Week 10: What Not To Do During TSW

2.10.13 Day 64: Face and neck are still looking a little dry. Hands are still red/pink. Body just feels dry and uncomfortable when I move around or first get into bed. It just feels like I have really dry skin. I have been really tired and have had an extremely hard time getting out of bed lately and couldn't decide if it was just my TSW or a cold. Decided today that it's a cold :(

2.11.13 Day 65: Stayed home in bed with my cold. I did get in a good season and a half of the Walking Dead though :)

2.12.13 Day 66: Skin feels the same. More of the same today, just laying in bed and watching netflix.

2.13.13 Day 67: Today was the first day back to my internship at a resort since I was sick. I spent the day in the housekeeping department doing laundry....with regular detergent, not my special scent free/dye free kind. After ironing and folding what felt like a million cloth napkins my hands were looking pretty red.

2.14.13 Day 68: Happy Valentines Day! Day 2 with housekeeping. Today I went in all of the guestrooms and replenished their mini bars. Hands were a little itchy but not too bad. Ethan and I exchanged goodies, had dinner together (which we never get to do lately), I gorged on chocolates, then  curled up in a ball with a stomach ache the rest of the night. Overall, I would say Valentines Day was a success.

2.15.13 Day 69: The following is what you should never do while going through TSW: Went into the housekeeping department at 8am. Did linen inventory for one hour (aka stood in small closets surrounded by super smelly cleaning chemicals, touching towels washed with regular detergent). 9am folded towels also washed with regular detergent, in a room that smelled like detergent. 9:10 really start to get itchy, hands are bright red. 9:15 rinse hands and forearms in cold water and stand outside to cool off. 9:20 get reassigned to do mini bar instead, itch just spreads all over, hands and now forearms are super red. 9:30 in my car driving home crying my eyes out because I itch and burn everywhere. Took a shower and spent the rest of the day in a benadryl induced haze. I lasted approximately 14.5 hours in housekeeping.

2.16.13 Day 70: feeling much better than yesterday. I am basically at the same place I was two weeks ago:

• face and neck are dry and a lot of skin comes off in the shower, still red on my eyelids
• hands are still red, dry, and wrinkly looking
• forearms are still a little pink
• body just feels dry and uncomfortable

I feel so good compared to the very begining of my withdrawl. I am starting to feel impatient now that I have been stagnant for two weeks. I just want to work out and wear makeup, is that so much to ask for?

A coworker did comment that I seem much happier and healthier than I did in the first two months of withdrawl. Looking back, I must have looked like a total wreck. My hair was always in a sloppy bun on top of my head because no matter how much I washed it it always looked greasy from the olive oil baths and the excessive lotion on my face, neck, and shoulders. I had to wrap gauze around my neck so that I wouldn't rub it raw, I was always freezing so I would layer sweatshirts under my work clothes, I smelled like olive oil/ooze/dead skin no matter how much I bathed, and I would just sit at the front desk and count down until I could go home and cry in the bath.

I am so thankful that I am not in that place right now and I hope that I never have to go back.

*Pictures to come...I am really getting behind

Song of the Week: "Everybody stares as she goes by cause they can see the flame that's in her eyes. Watch when she's lighting up the night. Nobody knows that she's a lonely girl, and it's a lonely world. But she gon' let it burn, baby, burn, baby, burn, baby....she's just a girl and she's on fire. - Alicial Keys, Girl on Fire. Because my skin literally feels like it is on fire.