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Forums > Windsurfing General

My first crack.. :(

Reply
Created by downie2 > 9 months ago, 20 May 2010
downie2
NSW, 13 posts
20 May 2010 6:07PM
Thumbs Up

Hey all, noticed this on my board today, it just on the right side of the nose. Im assuming I must have dropped my rig on it.



can anyone offer advice on what is required now? as stated in the title this is my virgin crack i dont want it to bite me on the bum later on.

Cheers
Simon.

Bondalucci
VIC, 1579 posts
20 May 2010 6:22PM
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Not sure you should be discussing the discovery of your "virgin crack" on such a public forum!!

However, I for one, will be amazed if your virgin crack manages to bite you on the bum!

choco
SA, 4083 posts
20 May 2010 7:14PM
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checkout the "boardlady" site give you all the info you want

h20
VIC, 456 posts
20 May 2010 7:47PM
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spend the money on getting a proper repair.. contact your local shop. Worth every cent. I have done my own repairs and also got professional ones. Last year put entire knee through a carbon FSW deck. repaired to perfect. unbelievable and definitely worth the $200 considering it was a $3000 board with only 2-3 uses

Marvin
WA, 725 posts
20 May 2010 10:07PM
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Au contraire, if your board is only worth $450 (like mine) it can make sense to learn to fix it yourself. And a home repaired board has lots of honest character, IMO (although not if you want to on-sell it).

'Boardlady' is definitely the go for excellent step by step instructions.

One word of warning though, epoxy resin can be very detrimental for your health. So... you must also invest in a very good industrial grade breathing apparatus (none of that paper mask crap) to avoid inhaling the particles when you sand back. And get a box of those thin blue vinyl gloves while you are down at your local safety shop - these help to avoid any resin or sanding particles on your hands.

This quote from LSD in his post on the SUP forum last year frightened the wits out of me - I think everybody who repairs or manufactures boards should read this:

Posted 16/10/2009, 6:15 am
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bnaccas said...

I'm confused about epoxy being a health risk??

When researching stuff when I made my board I remember reading something on a
forum that a lot of guys in the US are now glassing PU boards with epoxy as it had
been found to be safer.

I can't seem to find it now but will keep looking. Jonathan, can you recall this?

Hi Brendon,
There is Nothing to to be confused about regarding epoxy toxisity, the bad component is the hardener......TREAT IT LIKE DOG **** it absorbes through the skin..& THROUGH CHEAP GLOVES! The type of gloves to use are Nitrile, the pretty blue ones.
When I'm doing a 30' yacht hull in one go I will have barrier cream on first, then 2 pairs of gloves, & I will work into an air flow. Epoxy has far less fume than polyester, but it can eventualy sensitise throat/lungs
Epoxy Sensitivity
Here are some quotes from other users with allergy experience.
It's a growing collection e-mails about this thread on various forums.
Beware, this is not a cheerful reading matter.






I have seen symptoms occur in 2 ways. One is your throat and lungs mainly from the fumes can be sensitized. After being away from the epoxy for months I can come in contact with the fumes and get a constricted throat and windpipe almost instantly and it will last for weeks. A friend of mine has a major problem with dermatitis on his skin. He comes out in a mess of red raw rash all over. He has gradually got worse despite long breaks from epoxy but is now wearing a full air supply suite (in the tropics) to do any epoxy work, or employing someone else. When he gets really bad he goes to sea and spends as much time as possible in the sea water. He reckons this helps heal it all up ready for the next dose. You have to be dedicated to put up with, or as I prefer, be bloody stupid.



Anyone and everyone eventually becomes sensitized to epoxy - that is the problem. Dust from sanding, fumes and direct exposure all are problem areas

I have become sensitive and have to take care.

The usual route is direct exposure - that's why you see the professionals in the white suits masks etc. Follow their routine, sweat like mad - but don't become sensitive

My skin is now that when I get epoxy it on I come out in a raw crusting rash - the best is if I get if cleaned off immediately is just to get away with a bad red rash for 2-3 days.

My eyes/nose stream and become read on dust exposure - so it is gloves and googles when sanding with lots of open air.

