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playgroundlover22695
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02 Aug 2020, 8:05 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
playgroundlover22695 wrote:
Well it's at least good that you got a warm soothing bath and it went away. It probably relaxed your muscles a bit too. It's amazing you could make it home with safely with the itch assuming you drove.

In those days I took the bus to work, so there wasn't a safety problem. I don't suppose I'll ever know what caused the itching. Eurax apparently is a mixture of a scabicidal chemical and something to soothe itching, then there was the bath and all the scrubbing that would have entailed, so there's no way of figuring out which of those interventions (if any) did the trick. There are many known causes. That episode does seem to be different from the problem I have now, because it came and went so quickly, and I didn't have any more trouble till I was in my 40s. My best guess at the cause now is autistic hypersensitivity. It's also known that itching often gets worse with age, on account of the skin drying out as we get older. And even as a teenager I noticed that I seemed to itch more than most people, though it was never enough to induce me to get medical help, and wasn't a problem as long as I had the distraction of something interesting to do.

Makes sense. It always helps if you have something to distract you from the itching or perhaps ask the person sitting behind you in class to just give you a quick scratch over your shirt. You could also use a pen or a ruler too. That's what mom's always say about chicken pox. I don't remember having them since I was younger than 3, but most moms and doctors will say to put on PJ's and gloves on your hands and find something to do to distract yourself from the itching. Calamine lotion doesn't even work that great on mosquito bites so just finding a new distraction is best. Also sometimes I find it helps when you can't scratch it. I was doing podiatry treatments for planter's warts earlier this year. When you get it done in the office, they wrap your foot up in a few layers of sticky ace bandage after applying the medicine. You have to leave it on for a week even if you sweat and you can't wash it. Man, talk about ITCHY! Some nights I would wake up with intense itching under the bandage that's literally IMPOSSIBLE to scratch! You can't even stick something in there to scratch it because it will peel it off and ruin the treatment. So, I just layed there teary eyed and tried different things to get back to sleep. I would take deep breaths, try to massage (squeeze) my foot as best as I could, and use imagery with my eyes closed, trying to imagine my foot not itching. Sometimes, I'd wrap the blanket around it so as to "cushion" the itch. What they do in the office is fine. However, the seemingly unbearable itching that wakes you up at like 2AM is far worse than the pain of the warts. :roll:



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03 Aug 2020, 7:06 pm

playgroundlover22695 wrote:
Makes sense. It always helps if you have something to distract you from the itching or perhaps ask the person sitting behind you in class to just give you a quick scratch over your shirt. You could also use a pen or a ruler too. That's what mom's always say about chicken pox. I don't remember having them since I was younger than 3, but most moms and doctors will say to put on PJ's and gloves on your hands and find something to do to distract yourself from the itching. Calamine lotion doesn't even work that great on mosquito bites so just finding a new distraction is best. Also sometimes I find it helps when you can't scratch it. I was doing podiatry treatments for planter's warts earlier this year. When you get it done in the office, they wrap your foot up in a few layers of sticky ace bandage after applying the medicine. You have to leave it on for a week even if you sweat and you can't wash it. Man, talk about ITCHY! Some nights I would wake up with intense itching under the bandage that's literally IMPOSSIBLE to scratch! You can't even stick something in there to scratch it because it will peel it off and ruin the treatment. So, I just layed there teary eyed and tried different things to get back to sleep. I would take deep breaths, try to massage (squeeze) my foot as best as I could, and use imagery with my eyes closed, trying to imagine my foot not itching. Sometimes, I'd wrap the blanket around it so as to "cushion" the itch. What they do in the office is fine. However, the seemingly unbearable itching that wakes you up at like 2AM is far worse than the pain of the warts. :roll:

I remember the plaster cast I had on my broken leg for about 12 weeks. I was told not to poke anything inside it to scratch any itches, because of the risk of starting an infection. Somehow I managed to comply, though I don't remember any great problem with the leg itching. I've never been able to get any of those "imagination" tricks to work either on pain or itching, though I have noticed that sometimes an itch will go away by itself eventually. I agree that itching can be worse than pain - that's why I use that heat cream. It sometimes burns like mad if I apply it to skin that I've just firmly brushed (which is often the case because my first intervention is usually brushing, with the heat cream as a last resort if brushing doesn't work), but it's soon over and it's by far easier to stand than itching.

