Leaves of 3, Let Me Be

My trophy from Sea Otter: Poison Oak. My left forearm got the worst of it, but even after nearly two weeks, little spots keep popping up on the rest of my body.

Here’s my daily routine since getting the poison oak: get up from a horrible night’s sleep and start drinking lots of coffee to level out the 8 AM Benadryl. By noon, I’ve changed the dressing on my arm at least twice and the morning Benadryl buzz has worn off, so it’s time to take another. At 2 pm I’m a complete zombie from all the drugs and from coming down off the coffee. By 4 or 5 the drugs are starting to wear off again, but I’m usually able to get on the bike by that point, so the discomfort is temporarily replaced by the high of riding. After the ride, I come home, shower and reapply calamine lotion to all my spots and sometimes take another Benadryl, chased by, at the very least, a couple of beers to kill the pain. Even so, I still can’t sleep well because the goo seeping out of my arm wets the dressing enough that it wakes me and I reapply calamine & dressing. Lately I’ve been cutting the toes out of old tube socks and wear those to bed like a poor man’s arm warmers. And the day starts all over again…

The outbreak on my legs is strategically positioned on both sides of my inner thigh and either rubs on my pants & shorts or on the outside of my saddle while I’m riding. The spots on my back are right where my heart rate monitor is supposed to go and the blisters near my armpits are where all my shirts lay against my body. But the left forearm – oh, the left forearm. God help me.

What Would Jens Voigt Do?