Ichabod is itchy ...

... and so, the blinking heck, am I!!  

This time of night is a particularly pleasant time for me.  Every night is the same; though it is worse if I am more tired.  Basically I formicate.  Every night.  And it isn't fun.  It's ... hang on a mo ... that is not what I said ... scrape yourself out of the gutter and pay attention ... formicate, I said formicate.  

Here an itch, there an itch - everywhere an itch itch

Formication, according to the wordly-wise wonder that is Wikipedia, is derived from formica, the Latin word for ant.  Formication is the medical term for a sensation that resembles that of insects crawling on (or under) the skin.  Formication is a well-documented symptom that has numerous possible causes. 

She itches here ... she itches there ...

For me, my formication habit began when I had my interferon treatment for Hepatitis C, back in 1999.  It was one of a glut of delightful side effects which still lingers long after that original year of treatment.  The definition - which I only had from my CFS specialist this last year - is uncannily accurate.  If you will: imagine hundreds of ants crawling just underneath your skin (horror movie stylee).  However, they are not just in one spot.  Imagine those subdermal ants crawling on the top of your right foot, for a couple of seconds, then on the inside of your left ear lobe, then on the back of your right index finger, then across your stomach, then your left shoulder blade, then just under your eyes.  Uncomfortable yet??

The Itchy and Scratchy Ros

This pretty much describes the sensations I get when I'm in bed every night trying to go to sleep.  As you can imagine I'm kind of a whirling dervish underneath the duvet, rubbing here, itching there, eee ooo aaa, can't reach the scratchy little devils!!  And no, there are no bedbugs or other actual nibbly, crawly creatures - it is, quite literally all in my head .. and all over my body.  Nice.  I've got so used to them now that I've affectionately and somewhat derangedly dubbed them my "itchy buggers".

To Itchycoo Park that's where I've been.

What did you do there?

I got high
What did you feel there?
Well I cried
But why the tears there?
I'll tell you why
It's all too beautiful

It's all too annoying

It's all too itchying

It is peculiar that I never really get visitations from the itchy buggers during the day.  I often scratch my face to shreds because I have the sensation of an eyelash or a strand of hair on my skin and no matter how hard I try I can't get rid of it, but that's because there's nothing there.  I think that sensation is probly related, but it is only at night that the formication fun really begins.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch my back and leg and neck and toe...

I've spoken to my GP as to why it is I might be getting formicated and they didn't have many suggestions as to what the cause could be, but they did say that it was a common side effect of drug withdrawal.  Hmmm.  The CFS occupational therapist who took my symptom, one I hardly thought worth mentioning, and gave it a name - told me that it might be liver related but also wondered if it could be caused by something in the blood products I constantly inject.  The former was also the opinion of the Chinese acupuncturist that I saw earlier in the year - she saw the crawling as a sign of a toxic liver.  This made sense to me given the Hep C, the interferon and ribaviron I've had over the years.  However when asking the liver doctors they say my liver results are not too bad and my biopsy 10 years ago showed only mild inflamation.  All good but no suggestions of why I might have this problem or what I could do to solve it.

I got it bad, scratch fever

I'd be interested to know if anyone else with CFS or Hep C has this ant-astic issue.  I'm sure it's related to the treatment or the Hep C but I have no absolute proof or concrete evidence to back this wild claim up.

Well fate can be cruel
Life may be a bitch
But that's not an excuse
For my eleven-year itch

Treatment-wise I am now on a sedative type of drug - Phenegran - to help me sleep and this sometimes keeps the itchiness down to a more tolerable level.  However, having had my dose earlier this evening and having already taken my pain-killers for tonight, the itchy buggers have been fairly active during my writing this post.  Inspiring little blighters.


(Mis-quotes all my own)

Foiblicious

If you know me, you'll be aware that I have a number of foibles, slight peculiarities, idiosyncrasies, anal tendencies, eccentricities.  I believe they are worth celebrating.

This is a list of those that spring to my mind:

• curtains - when they are drawn they need to hang straight - thinking about it, this applies when they are open too.  I think this only applies at home - I've never found myself manhandling another's curtains.
• toilet rolls - need to hang away from the wall and if you find yours has turned around it may be because I visited your smallest room - can't help being hands on with this one.  Why it's preferable to having the roll stroking the wall as it dangles, I don't know.
• singing - you may just have heard me do this ;) - any song on the radio / TV will impregnate my brain and be sung for hours (sometimes, and very annoyingly, days) afterwards.  If I hear a word or phrase that comes from a song, I'll be singing it within minutes, often without even realising what the trigger was.  My work colleagues used to do this on purpose, for fun.  Last weekend it was Friday I'm in Love all weekend following a friend's Facebook status update.
• upside down opening - I have, for as long as I can remember, opened all packaging which has a right side up, up side down.  Malteaser bags, crisp packets, bags of pasta, packets of sanitary towels etc.  I think this stemmed from an early recognition that if a bag of summat had a hole at the top used to hang the item on a display - if opened  the right way up this hole would result in the packet splitting down the side and half the stuff inside flying out.  Solved by opening upside down.  This soon mutated to any and all packets.
• talking to myself - I do this all the time, because I spend a lot of time alone perhap??  Weirdly I catch myself doing it without even realising - usually in the supermarket or wandering down the street.  Then I tell myself off.  Out loud.
• talking to inanimate objects - I talk to the trees, but they do not listen to me.  No really, I do talk to things - vegetables, furniture, plants, doors, taps, bits of my body.  Maybe I enjoy not getting a response.
• sound effects - I provide sound effects.  Why?  No idea.  Didn't even know I did it until a friend at work pointed it out one day.  Then realised I do it all the blooming time.  If a door creaks I'll do a creaky noise.  If driving round a bend I'll emit a skidding sound effect.  If driving a trolley around a corner I'll do the same.  If I see a ball bounce I'll produce a boing.
• talking for things - I not only talk to the animals, but for them as well.  I must have watched too much Johnny Morris as a child because if I see an animal - a cat on a street, a goose in a field, a duck on a river - I talk to them and then I reply for them, with appropriate animal / bird voice.  I can have quite a splendid little conversation this way.  
• talking for babies - I also cannot help but do this for babies too.  If a baby's playing with something I will provide a commentary - what I imagine baby to be thinking.  I guess what they would say when they look at you askance (which is probably because you are having a conversation with yourself).  I can't help myself and enjoy trying to figure out what they might say if only they could.  Probably irritating as hell for the parents.  I think this stems from at the age of 6 wishing I could do the voices for Count Duckula or Mighty Mouse.
• silliness - no explanation needed here, think the foibles above are testament to this.  I am a silly billy and I am not ashamed.
• word play - I like to make new words.  Taking existing words and changing them a little.  For instance Foibilicious.  Can't think of any more at the moment but I know there are squillions.

If you know of others I've omitted, please feel free to comment thus.  I'm sure there are more....

If you'd like to comment a list of your own - that would be fascinating :)