Month: August 2015

During the summer, I discovered a water blister right by my ear. A day or so later, I had another one by my nose, and then two under my eye. And when they dried up, then it’s a flaky patch. I felt pretty much like a leper.

This reminded me of the rash I would get from gluten and wheat. Dermitiis Herpetaformis, they call it. But usually the rash was on my elbows and knees and buttocks, not face. Could it be the return of the gluten curse? After a few days of halfheartedly giving up gluten (by that I mean, give up bread, but it’s ok to eat a cookie), I get serious and cut out gluten, because the face was just getting worse. I felt so very ugly and it’s a very itchy and painful situation, too. By Friday, I had had it. I sent this message to Ryan,

“I didn’t get a great response to the chime choir sign up this morning. I don’t know why I get my hopes up. I feel gross, my face hurts and itches, and I’m terribly irritable. (I got an appointment with the derm doc on Wed. I may have to sequester myself inside and not go out into public from now until them, though.) I get home to find the kids doing what else, but lounging on the couch with the tv on. No one did any of the things I asked them to do. I’m about to cry.

And maybe so you’ll feel sorry for me and buy me some pretty shoes. ”

Yeah, I’m pitiful. But by Monday, the rash had started to clear up. Tuesday was even better, with no new blisters. Maybe it really is the gluten. Should I still go to the dermatologist? Yes. I should. To ask him if it was what I think it is, at the very least.

Today was the day of the dr visit. New doctor in a different building, but I found it ok. After I checked in, I went and sat down in the waiting room and took out my kindle to read. I only got through about two pages before they called me back. I followed the nurse to the exam room, told him a bit of my story, and said I had a mole thing to check, as well. He went out and got the doc. Immediately. Seriously, I didn’t even have time to read at all. Wow!

The doc came in. He’s one of those people with a presence. Tall, nice looking, and smiley. He looked at the weird thing on my ankle and dismissed it as not anything to worry about (scar tissue, basically), and then I told him about my face rash. He got right in close to look at my nose, eyes, cheek, and said he didn’t think it was associated with gluten. He said he’d give me a steroid cream rx that should take care of that immediately. Then he looked at the age spots on my face.

Yes, AGE SPOTS. Although he said they were from the SUN, not from AGE. Trying to be nice, that one. “I can zap those spots, he said, Freeze them, actually,” And he whipped out a gun thing and aimed it at me. “Oh, we’re doing that right now?” I said. I was a little unprepared for his efficiency. “This will just hurt a little bit,” he said and then sprayed that freezing air or liquid nitrogen or whatever it was at those spots. Yeah, it hurt, but not terribly. He told me that these spots will turn red, and then eventually fall off, and there will be new white skin underneath. Cool! I’ve hated these spots on my face for a long time. I wonder if it works on hands, too. So, for now, I have darker spots on my face. Makeup doesn’t really cover them, but I’ll try.

Not sure if I should continue with the gluten free (I ate bread today) or not.

I was so sad that I couldn’t audition for a play this summer. With a family vacation and exchange students and bells concert it just didn’t seem possible. So, I volunteered to help backstage with Mary Poppins. Natalie was in the show and that way I could still be a part of the fun, but without all the weeks and weeks of rehearsals.

Being a cast manager was interesting. It’s a lot different to see a play from the wings, especially with a headset on. The first time I was on coms it was exciting and kind of fun, but also stressful. Anytime the director comes on and says “Cast manager, there’s a problem with….” it’s something I have to either take care of when that person comes off stage, or find someone who can take care of it. There were always 3 cast managers there each show, and we were in charge of managing the cast. Mostly, that means cueing people, helping with costume changes for the leads, making sure vital props for Mary are there, taking care of emergencies, and getting the vast amounts of kids to their places on time. I loved listening to all the cues that were going on (Cue scrim, cue track 110, parlor, go). So much goes into making a show look and sound good. If it were just the actors on the stage, the show would be so boring (and no one could see or hear them). I have a deepened respect for the stage crew!

On Saturday night I was on the headset again, and a few things didn’t go quite so well. Bert’s pants were rolled up funny at the cuff…fix that.
Why isn’t Winifred’s mic working well? See about that.
We seem to be missing a prop…find that.
Michael has No energy. Cast manager, talk to him about that, see if you can get him to be less distracted. Ugh. The little boy playing Michael is super cute, but he gets distracted. He says all his lines, and he has a lot, but sometimes he’s lacking in enthusiasm. So, when the kids came off stage, I said, “You guys need some ENERGY!” I gave them both jolly rancher candies I had in my pockets. Big mistake. I didn’t realize they were going right back on stage. Ugh!
Cast manager, did you talk to Michael about energy? Now he seems to have something in his mouth. I was so embarrassed, I didn’t admit my mistake right then, but you can bet as soon as that scene was over, I held out my had to them to spit that candy back out! I told the lead cast manager my mistake. “Oh, I’m in trouble,” I told her what i had done. “Oh, I gave them mints the other day and they did the same thing!”
That made me feel a tiny bit better, but I still felt so very stupid and guilty.
After a few more scenes, Jane comes off bleeding. “I’m bleeding all over my costume!” She panicked. I knew I had band-aids there at the desk, but in the dark I couldn’t get them open fast enough. I ripped a couple open and slapped them on her arm. It took three band-aids to cover up the bleeding part. She had injured herself earlier on a scateboard, and when she fell on stage (part of the dance), she opened that wound. Luckily, she only had one scene until intermission, when we could bandage her properly, clean the blood off the dress, and get her set. Just a little bit stressful.

That night, I felt SO bad about my mistake, but I felt worse about not fessing up to it. I should have just said something right away. I couldn’t go to sleep until I wrote an email explaining to the director my stupid mistake. She actually wrote back the next day and said she laughed when she read it, and not to worry about it. (Sigh of relief).

As my assignment was nearing completion, I breathed a sigh of relief. I would so much rather be ON the stage than behind it, but it was a good experience.

Ryan and I took a quick trip to Ephraim last night. Megan’s car is still being worked on (long story there which I don’t want to go into), and she wanted to make sure she and her bestie are rooming together. We are trying to figure out how to get her down there for school.

So while she was working her last shift at Wendy’s, we took her stuff down to her new apartment. We were pleased to find that, even though the other 4 girls had already moved in, they had left one room vacant for Megan and Sarah. Two of the girls have been there for two weeks already. One is on the student council, and one is a manager for the football team. The apartment was clean, and the two girls we met seemed nice.

I’ve loved having all 5 kids here for the summer, and I hate to send them away. It doesn’t get easier.