erika, that's what my mom always did when her eczema was acting up. Topical cortisone can help, too, but I think you have to be careful not to overdo it; mom had prescription strength cortisone and she'd only use so much before the cold washcloth came out.

Prescription strength cortisone will thin your skin, permanently, if you use too much of it, according to my doctor.

My niece puts Ben-Gay on her skin when she gets the impossible itching. She says the conflicting sensory signals confuse the nerves enough to shut them up. Sometimes she uses Orajel to numb it.

A hairdryer works, too. Seriously. Aim the hot air at your itchy [part] from 6 inches away (basically, far enough away that you don't burn yourself, but close enough that it's hot).

And what happens FIRST is that it starts itching SO MUCH WORSE. And you want to quit. But if you stick with it, all of a sudden, the itching just...stops. And I think it's the same theory as using Ben-Gay -- the heat overloads the nerve for a while and you stop itching.

Hate.Itching.

My auntie had the shingles so bad everyone was talking about the pain and the itch. When the vaccine became available I hustled myself in for the shot. They didn't give me any trouble about being too young after I explained that my Dad and little sister had already had shingles.

I used the hair dryer trick when I had a cast on my leg back in the Seventies when dinosaurs roamed the nation's driver's education programs. I taped a skinny vacuum cleaner attachment to the hair dryer, set in on Low, and managed to avoid sticking things into the cast to scratch.

No hummingbirds today, but: woodpecker! I thought the neighbor was doing a craft project, but no. A black and white woodpecker was checking out their tree where the bark is bad. So there is still plenty of Nature around here despite the fact that the neighbors all like spraying various noxious substances along the property line. We like to think we offer a little slice of habitat with our landscape.

I did the hairdryer thing several years ago with an unexplained case of hives. I only burned myself a little.

If you don't want to do the hairdryer thing, or have a large area of itch, a SCALDING hot shower or bath works similarly.

The hummingbird and woodpecker news reminds me - my stepfather has decided to put up a birdhouse that is specially crafted to appeal to screech owls. He looked up everything about proper height to hang it, what direction to face it, etc. in hope of luring some of the local owls to their property.

When I told him I once spotted a Great Horned Owl in their back yard, he looked like he'd woken up to find out that he'd slept through Christmas.

Ginger, itching is awful. I'm sorry you have one more thing to deal with.;

I finally heard back from the nurse at 3:00 PM. My thyroid function is fine, and there is no need to change my current meds. I get to call again tomorrow to try to find out if my uti is cleared up or not. I had a small meltdown this evening for no good reason, so I'm going to blame pregnancy hormones.

My son just told me a great story about how pregnancy hormones are making his girlfriend cry about everything she watches on TV and, since he cries when she cries, they have limited themselves to Disney movies - and even then there is no guarantee.

You have good reason to melt down, sj, they really shouldn't have left you hanging that long.

Oh, god, Hallmark commercials were the worst. I think the pregnancy hormones damaged me permanently when it comes to those.

I honestly don't recall pregnancy hormones making me any less stable than ordinary, and H concurs. Of course one has to factor in my base level of "stable". That said, Budweiser commercials make me tear up.