I thought for years it won't happen to me... So take the advice and protect yourself.



He ignored the effects of the rash he kept getting and his skin got so bad that he couldn't make a fist or even grasp a basketball without cracking it and causing bleeding. This went on for about 5 years, then his reactions went away and he is now de-sensitized. IMHO, that's pretty extreme medicine. Bloody stupid, I believe was the quote ;-)

I became somewhat sensitized, but just get itchy with maybe a bit of rash. Another person working on my boat got so bad that if he got even a drop on his skin *anywhere*, the inside of his elbows and the backs of his knees would get a horrid rash.



There is an other point to all this. without going into the molecular biology of it, epoxy can interfere with your dna: in a nutshell, it is persistant and exposure now may not express an effect for months or even years to come. So. Just 'cos you ain't affected yet, doesn't mean to say you won't be affected in future - even if you never touch the stuff again.
It's dangerous.



Q: I've read that exposure to epoxy leads to allergic sensitization, but haven't read what kind of sensitization occurs.

A: Contact dermatitis is by far the most common. Caused mostly by skin exposure to the hardener, but also to a lesser extent to the resin.

Q: Has any member on the list been sensitized to epoxy?

A: Many. You can actually become sensitized the *first* time you are exposed to uncured epoxy.

Q: Will cured epoxy dust cause sensitization?

A: Dust *always* contains small amounts of uncured hardener and resin...

Q: What are the symptoms of sensitization?

A: Covered by others. These reports are *not* exaggerated and *are* typical.

Q: How is it treated?

A: Permanent distance from uncured hardener and resin is the only certain cure. Understand, this means if you get sensitized, you *leave* the boatbuilding business--or suffer horribly, as related here.

Q: How long does treatment last?

A: Only so long as you stay away from epoxy. It's for life.

*Always* suit up. *Always* wear a quality mask (not a paper one...). *Always* wear gloves, and change them often. If you can, use resin systems designed for home builders, such as WEST or System III. These use the least toxic resins and hardeners available. Do some hard research into epoxy toxicity. WEST and System III spend a lot of time and energy educating their customers. Check them out.



My brother has an allergy to epoxy, he gets welts between his fingers and toes, first then welts elsewhere blood is close to the surface. He gets the reaction from everything from unmixed resin to dust from sanding. He wears nonlatex gloves which are chemically close to epoxy and also cause allergy. Other than skin problems he has no other reaction. I have been told that there are two kinds of epoxy, one that causes skin allergies and one that causes liver problems, West epoxy is of the skin variety, Saf-t-Poxie(sp) is of the liver variety. My own personal reaction is severe thirst and lack of appetite for a few hours.



1. When this was last discussed a few years back one of the dire warnings was to NOT wear latex gloves. Use washing up gloves or chemical gauntlets. Apart from possible sensitivity to the powder _inside_ the gloves (honest !) some of the chemicals travel through latex and become even more toxic for it.

2. Most epoxy hardeners are proven carcinogens. be extremely careful.

3. A lot of the documentation is couched in pleasant language. A particular epoxy is not evil and deadly but "aggressive".

4. For sure some are more aggressive than others but on the basis of no free lunches alone my guess is that the more aggressive probably stick better. SP Ampreg 20 seems moderately benign with apparent much lower levels of fumes but this is my feeling not a scientific analysis.

5. For sticking stuff together Ciba Geigy 2000 series resins are available in self mixing guns. Optimum mix, minimal contact with the product, maximum price. The stick airbusses together with this stuff though.

6. Acetone is evil stuff. Apart from completely denuding the skin of its natural oils it washes whatever is on the skin straight through and into the system. Probably not the substance with which to remove epoxy hardener from the skin ! I understand vinegar works OK with epoxy.

7. Before we run off and abandon composite boats, I should point out that quite a number of woods and wood glues are toxic as well :-)



I have been using the Aplied Poleramics epoxies on the outside of my first hull and I have started to get a nasty rash and I was starting to get concerned about all the work in tight spaces where it would be just about impossible to get the stuff from getting all over me.

