When The Fix Is Worse Than The Solution

Mrs. HM had to do some home-doctorin' (or nurse-practitionerin') last week. It was not a critical injury, and the treatment was just a bandaid. But still. You'd think a reasonably sensible, educated woman would be able to do that without incident. Well. Not Mrs. HM...

I was using a round bristle-brush with plastic bristles that have little ball ends on them. You'd think such an implement would be Mrs. HM-proof. But no. It was after my shower. I had picked out my wet lovely lady-mullet with just that, a pick. Then I was using the round brush as usual to comb under the ends of the mullet part. Such a simple activity, one would think. 

Not really paying attention, I put that brush too close to my neck while twirling it. The bristles latched onto a skin tag, partially removing it. I do not endorse this type of removal! The little stalk of skin stayed there, with minimal bleeding. Just enough that I could see a tiny spot of red without my bifocals. Not even enough to need a bandaid, much less a tourniquet.

I did, however, seek out a small bandaid to cover it, because I knew that my shirt collar rubbing on it would be unpleasant. I mainly wanted to pin it down, so it wouldn't get caught on anything. There was a box of small sheer bandaids in the medicine cabinet. I slapped one on there, and it fit perfectly.

The next day, my neck was itching fiercely. Huh. Was it from healing? A wound will do that. I scratched around gingerly. Didn't seem to be itching right over the partially-severed skin tag. But around it. I looked in the mirror. Well. I must be allergic to the sheer bandaids. Seems like I had this problem before, on my leg. 

The fix for this was to remove that sheer little bandaid, and replace it. The other bandaid was larger, but was the plastic kind, not sheer. I put it directly over where the other one had been. 

That spot continued to itch. I figured it was from that original sheer bandaid. But the itch was maddening! Could I have a tick on my neck? Just under the new bandaid? I didn't feel anything lumpy there. I couldn't keep scratching. I took off the new bandaid, and looked in the mirror.

NOT A PRETTY SIGHT!

Please excuse the strawlike texture of my lovely lady-mullet, and the lack of focus. It is hard to take a picture of your own neck in your kitchen while holding open the your shirt.

It seems that I must also be allergic to this brand of the plastic bandaid. The sheers were Best Choice, and the plastics were Good Sense. Huh. Now what to do? I had some great big bandaids, for like when I got a hole in my calf by closing T-Hoe's door on it. Or I had a box with very old TINY bandaids, the only size left from a multipack. Brand name Being Well. I chose tiny version.

This time I applied the tiny bandaid perpendicular to the angry red skin where the others had been stuck. We'll see if my itching subsides. It is twice as red on the day after removing the medium size bandaid.