It was fucking *blisters*
Feb. 5th, 2024 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetHahahahaha! So, around ten years ago or thereabouts, about the time I got my most recent job, I started having (more) trouble with heat. I was getting very painful rash-like patches along the inner-back of my thighs—right where the legs both rub together when you walk and also where they meet the seat when you sit down—and along the seams of my crotch, right where the edges of my underwear sat. I tried a different style of underwear, but that didn't help, so I kept looking and eventually found an anti-chafing gel that worked wonders.
I only really needed it in the summer, and only at work, and even then having a dehumidifier running did wonders to help. But it kept getting worse.
Eventually I ended up applying the anti-chafing stick every day in the summer, instead of just work days; then, just a few years ago, I found I needed to use it in winter as well. Last year I found out the hard way that I needed to use it on the underside of my boobs when I wear one particular bra; a few months ago, it switched to all my bras.
Using the anti-chafing stick prevented it, and even when I got it, it was usually unnoticeable by the next day, and completely gone a day or two after that. But if I ever forgot, or didn't anticipate needing it on a certain day or in a certain place? Pain.
I tried looking up my best educated guess of what it was online a few times, with less than promising results. It didn't really seem like a heat rash, but surely people would take chafing more seriously if it usually hurt this bad, right?
This past week, my current anti-chafing stick has been getting close to running out, so I resolved that the next time I went to work, I'd pick up some more at the store I usually get it from, which sits about half-way between my workplace and my house. That was today (er, yesterday technically, but whatever). I had some help from the store associates and picked up two sticks of Body Glide to tide me over for a good number of months. Tonight I decided to look more closely at the packaging on a whim.
I don't know if the packaging had this information earlier and I missed it, or I forgot it, but I do know that they don't really keep it on the applicators themselves. Still, there it was on the chipboard label tucked in the not-quite-blister-packaging: "Rubbing causes chafing, blisters, and raw skin; perspiration and humidity make them worse".
It was blisters. The entire time I've been getting these horrible chafing patches, they've been dozens upon dozens of tiny blisters in terrible streaks!
I have no idea why the quick online searches I tried didn't bring up blisters in conjunction with chafing, but it certainly tracks with my experiences. The pain from these chafing spots reminds me very much of the pain I've gotten from blisters on my hands or feet in the past, just spread out over a wider area, not quite as deep, and faster to heal. Hell, more than once before I found ant-chafing gel I ended up sticking to my shorts after sitting down on them! Getting up and peeling the cloth from my legs was not pleasant, I can tell you that for free.
I don't know if it's possible to do anything more for them than preventative anti-chafing gel, but I'm glad at least to have the language I need to describe my experiences.
I only really needed it in the summer, and only at work, and even then having a dehumidifier running did wonders to help. But it kept getting worse.
Eventually I ended up applying the anti-chafing stick every day in the summer, instead of just work days; then, just a few years ago, I found I needed to use it in winter as well. Last year I found out the hard way that I needed to use it on the underside of my boobs when I wear one particular bra; a few months ago, it switched to all my bras.
Using the anti-chafing stick prevented it, and even when I got it, it was usually unnoticeable by the next day, and completely gone a day or two after that. But if I ever forgot, or didn't anticipate needing it on a certain day or in a certain place? Pain.
I tried looking up my best educated guess of what it was online a few times, with less than promising results. It didn't really seem like a heat rash, but surely people would take chafing more seriously if it usually hurt this bad, right?
This past week, my current anti-chafing stick has been getting close to running out, so I resolved that the next time I went to work, I'd pick up some more at the store I usually get it from, which sits about half-way between my workplace and my house. That was today (er, yesterday technically, but whatever). I had some help from the store associates and picked up two sticks of Body Glide to tide me over for a good number of months. Tonight I decided to look more closely at the packaging on a whim.
I don't know if the packaging had this information earlier and I missed it, or I forgot it, but I do know that they don't really keep it on the applicators themselves. Still, there it was on the chipboard label tucked in the not-quite-blister-packaging: "Rubbing causes chafing, blisters, and raw skin; perspiration and humidity make them worse".
It was blisters. The entire time I've been getting these horrible chafing patches, they've been dozens upon dozens of tiny blisters in terrible streaks!
I have no idea why the quick online searches I tried didn't bring up blisters in conjunction with chafing, but it certainly tracks with my experiences. The pain from these chafing spots reminds me very much of the pain I've gotten from blisters on my hands or feet in the past, just spread out over a wider area, not quite as deep, and faster to heal. Hell, more than once before I found ant-chafing gel I ended up sticking to my shorts after sitting down on them! Getting up and peeling the cloth from my legs was not pleasant, I can tell you that for free.
I don't know if it's possible to do anything more for them than preventative anti-chafing gel, but I'm glad at least to have the language I need to describe my experiences.