After talking to the designer I am going to do the underwater parts of the boat in epoxy (and finish odd the 55 gallon drum that I have) and do the remainder in vinylester so that I can go sailing without looking like a strawberry.



First of all, I have a very sensitive skin. I have always used barrier cream and gloves, but in the very beginning I was not careful enough and sometimes still got in contact with small amounts of resin or not fully cured epoxy. That, plus sanding not fully cured epoxy did it for me.

Watch out: if your allergy is as bad as mine it does not mean a little bit of itching. What I am talking about is waking up next day with a bad rash (from dust) and/or badly healing itching bubbles from contact with resin. Both require a new layer of skin every time! I am extremely careful now and can work without much trouble.

Here is what I learned:

Most dangerous: Unnoticed contamination of work area, tools, dust mask particularly the bands that hold it, gloves and cloths. Preferably wear a dust mask all the time while in your work area.

Gloves: Disposable gloves ( not latex!) rip very easily and I generally find them to be too short. There is a big risk of touching something with you wrist, particularly when handling large amounts of fairing compound or laminating in difficult spots. So I also used disposable plastic sleeves to protect the arms. Problem: rubber bands and they will not stay in place. So I switched to long sleeved, thicker re-usable gloves. Next problem is then contamination of the inside.

Here is my more or less foolproof system:

A. Mixing, Laminating and putty work:

1. Long sleeved shirt.
2. Barrier cream on hands , arms and (important) face, neck .
3. then disposable gloves
4. then disposable plastic sleeves up to the elbows, in which I poke a hole to put my thumb through so that they stay in place
5. on top: long sleeved rubber gloves thick or thin depending on job. Sometimes it is still necessary for very delicate jobs to work just with the disposable gloves and sleeves.
6. Dust mask for making up fairing compound.

I actually re-use the disposable gloves if they are still clean and the sleeves from fairing work several times, but always rest them for at least a week and inspect them before re-use.

B. Sanding:
I find sanding dust a big problem, especially in the face and on the back of my hands. I tried wet sanding but found it even worse than living with the dust. Avoid sanding uncured epoxy. Preferably wait a week or so before sanding! (Of course, in real life that is impossible!) Be especially careful when temperatures are low.

For hand-sanding not hundred percent cured epoxy/fairing compound:

1. Wear long sleeved shirts and pants. Wash after every use. I tried the Tyvek disposable suits, but found that I needed too many of them. They rip too easily.
2. Barrier cream as above
3. then thin (disposable) cotton gloves . Change cotton gloves every few hours. Sweat and sanding dust are a very bad combination. Wash the cotton gloves after every use.
4. Then long sleeved rubber gloves on top. (do not use them for wet epoxy work)
5. Tyvek-style disposable hood to keep dust away from hair, neck if sanding above breast level.
6. Good dust mask, not the disposable ones, you will need far too many and the good ones are expensive! Clean dusk mask regularly.
7. If sanding overhead: Goggles. Never rub eyes!
8. Have vacuum cleaner running when sanding really fresh fairing compound for repair work
9. Shower immediately after work.
10. Avoid sanding several weeks in a row.

If for any reason you still touch resin or uncured epoxy, immediately clean it with special resin cleaning paste and water. Take contaminated cloths of immediately and clean the area underneath! I found that I can avoid a serious reaction if I do it quickly enough!

I still sometimes get a rash under the rim of the mask, (Sweat, rubbing rubber and collecting dust). If I would start again, I would invest in one of the face masks/hoods with a battery driven forced air system on your hip that puts the hood under a slight over pressure. I tried them: very comfortable, no sweat, no goggles,.. but they cost from $ 600 upwards.

I have not had real problems for several months now and certainly will continue to work with epoxy.
Hope this helps.



