UPDATE! Can you be allergic to toilet paper? See the update at the bottom of this post.
Yes, again. I know you are all getting somewhat tired of me being all TMI and talking about rashes and itching all the freaking time, but I feel like if I talk about it and what I think is or is not causing it, I might just help some other woman out there to at the very least not feel so much like a freak or a medical anomaly. I have written about this in the past several times because I am hoping that by writing I also may reach someone who has gone through this and they will comment or email me and tell me what they did to make it go away. With all the thinking and writing and researching, I never thought I could be allergic to toilet paper. I mean, we all use it every day, from the time we are just toddlers, right? Who woulda thunk it could be the enemy?
I have tried everything I can think of to use to get rid of the itching and the rash and the misery of it all. Every single thing you see in the picture above, I have tried. More than once. And sometimes I have used more than one thing at a tome. One thing works for a while, then another thing works for another while, but nothing actually gets rid of the problem once and for all. I have been to the doctor, hmmm, at least five times, and have taken Diflucan and an antibiotic at two different times. I have spent tons of money on this. It’s like having a difficult, hard to manage child. One that demands your attention and makes you miserable. One that just will not obey you and gives you a headache. And an unbearable itch that you must bear.
I have googled every possible thing I can think of, like “can you be allergic to your own perspiration?” and “will jumping out of a truck on the expressway cure unbearable itching?”. But there are no answers out there. And THAT is why I continue to write about this topic. Because I WANT there to be information out there for the next woman who is going insane with itching to be able to find and say at least, that she is NOT crazy, that there is someone else in the world just like her.
And so, to that woman, I want to say, have you thought about the toilet paper you are using? Can you be allergic to toilet paper? While I have wracked my brain for over a year trying to think of what I could possibly have done different or changed about my routine that would cause me to suddenly start itching, I never once thought about the toilet paper that I was using. And that is because we have used the same brand of toilet paper for more than 15 years. Maybe more than 20 years. But the other day, when I was going through my “thinking about what could cause me to itch?” routine for about the 200th time, it suddenly dawned on me that 1. there seems to be at least 2, maybe 3 different types of itchyness going on, and 2. the itch in THAT place is different from the itch in other places, and 3. the toilet paper is the only product I use in THAT area on a constant basis and 4. that the toilet paper brand suddenly changed in appearance last year.
Now, why did I not think of those things before? Because, I thought if I itched in various places over my body, that it must surely all be the same cause. Never did I think in all this time that there could be several causes. That could possibly explain why, when I took the diflucan to treat yeast infection last year, that SOME areas quit itching for a while , and others did not. So, it surely must be a correct assumption that there is more than one thing going on.
So, now, I am conducting an experiment to see if I may be allergic to toilet paper. I am foregoing the use of toilet paper and using baby wipes instead. I am also applying a moisturizer to that area twice a day. It seems to be working for now. That does not make any other area that is itching stop. But it does seem to be helping that one area. When you are being driven insane, you WILL resort to extreme measures to change.
September 3, 2014: I have had great success to stop the itching using Tricalm, an anti-itch gel product that I was sent to review. It is working for me. If you would like to try it, this is my affiliate link at Amazon.com to purchase it.
