Odessa

It sucks when your own body betrays you. And even worse when the doctors don't realize when they are outside their expertise.

To understand why I am thankful, one needs to know how low my life got. It started with an itchy leg and the grand finale was a rash/hives that encompassed nearly everything from my neck to my ankles. The itching could make me go insane at times, the burning sensation made most clothing painful, the swelling made it hard to move and parts of the "rash" were down right gross. I realize it could have been worse, but it was pretty bad.

Then there was the medical interventions. The cream for a fungal infection did nothing. Stopping one medication did nothing. The antibiotics, topically and orally, helped. Stopping another medication helped, but I was still a mess. The scabies treatment made it all worse, much worse. My doctor finally gave me a referral (needed by my insurance) to a dermotologist, who shook her head at everything my doc put me through. The final diagnosis? Idiopathic dermatitis - In other words, a rash that appears after I have a problem on one part of my body. The goopy steroid ointment is a modern miracle. The rash is less itchy and I don't look like a human balloon.

Will I ever know what started it all? Probably not.

All I can say is I am thankful to have my life back - for every step to not hurt, to make it up and down the stairs without a death grip in the banister, for my clothes to not be devices of torture, to actually have ankles and feet again.

I am thankful for many things that others take for granted.