I've been using epoxy as an amateur boatbuilder off and on for 32 years. I'd guess I've been through roughly 150 gallons. I've never had any reactions from it. Though I always wear gloves now, I often didn't or was sloppy about getting it on my skin in the early days. I never used solvent to clean skin though. I often would sand without a mask if I was outdoors and not breathing a lot of dust, though I usually would use a mask or
kerchief. Now I wear a respirator for sanding. I usually only use a respirator for application if I am in an enclosed space. If I am mixing and resining all day, after a few hours I can "taste" epoxy, which is kind of creepy, but after awhile it goes away. I used mostly WEST but have switched to System Three the last 5 years or so. I'd say that on a scale of 1 to 10 my safety precautions rate about a 5 to 7. I can only think that I have
been lucky to not have had a reaction from it. I think a lot of it depends on personal chemistry. Some people can bathe in it and nothing happens and others look at it and break out. Working clean and not trusting to luck is the smart thing to do. Anyone starting to use it has no way to know if they will be lucky or not, and in the middle of a big project allergic reaction can be disastrous.



Here is just one link about this allergy:
http://www.rc-soar.com/safety/epoxyallergy.htm

Of interest is..."Rubber gloves are not completely impermeable to the chemicals involved, but help to minimize contact."

As a person who has seen the dangers of anaphylactic shock, and the extreme consequences of it...I would caution those builders who are starting to develop this allergy to read up on it...and don't trust wrapping yourself in "bags" as a prevention. Also read up on what you can do if you start to have a severe reaction (like benadryl, epi pens etc). I have seen allergies that were taken for granted, literally kill people in a short amount of time. In every case, the person was not prepared for the reaction.

There has been no reported fatalities from epoxy resins, but there are many cases where there was "respiratory" involvement. This can be bad news if not treated (even by you) in time.

Please see your doctor and get competent advise until your boats are finished if you have this allergy.



I have been working with epoxy resins for 30 years, and still suffer the occasional bout of rashes, sneezes and sniffles, when I am careless, or working in an enclosed space. A lot of the reactive effect comes from inhaling the vapours, particularly with some of the faster amines in the formulation. Wearing a dust mask, or a vapour mask (usually much more expensive, and heavier) helps.

The other tip is to try taking Vitamin E tablets. I find that doses or around 2000 to 3000 IU twice a day will keep the reactions under control, and allow me to sleep. That is when the taking a break therapy comes in.

I have seen no lasting effects from these allergies, although some colleagues may have different opinions.....





Epoxy makes my skin break out in a rash also. It never bothered me for years but it finally caught me. I only use it for woodworking and I am OK if I wear gloves and clean up with denatured alcohol and soap.





Epoxy exposure is awful. Rashes and blisters are the tip of the iceberg. It can lead to respiratory failure and/or cardiac failure. Be careful with it. I use a tyvek suit with a hood and gloves, my wrists and ankels taped, respirator, and Goggles, not glasses, since vapors still get in through the soft tissue, and baby powder on my exposed skin.





Vapor from most epoxies is much lower than it's polyester counterparts. The resins we produce (Resin Research Epoxies) are all high solids and have 1/50th the vapor of polyester surfboard resins. In our shop (which is well ventilated) we don't even wear masks. Epoxy is also NOT a carcinogen. That has been well proven by OSHA and many others in industry. What epoxy is, is a skin sensitizer. This varies greatly between different epoxy systems depending on different company formulations. Most older epoxy hardeners are formulated with a chemical known as TETA or another called DETA. These base hardeners are in the aliphatic amine family, are very reactive, somewhat unstable, quite toxic and easily can cause sensitization of the skin (or dermatitis). Most of these hardeners are also modified with phenol and formaldehyde. Phenol is what dermatologists use for chemical skin peels and increases TETA and DETA's toxicity to the skin dramatically. Many of these older hardeners are up to 50% phenol. Formaldehyde is also no picnic as it also increases risk because of it's ability to act as a vehicle for the phenol and amines through the skin and into the blood system. By the way, the reason these epoxy hardeners are still used today is because they're CHEAP. DETA and TETA cost 1/5 what a modern diamine based hardener costs to produce. Anyone who has worked with many of the West System epoxies are familiar with these low cost systems.
Modern epoxy hardeners are nothing like their 60's counterparts. As I mentioned above, they are formulated with modern diamines and have vastly reduced incidences of sensitization. They also have lower vapor, better color, better finish, and lower exotherm. They contain NO phenol and NO formaldehyde. Our company was one of the first in the US to formulate and market diamine based epoxy hardeners 20 years ago which gives us an edge in experience with these chemicals. As superior as they are they still must be respected as skin sensitizers. The simple way to eliminate problems related to dermatitis in the workplace is to reduce or preferably eliminate contact with the skin. This means gloves. That's it. We wear disposable vinyl gloves. Vinyl is preferable to rubber because rubber gloves are also skin sensitizers. The other, even more harmful, ingredient is contaminated acetone. Like formaldehyde above it is a vehicle for toxins into the bloodstream. Fortunately epoxy can be cleaned up with soap and water. Not standard bar soap but with products like Go-Jo and Fast Orange. These products are water based and don't act as a vehicle the way VOC solvents do.
In 20 years of producing epoxy surfboards we have NEVER had one incidence of dermatitis in our shop. I have also NEVER seen a case of dermatitis that didn't have something to do with the co-toxin acetone. Given the aforementioned resin parameters and if shop practice adheres to the above suggestions, epoxy resins are MUCH safer to use for producing surfboards than their polyester counterparts.

