About a week ago, I noticed a small red rash around my right elbow. I thought to myself, gross but I can handle a tiny thing like that (And I’ve had my share of rashes). Of course I proceeded to show everyone, prod it occasionally, but generally I ignored it. Before I realized it, the innocent red bumps had jumped from my elbow to a small formation near my wrist. It didn’t help that the next day I went for a massage and the masseuse rubbed my arm up and down. It was also 100+ degrees F.
By the next day a small clump had formed in the middle of the elbow group and the wrist group. That night we took an overnight train from Suzhou to Beijing. The trip included the arduous task of hauling all our months-worth of luggage down stairs, up stairs, through platforms, and into our cabin while still in the Suzhou heat. By the time we got to the Beijing train station, some 13 hours later and unshowered, my rash had started to blister. We spent the whole day cavorting about historical downtown Beijing, including Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. All the while I futilely rubbed cortisone cream on my growths and tried in vain to ignore them. Now single blisters of pus (called pustules) were showing up in isolated spots along the three main subjects.
That night I woke up feeling like my whole arm was on fire. The next morning (today) all the former red rash bumps had “crystallized” into pustules, making the profile view of my arm look like a topographic map of mountains. For some strange reason and an even stranger coincidence, we visited a Tibetan monk hospital today where the monk-doctor examined me and decided I have digestion problems (most likely true as I haven’t eaten dairy in a month) and my body is suffering from allergies to itself? They gave me medication, which looks like drops of deer poop and cost 290 yuan, but for all I know it could just be candy coated jelly beans.
Mainly I’ve just been extremely conscious of what my arm is touching and jumping at the slightest bump from someone else. I guess all I can hope for is that the rash can’t get any worst (please please please oh mighty monks). Needless to say, my dermatologist can expect an emergency appointment when I get home.
