all knobbly and uncomfortable including the fingertips; it's like a more advanced version of the weird allergic reaction I'd get working retail in summer. I can also feel it on my tongue a little. The swelling seems to be going down by quite a bit. Some of the drier bumps are beginning to kind of just... fall off. Spent most of the awake portion of the day organizing files I've been too distracted to touch; freed up about 500GB on my hard drive.

 

Feb 16: Neck no longer painful to touch. That small, initial "zit" pain is still SORTA there but not very strongly. More like an echo as it fades, and I have to dig around to even find it. I can't feel the lymph node on my right neck anymore no matter how much I press, so it seems to have gone down. My face is still a bit swollen and definitely way more dry than it should be. The general pinkness across the body is fading more, nearly absent in all areas except my face and legs (my stomach has faded, but switched to a purplish color instead of pink, kaing it look like scars at a distance). Where my right leg connects to my hip is really uncomfortable, like it needs to be cracked bad, but the cause seems to be a swollen lymph node in that area. These are nodes that are the most frequently swollen, and in come cases permanently enlarged, in regular folk due to all of the bacteria that live around your crotch. Like the nodes on my neck, they don't seem to have enlarged more than what's usual for a healthy swelling. It's around where the worst of the redness terminates from my abdomen downward, so it's likely related to that. Looking around, shiitake toxic reactions can cause lymphatic swelling in people, so my initial "this is temporary" feeling seems to be correct. Let's hope it continues being so.

 

Feb 17: Switching to the softest waistband I have seems to have helped equalize the abdominal area. It looks less like I've been whipped soundly across the contact area and is fading into a more general-area pink. The area around my nose and mouth is still pretty discolored. Heavy moisturizing both makes it feel better and sting like a thousand angry scorpions. The corners of my mouth have the same bruised tone as the other bad areas did, which is weird. Just looks like I had a bad case of acne or something.

Feb 18: Still look like shit, but most of the rash across the body is gone. There's lingering pink spotting, along with a lot of petechiae on my limbs and the middle of my chest, but it no longer feels like I've removed my own skin every time I touch any part of me. I can't feel the lymph node down below anymore, but all along the major channels of my lymphatic system feel sore, all the way up to the back of my head. I've been kind of kneading the neck and shoulders to both keep some of the bullshit down and feel for more swelling.

Feb 19: Still some petechiae on my face, chest, and limbs. There was a deep, under-skin itch that worked its way through my body, starting at my left shoulder and working its way down into my chest and stomach, so I got to play the game "is it Hodgkin's again or is it just lentinan poisoning?" Dry skin on face is dusting off. Had the unique experience of needing to brush my eyebrows with a toothbrush, though the skin wasn't dry in that case. Still getting occasional, random stabbing pains under the ribs and around the abdomen. It doesn't seem connected to any one activity and you can never predict when they'll occur.

EDIT: Nevermind, found the lymph node in my left hip-leg crux again. It's just not swollen to the point of pain anymore. That said, the itching in the middle of my chest over where the biggest tumor was, as well as the ache in my left shoulder joint, don't seem to want to abate.