Bottom line,
1. wear disposible vinyl gloves
2. don't use acetone
3. work in well ventilated areas
4. clean skin with GoJo or another waterless cleaner
5. Shower after work including hair
6. Don't leave sanding dust on your skin for long periods.





My biggest advice is to wear cheap cotton gloves inside your vinyl or latex, and be very anal when taking them off. The most common mistake is to touch your inside wrist with a sticky thumb. The inside wrist is a gateway to being sensitized. The cotton absorbs sweat, allowing the glove to slide off easy.





Around seven or eight I had been at the finishing stage of my build and was applying Zpoxy to grain fill the EIR used for the body of this instrument. In fact you may even recall a tutorial I posted back around that time showing how I use syringes to insure an equal mixture when measuring out the small quantity required when using this product.

My first recollection of what would turned out to be a series of unfortunate assumptions by myself, and others, which eventually led to much suffering and a challenge to my over all health as great as anything I have had to face during a most adventurous and gamely 50 years of life, was of a sunny weekend afternoon. The wind had picked up, but earlier that day, in the calm bright morning, I had noticed a swarm of small sandflies hovering over the grass of our backyard. I believe these 'biting midges' or sandflies as they are commonly known here in Australia are a world wide annoyance, so anyone who has spent time in a topic, sub-tropic or temperate coastal region should know all too well of the pest I am talking about. Anyhow the relevance of these little buggers will soon become very clear, but here is a link which describes the evil little blood suckers to which I refer.

medent.usyd.edu.au/fact/bitmidge.htm

As mentioned, I had been working out in my shed most of that and the previous day. It had been quite frustrating more so than enjoyable as I had encountered some kind of contamination actually 'in' rather than 'on' the rosewood. This contamination had presented itself as quite large fisheye, yes large fisheye even in neat epoxy, so you can imagine my concerns over what would happen under a much less viscose finishing medium such as nitro. So I took my concerns to good friend, master craftsman and finishing expert, Allen McFarlen of Barron River Guitars in Cairns north QLD, www.brguitars.com/brg/Home.html and Allen's advice, following his years of experience in the auto refinishing industry, had seen me continuing a regime that would hopefully reduce and isolate the contamination under epoxy so that finish could then be safely applied 'over' the contamination.

This regime was a simple enough process which involved first thoroughly washing down the well cured coat of the epoxy grain filler with naphtha (what we call shellite or white spirit here in Australia) using fresh clean rag and then, sanding off the epoxy back to wood before cleaning the guitar down again with fresh rag and more naphtha, then applying fresh epoxy and repeating the process. Having completed the process twice over two days my hopes were up as it appeared to be working out quite well. Indeed the fisheye had diminished considerably both in dimension and frequency to a point where I was now quite confident that just a few more applications would see the problem contained completely under the epoxy as per plan.