I used to have a cheesecloth shirt that had a great texture for itch relief - just the right roughness of texture to do the trick if I simply rubbed the spot with the material, while I was wearing it.



playgroundlover22695
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03 Aug 2020, 7:33 pm

That sounds like a nice shirt. And yes, imagination tricks don't work as well as you'd hope, but hey in the middle of the night when you're exhausted and almost in tears from the itching, you'll try anything.



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06 Aug 2020, 1:34 pm

I sometimes wonder if cheesecloth bedsheets would help. They might need to be weighted, then I could just scrape around inside the sheets. Probably not a cheap experiment though.



playgroundlover22695
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24 Jul 2021, 9:46 pm

They might help a little. Does your back frequently itch at night?



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25 Jul 2021, 6:53 pm

I get a bit of trouble from an itchy back, yes, but the dratted thing can strike anywhere. Used to be shins for a long time. Sometimes it's the tops of my feet. Currently it's my left armpit. Sometimes it's my ears or my scalp. I usually give everything that's itching a good scrub with a reasonably stiff brush just before bed, but the itch has a nasty habit of finding a body part I hadn't noticed. Luckily I'm often so tired at bedtime that I fall asleep before it gets a chance to keep me awake, and often when I wake it's miraculously gone.

I don't think I itch any more at night than at any other time, just that if I'm not sleepy enough then I start noticing it more than I do in the day when I've got other things to fix my attention on.



playgroundlover22695
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02 Feb 2023, 11:39 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
I get a bit of trouble from an itchy back, yes, but the dratted thing can strike anywhere. Used to be shins for a long time. Sometimes it's the tops of my feet. Currently it's my left armpit. Sometimes it's my ears or my scalp. I usually give everything that's itching a good scrub with a reasonably stiff brush just before bed, but the itch has a nasty habit of finding a body part I hadn't noticed. Luckily I'm often so tired at bedtime that I fall asleep before it gets a chance to keep me awake, and often when I wake it's miraculously gone.

I don't think I itch any more at night than at any other time, just that if I'm not sleepy enough then I start noticing it more than I do in the day when I've got other things to fix my attention on.


I find lately it's mostly my back that itches at night, right where I can't really scratch it. I find myself grabbing objects to use as a back scratcher. Tonight was a clean plastic fork. My skin is drier in the winter.



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03 Feb 2023, 9:23 am

playgroundlover22695 wrote:

I find lately it's mostly my back that itches at night, right where I can't really scratch it. I find myself grabbing objects to use as a back scratcher. Tonight was a clean plastic fork. My skin is drier in the winter.


I used to have that problem, until I started changing my sheets more regularly then it's gone. :) Also you can get a real back scratcher at the dollar store. I suggest sanding it down a bit at first if you don't want splinters.


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playgroundlover22695
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03 Feb 2023, 7:59 pm

y-pod wrote:
playgroundlover22695 wrote:

I find lately it's mostly my back that itches at night, right where I can't really scratch it. I find myself grabbing objects to use as a back scratcher. Tonight was a clean plastic fork. My skin is drier in the winter.


I used to have that problem, until I started changing my sheets more regularly then it's gone. :) Also you can get a real back scratcher at the dollar store. I suggest sanding it down a bit at first if you don't want splinters.


You make a great point about a real back scratcher. The problem is that whenever I'm out in a store, my back isn't itchy so I don't think about it. I only remember in the evening when I'm getting ready for bed and it starts up. Probably just dry skin. I'll have to add a back scratcher to my list.



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06 Feb 2023, 9:05 pm

I often wonder why my itching waxes and wanes so much, and why it moves around from body part to body part like it does. I'd love to know more about the cause and effect, but I haven't found much. Symptomatic relief from a fairly stiff brush and Theragesic cream (which often burns like mad for a while but tends to work quite well) are the only interventions I've found that do much good. I see there are a few dietary nutrients that can cause dry skin if there's a deficiency - vitamin A, B7, calcium - and it seems I'm low on those so I'll try increasing them. Otherwise all I can do is keep myself distracted from it via my usual habit of focussing very strongly on anything I can take an interest in. I'd rather just get up and do that if it strikes when I'm trying to sleep. Being underslept feels horrible, but that's going to happen anyway if I'm itching too much. I do notice that if I do fall asleep, the itching is often a lot less when I wake up.



