Mystery solved?
I think I finally know why I’ve had this itchy red rash… spreading around randomly, seeming to get better then appearing in a bunch of other places… for 9 weeks. It acted like I had poison oak oil on something in the house, but the rash didn’t look like poison oak, to the doctors, either. The regular doc shrugged and shot me in the butt, which did nothing.
At 6 weeks, mom left a message that boiled down to “maybe your bee stings are caused by nickel on the plants in the yard” so I wrote her off as having any useful info, although I am allergic to nickel.
After 9 weeks of this, of talking to my mom and having her ask the same questions about diet and stuff, she calls and leaves a message, she finally remembered she’s allergic to lanolin. I found no reference on the net until after my mom mentioned it. I googled rashes for weeks and never saw lanolin on the lists of allergens. Now, when I google “lanolin allergy” I find it. This is probably the only useful info/advice from my mom in my adult life…
Lanolin is in the stuff they recommended for radiation and I think I developed an allergy. Every time I used something else, it got better. When that ran out and I used the goo til I could get to the drug store, it got worse, and spread wherever the goo went…
Nice to know what it probably is. Now I just need it to go away.
I’m laundering everything that is coated with the damn goo…
I suggested I buy all new clothes and my husband said “okay”. I was surprised cause I was joking but he said “it would fit you, you haven’t bought anything for a long time… it’s not like ‘let’s go *shopping!*” Gosh I love him 
I’ve just gotten over a rash that occurred on my radiation site (completed 6 months prior). Turns out it was a fungal infection, and it spread to my back and down to my rear end. My radiation oncologist said it’s pretty normal for skin treated with radiation to be susceptible to fungal infections for a year or so after – add the compromised immune system from chemo, and voila, you have the perfect setup for fungus. Lovely.
My doctor had me use Lamisil cream and hydrocortisone cream mixed together 2xD for nearly four weeks before it finally cleared up.
Good luck!
jkm
Thanks. It seems to be clearing up again. Hopefully it will stay gone, now that I’m not rubbing the allergen in at random intervals :-p
Good luck to you too!
Hmmm, that was interesting. Looks like somethings will always remain mystery.
I myself has been trying to solve the mystery of the legend that forces you to have “earn it before
having it”, for a wile now. Could not understand much though.
Let me know in case you get to understand the mystery of the
Deleted Spam Link.
By the way, good writing style. I’d love to read more on similiar topics
… Huh?
Spam says you have interesting topic. Spam says your topic has good writing style.
LOL. I’m glad you solved your mystery rash. I never would have though of a lanolin allergy either.
Hah. It looked spammy, but the linked blog looked like it might be a “real person”. BUT I got exactly the same comment from it, again, so… spam likes me, spam really likes me!
Thanks. I hope it’s the lanolin, and I hope it finishes soon. It’s nice to have the mystery solved but my damn toes itch now… I remember when they were dry a while back and I dumped allergen-laden goo on them… :-p
Congrats on figuring it out! That doesn’t happen often. Hope it clears up soon–hell, I hope it’s gone by now.
Thanks. I want my 9 weeks back, but it could have been much worse:
Allergic to Lanolin
It’s close to gone everywhere. It hit my feet badly, near the end. I remember getting dry toes and putting the damn Aquaphor on them. It hit my soles and palms last, and lightly, except when I irritate it by scratching. So… Almost gone but my damn feet still itch…But at least the rest of me is almost back to normal.
Wow. Just wow.
Obviously I can’t give advice, but I thought I’d mention that I generally use aloe, and Walgreens has one that contains only aloe gel, no additives. If you’re searching for something it might be an option, though I’m sure your doctor has warned you about doing patch tests with any new products.
Good luck. A lanolin allergy will probably be a bit of a pain, but hopefully shouldn’t be unmanageable.
[...] new stuff I just bought in my latest drug store trip that same day. Sigh. Am I allergic to beeswax in addition to lanolyn? Cetyl alcohol? Isopropyl palmitate? Each of these things has 25 to 50 ingredients, even the [...]