So yesterday I had to reaffirm to myself that I am indeed allergic to bleach. I had discovered this lovely little fact while on my honeymoon in Florida.
We had just gotten in from a very long 8-9 hour drive and I felt like soaking in one of these beauties.
Well...the moment I get out I notice I've got hives ALL OVER my legs. Itchy, burning, nasty hives. So nasty in fact, I was balling my eyes out. We didn't have any Benedryl, and the concierge was of no help. I was rubbing ice all over my legs to try to reduce the swelling and puffing and itching and succeeding for the 3 secs my legs were too frozen to feel. So we end up making a run to Target (15 minutes away) for some Benadryl.
I didn't know I was allergic to bleach. I thought I had been infected with someone's nasty vagina junk - like you see on those episodes of Oprah-- and I was sure I'd just contracted some nasty down-there disease. Well, by the FOURTH time we'd called for the tub to be all but extracted, the maids finally realized they'd cleaned the wrong room 3 times. So needless to say, the witchy maid came in, and without any apology or anything nice just says to me, "You're just allergic to bleach" and shot me a look that would have killed me if I hadn't been throwing out my own death vibes to her.
Allergic to bleach? Huh?! Who's allergic to bleach? I just ignored her and went on my oh-so-merry way. Till I started noticing that whenever I wear something white - I itch and break out into tiny little hives. Or, like last night when I cleaned my tub with Clorox spray and go in for a nice soak - my arms itch and break out into hives where I hadn't quite rinsed off all of the bleach along the rim. I don't know when I developed this allergy. I didn't really notice it till the lovely maid pointed it out to me.
So now I'm going to have to start hunting down cleaners that contain no bleach. I've already stopped using bleach on my clothes. Anyone know of any products I can buy??
Posts
4 comments:
I think I'm mildly allergic to bleach. When I clean with our SoftScrub With Bleach in our apartment my hands get irritated and there are some red spots that itch. But nothing as bad as what you get. (then again, I wasn't submerged in it...) I don't use bleach on clothes, so I can't tell you if that would do anything to me. I saw a commercial recently for a laundry detergent that essentially bleaches without bleach. I'm trying to remember which brand. I'll get back to you on that. It's relatively new. You could try that.
And you're not the only one allergic to bleach. I've known a few people. Crazy huh? And I know some that are allergic to laundry detergent (like my friend Kasey). So you're not crazy!!
I actually can't use Tide. Tide does the same thing, only it's not hives it's just an itchy rash. It sucks.
That's the particular brand Kasey's allergic to too. Tama had to keep trying different detergents until there was something that wouldn't affect her. Crazy! I don't use Tide so I dunno what it'd do to me.
There's All Free and Clear laundry detergent (Cindy uses it because she's sensitive to fragrances.) And there is regular Soft Scrub without bleach that can work on your tub. I'm not sure if Lysol disinfecting wipes are bleach free v. Clorox... Oxy Clean is good for clothes if you soak them before the regular wash.
Allergies suck.
Post a Comment