playgroundlover22695
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06 Feb 2023, 9:52 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
I often wonder why my itching waxes and wanes so much, and why it moves around from body part to body part like it does. I'd love to know more about the cause and effect, but I haven't found much. Symptomatic relief from a fairly stiff brush and Theragesic cream (which often burns like mad for a while but tends to work quite well) are the only interventions I've found that do much good. I see there are a few dietary nutrients that can cause dry skin if there's a deficiency - vitamin A, B7, calcium - and it seems I'm low on those so I'll try increasing them. Otherwise all I can do is keep myself distracted from it via my usual habit of focussing very strongly on anything I can take an interest in. I'd rather just get up and do that if it strikes when I'm trying to sleep. Being underslept feels horrible, but that's going to happen anyway if I'm itching too much. I do notice that if I do fall asleep, the itching is often a lot less when I wake up.


Vitamins are a good idea. I also love it when my mom offers to scratch my back for me. I don't ask, but if I sit near her, she'll just start doing it sometimes. It feels really nice, but the problem is she's usually focused on watching TV at the same time, so she doesn't really focus her full attention on my back. She starts scratching a few random spots and then just when I get an itchy spot she stops for a minute. Then I have to say something like "go up and to the right a little" a few times before she says "What?" And then I repeat and she continues. I know her back scratches don't always relieve me completely of my itches, but I don't care because it's something she doesn't have to do and it shows her love for me. :wink:



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06 Feb 2023, 10:12 pm

I found out not long ago that I'm not the only person who rubs their feet together when lying down. Some people call it "cricket feet" because it resembles a cricket rubbing its legs to chirp. I read it's actually a normal self-soothing behavior but I think I do it because my restlessness and anxiety increase right after I go to bed, even if I was feeling neutral before, which I don't think is normal. But it is pretty calming. Unless I can't sleep. Then I'm moving my legs all over the place.



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07 Feb 2023, 5:05 am

playgroundlover22695 wrote:
Vitamins are a good idea. I also love it when my mom offers to scratch my back for me. I don't ask, but if I sit near her, she'll just start doing it sometimes. It feels really nice, but the problem is she's usually focused on watching TV at the same time, so she doesn't really focus her full attention on my back. She starts scratching a few random spots and then just when I get an itchy spot she stops for a minute. Then I have to say something like "go up and to the right a little" a few times before she says "What?" And then I repeat and she continues. I know her back scratches don't always relieve me completely of my itches, but I don't care because it's something she doesn't have to do and it shows her love for me. :wink:

Ah, the perils of trying to do anything right while watching TV. :(
Scratching doesn't usually help in my case, unless it's done with a brush. Sometimes it does, but usually not, and sometimes it makes it worse. And nobody else knows where to scratch me like I do, or how hard to scratch.



playgroundlover22695
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07 Feb 2023, 9:38 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
Ah, the perils of trying to do anything right while watching TV. :(
Scratching doesn't usually help in my case, unless it's done with a brush. Sometimes it does, but usually not, and sometimes it makes it worse. And nobody else knows where to scratch me like I do, or how hard to scratch.


For me, having someone scratch my back feels wonderful and almost puts me right to sleep. The key is that I need a complete back scratch under my PJ's with adequate pressure. Just a quick light once over in a few spots doesn't work well enough because the itches always move around my back. Today my mom started scratching my back again over my PJ's for a few minutes. Then I removed my shirt so she could scratch directly on my back. Within minutes I was laying face down across her stomach while she scratched and massaged my back up and down. It was absolutely amazing! After awhile I asked her if she wanted me to get up and then I said "Okay. Can you just please scratch my other shoulder one last time before I get up?" She did and then immediately fell asleep. I guess knowing her little girl's tired and itchy back was soothed helped my mom relax. I've also noticed that my mood changes too. When I first got home today I was tired, cranky, sad, and annoyed. As soon as she got to my back, I immediately started to calm down and forget about all my stress. Maybe I should buy a really good back scratcher though because I can't expect her to do it every night.



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07 Feb 2023, 10:10 pm

^
Yes that's probably a good bonding / comforting exercise along with the itch relief.



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02 Mar 2023, 10:04 pm

I'm currently having my bathroom redone which has been stressful. Tonight my mom scratched my back again which calmed me down. She knows that I feel stressed out and I want to relax.