This morning I made a horrible error. I gave in to temptation. I rubbed my eyes.
For some people that might be a normal part of the morning - "rubbing the sleep out of your eyes", Right?
Not for me.
When my allergies strike there are variations in severity. And all are available in One, or Two eye varieties.
1. OmiGOD! are you Alright? Do you have an Epi-Pen?!
(Both eyes nearly swollen shut, skin is bright red, generous wet and mucus-y looking discharge)
2. Wow, that's a nasty case of pink-eye.
(pink- red and inflamed with controllable leaking)
3. What's wrong/Why are/Have you been crying?
(puffy and getting red, minimal watering)
4. Didn't you get any sleep last night?
(I look like I spent the night before on a bender and didn't wash my face before running out the door)
I very rarely get #1 anymore, which is a ringing endorsement for the benefits of allergy shots. But when I was little it happened almost every time I played with a dog, or spent more than an hour in a house with one. I'm not sure if the runny nose that would follow was it's own reaction or just overflow from the eyes. Either way it would get to the point where I was just too itchy and miserable to stand it anymore, and I would be dosed with a Histafed. . . which would both help with the reaction and knock me out in 15-20 minutes. Which was even more awesome because I'd no longer be indulging in the vicious cycle of rubbing my eyes to stop the itching that felt like it was crawling into my brain, and enjoying the relief for a few seconds while super-irritated skin would take it's time re-filling with all the blood that I had just squeezed out. It was like punching down rising bread dough. The tears would congeal around the contaminants in my eyes and form thick ropy strands that I could feel every time I blinked. And my nose would run until I just held it pinched shut as hard as I could stand with a tissue. Good times.
# 2 still happens a couple of times a year. Usually when I'm drinking, or super-tired, or in some other way mentally incapacitated, and I RUB MY EYES. One rub won't make it this bad, but impaired judgement leads me to believe that "OOOoooh that felt sooooo good, doing it one more time won't hurt" . . . I've never had a case of pink-eye, but I've been told that I must be wrong about my allergies -that's positively pink-eye hundreds of times. . . I've never gotten an apology when hours (or the next day) later and my face is no longer possessed, for not believing me. And #3 is pretty frequent, because it's so easy to rub something that itches without thinking about it. . . I reeeeally hate it when it happens and I'm wearing makeup - because now not only have I ground mascara into my undereyes but they are now going to water and make it all so very much worse. Which is why on days like today I just don't wear any at all. It's hard to convince someone that you're really not crying if you're having to wipe tears away regularly. Even the waterproof stuff has it's limits. It's also lead to false accusations of being stoned, but lucky me this seems to be a one-eye at a time thing usually so pointing out that only one eye looks drug-addled ends it.
#4 is the fallout. When after being swollen and miserable it's like everything recedes and empties out. Like a concert venue after a show it looks all the more empty, injured and used.
I rubbed my eyes at about 9am this morning, and took this around 4. . . and put some tinted moisturizer, concealer, and powder on after I was pretty sure they'd finished running. I still resemble a character in a Tim Burton movie though.
A fun new variation is the make-up reaction. Whenever I've got a new eye shadow or liner I've got 2-3 uses that will be reaction-free. . . I don't know why, I haven't figured out what the ingredient I'm reacting to is yet. But the swelling will start at the outer edge of one or both eyes and sometimes it waits to show up till the next morning. If washing my face makes it feel like there's acid on my eyes something is getting tossed - which never makes me happy. Sometimes I'll push it and use the product a time or two more. But since every time the reaction is worse I know I'm risking having scabs for the next week on the inner corners of my eyes or just plain having lids that are so swollen they won't open very far. On the other hand the lack of itching and watering is so very welcome that I'm OK looking like Quasimodo for a few days. . .because no amount of antihistamines or cold-compresses are going to make a dent in that reaction. Weird.
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