Progress Part VII: Finally up to date, getting way worse, and speculations

21 July 2011

Slightly worse in all aforementioned spots today. More redness/swelling, more skin loss. Slight spreading/swelling on back of left and right hands and knuckles. Cracking on the left pinky. More bubbles on right palm.

Slept until 12 again. Had a dream where I was heading to theoretical home in China/HK and first had to leave the cat by himself for three days, but then he came with us. For some reason Second Aunt was also there, and so was T. We had to take turns with one computer and then I found an off-limits computer after showering (running on XP). When I "woke up" I found Mother in the living room reading, and the cat (shrunk to the size of a large rat) was squirming in its food bowl, sans any skin. Mice was trying to nibble on him and was also sans skin. According to Mother the cat threw up and then was licking himself and licked off all the skin. Plus the skin of the mice. Not sure whether I tried throwing the mice out--they were all sticky and slimy-- or removing the cat from the bowl, but the other kind followed and I had to pick up my cat from the huddle of mice and cat from the piled that reformed on the floor. Needless to say, I woke up a little disturbed and immediately went to check if the cat is alright.

22 July 2011

Yet still worse today. More redness in fingers and on back of hands, thickened skin between the fingers, more bubbles on right palm, left palm is a little uneven. Greater affected areas on my wrist. Hands were very hot and itchy last night. Didn't sleep until 2, woke up around 3:30, and hands ceased to be itchy and hot around 5.

Dreamt that I was on a campus that connects to a aquarium and sports activity place. The campus was huge and required riding trains through the mountains to get home. They were switching train tunnels around and one segment of it didn't match, so a segment of train would get unlatched and left behind. My friend and I ran to the front of the train and left the train in the storm. I couldn't open an umbrella (orange) because the wind is strong enough to flip it. Ran inside the aquarium/sports/tutoring/learning place (dream geography is always wacky) and wandered around accidentally going through an in-use auditorium (we sneaked out), seeking an exit. Another time I was in the train again and the train got stuck because of that bit of tunnel, so I went to the aquarium place again and tried to walk the short way around, but ended up meeting little kids wanting to draw or something...

I've been reading two books on neurochemicals' effects on female and male brains. It's written by a psychiatrist and sometimes the book is a little to laymen for me, but looking at the surges of estrogen females experience every month makes me think that the worsening of my hands might be related to my monthly cycle--more precisely, the ebb and flow of estrogen. We shall see if my hands get better next week, when my estrogen should be plummeting.