Happy enough with progress, it had come time to leave the shed, go back in the house, have a shower, get dinner for my kids, and have myself a beer. My Wife works afternoons of the weekends so I normally play Mr Mum to a pair of excellent girls who make this role a real joy. Anyhow, to paint the scene, our house is a very old and quite run-down Jarrah weatherboard affair. It sits upon a fairly large 1950's suburban residential lot which has since been re-zoned for units construction. Being less than 5 minutes walk to the cool waters of the Indian Ocean, the land is quite desirable, however the house or cottage if you like, presents no incentive for renovation as it will one day soon be bulldozed to make way for development, but in the meantime, we get by just fine in the shack.

The sun was now beginning to set and as mentioned the wind, or sea breeze, had picked up to be quite blustery as is often the way of the "Fremantle Doctor*" in the later part of a warm Perth afternoon. As a result, the pilot light in the old gas instantaneous hot water system attached to the outside wall of our bathroom had been blown out. Unless it's been a real howler of a day, you don't generally discover the absents of this pilot light until you are actually in the bathroom, have stripped down naked, turned on the shower and are greeted by only cold water. This usually evokes some sort of profanity from me before I pull on my boxers, throw on a bluey and head outside in the wind, and sometimes rain to spend the next half hour trying to light the dam thing. In one of those most confounding things about life, this only happens 'just' frequently enough to not warrant paying for a new heater to see us over until we move on.

After 20 minutes outside with the cigarette lighter kept specifically for this job, I finally get the heater cranked up and enjoy a nice hot shower. Whilst towelling off, I notice the usual itch and white bumps left by the mozzies who had obviously once again had a feed at my expense while I had been out there in the relative calmness of that unkempt area which houses the heater. I ignored the bites; I got dressed, knocked the top off a coldie, made dinner, watched teli, and went to bed. Later that night, about 3am, I was awoken by an itch on my lower legs and the inner area of my arms. I went into the living room to have a look at the areas affected and yep, sure enough, sandfly bites on both legs and my arms. I hate sandflies; you can't even feel them going about their business, but a few hours later, oh man the itch! Sort of thing where if you scratch here, it will itch more there, and so on, and so on, until you go nuts. The worst of it is that the itch hangs around for about a week. I figured the pesky little so and so's must have ganged up with the mosquitoes and savaged me while I was out side lighting the heater. I gave the affected areas a heavy splash of calamine lotion which settled things down quite quickly and I went back to bed.

The morning was again very calm and sunny, and as I passed a small black swarm of sandflies hovering over the backyard, I shook my fist in anger at them but kept my distance as I made my way into the shed and shut the door behind me. I then pulled on the old tack suit pants I had worn yesterday to keep the dust off me up and over the top of my shorts. I took off my sandals and put on socks and runners, I then put on the same dusty long sleaved shirt I had worn yesterday over the fresh T shirt I was wearing, and I also put on a twin cartridge respirator, a pair of disposable gloves, and began to wash down the guitar with naphtha. Allowing that to gas-off, I then swapped out the respirator for a quality dust mask and started sanding off the epoxy applied the last evening. Once that was complete, I swapped out the dust mask for the respirator and made a fresh mix of epoxy.

One thing I had tried on the previous coat, was to thin the epoxy with alcohol by around 50% prior to application with the plan being the alcohol may dilute the contamination more effectively and the thinner mix may allow the now diluted contamination to rise more freely through the epoxy to be cleaned or sanded off. I felt that as the initial coat had been applied neat and had effectively done its job in filling most the grain, this thinned coat could completely sanded away and should not present any problems. My theory seemed to have worked quite well knocking the fisheye problem back considerably, so I decided to do this same thinning process once again.

I applied the new coat and left the area removing my protective gear outside so it could air. Given the warm weather, around 8 hours later on that same day, I went back out to repeat the process for what I was hoping would be the final time. When I finished that application, I packed up and went inside to repeat much the same routine of the previous evening less the annoying trip outside in my underwear to light the water heater. As anyone would know who has ever been savaged these things, the hot shower had caused the sandfly bites to become really itchy. Bloody annoying thing because I knew the itch would be around for over a week or so. The bites start out as just tiny little red bumps on your skin, the itch is so bad that you will most likely scratch the top off at some point so they fester a little and itch a lot. I really do not get the point of them quite frankly, sure come and have a feed on me, your welcome, but why leave me in such discomfort for so long? Ungrateful little so and so's.

So on it went, scratching and calamine, calamine and scratching, nothing too bad, but very annoying. The next day when I check my legs it looks like I have been bitten again? The light had blown in the computer room, the globe is part of a ceiling fan and quite unique and I did not have a spare. As a result, I had spent a fair bit of the last evening on the PC in the dark and put this latest attack down to a successful covert operation by my nemesis the sandflies, but all jokes aside, you need to understand this ITCH! Many years ago I had lived on an island in QLD, I knew all too well about sandflies and how some people can have a nasty allergic reaction. I even learnt that antihistamines where the answer if things got really bad and they had. I went down the chemist, or what our American friends would call a drug store or dispensary, explained my dilemma, and was given some off the shelf low dose hay fever tablets, I got home and took a couple and, as expected, the itch subsided considerably.

Next day I woke up and the skin between bites was beginning to welt up and join together in a kind of yellow white pinkish rash and the freak' in itch was just unfreak'in believable. This sort of reaction had 'never' happened to me before and now, not even the antihistamines where working that well. I went back down to the chemist and showed the pharmacist my arms and pulling up one leg of my trousers, I showed her my inner calf. The pharmacist told me that I am having a severe allergic reaction to the sandfly bites. I made mention of the fact that I had never reacted to them in this way before. The pharmacist explained that it was probably the case that my immune system had now weekend with middle age and as a result, I react more strongly now than I had in my youth.

The pharmacist then reached behind the counter and handed over a box of 25mg Phenergan which are a somewhat stronger antihistamine than those first taken. These new tablets did settle the itch but I needed the maximum of 3 a day for them to be effective and this made me so drowsy I did not want to do much but lay down, so I could not go to work. I continued taking the Phenergan for another two days by which time I had a suspicion that things where still getting steadily worse, however I could not be sure as I did not fully trust my own judgement.

It needs to be understood that by this stage, with the constant ingestion of this powerful sedative like pill, I was not myself anymore. I have never suffered hay fever in my life so have never had a need to take antihistamines and naturally had no tolerance whatsoever to their powerful sedative affect. I 'suspected' that the itch was growing stronger, it 'seemed' to have become almost constant despite the use of Phenergan, but I was unsure if this was a reality, or a magnification effect from days of relentless irritation, coupled with this powerful drug now making me imagine that it was worse. I also 'suspected' that the rash was growing. It 'seemed' as if it was travelling from my crotch (yes indeed there to) and moving down my legs and from my calves up toward my crotch. It also appeared to be moving up and down my arms from the inside of my forearms.

In moment of clarity, I took a permanent marker pen and marked the outer extremities of this insidious rash on my leg to try and confirm my suspicion. This had to be done as the changes, if indeed there were any, were happening very gradually, far too gradual for me to accurately pin point from the clouded drug swept memory of an hour ago, and yesterdays memories were just too far away to even consider. The next day it became very clear I was in some trouble. The rash had indeed grown well past the marker pen and the swelling in my legs had increased to a point where all definition was lost between knee and ankle, and the itch, the itch was now so intense it was all I could do to prevent myself from tearing my flesh from my bones. The only way I can define this is to say that the itch was not 'on' my skin rather it was deep 'in' my skin and flesh, the effect was completely maddening.

I made my way to the emergency department of the local hospital. I explained the sandflies, the pharmacist, the Phenergan, the lack of previous reaction to sandflies, the hobby and recent use of epoxy, the lack of history of an allergic reactions to anything at all in my entire life, etc, etc, etc. Blood was taken several times and many more question asked. Eventually, it was suggested that as a result of an allergic reaction to the sandflies, I now had a secondary bacterial infection or cellulitis in my right leg, this was a big concern so I was admitted to hospital and given IV antibiotics over the course of that afternoon and throughout the night. The next day the swelling had not subsided, nor had the itch and I cannot for the life of me understand how much more intense it could have been if not for the Phenergan.




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