did i say shingles?? i meant chemical burn!!

so the el salvador rash mystery continues. cut to the next day. i wake up in the morning before heading to the office to poop in a cup for the 3rd consecutive day and when noel gets out of bed i notice two large brownish rashish looking spots over his kidneys. "what the hell is that?" i exclaim. noel hadn't noticed the spots until this moment, and resp0nded quite honestly, "i don't know." since dave had told us that shingles were not contagious and noel hadn't been to chilasco (dave's town) in some time, he couldn't have gotten said shingles from the same patojos. "maybe i bruised my kidneys riding on the camionetta??" "i don't think so. those aren't bruises." so we head off to the peace corps office for our last day of meds. dave comes in also because he's not satisfied with the peace corps medical staff's herpes/shingles diagnosis. noel shows the peace corps nurse his rashy situation, and they were all, "hmm, why don't we wait until dave gets back from the dermatologist." dave's visit with the dermo went something like this:
dermo: so tell me about your weekend. what have you been up to these past few days?
dave: well , we to the beach in el salvador. hung out. did beachy stuff.
dermo: uh-huh. were you making any drinks?
dave: um, yeah.
dermo: any limes in those drinks?
dave: um sure. you know cuba libres, vodka tonics. all which require limes.
dermo: okay, so what you have, dave, is a mild chemical burn caused by the reaction of the sun with lime zest on your skin.
dave: wha?
dermo: yeah.
dave: so this super powerful, $200 herpes medication that i've been taking for having shingles . . .?
dermo: what?? stop taking that immediately!! you don't need that!!
dave: uh-huh. thanks very much, doctor.
when dave got back to the peace corps office, he informed the nurses what the dermotologist had said. "oh yeah. now i remember seeing a case of this a few years ago. a volunteer was down on the beach in las lisas and they wanted to play baseball but they didn't have any balls. but they did have a loooot of limes and . . . ahh, snap!!! that kid's face got all kinds of messed up." so why does noel have two patches over his kidneys? well, he does like to rest his hands there when he's being pensive. why don't i have any spots? well the boys were in charge of mixing the drinks that weekend. so my boyfriend and dave don't have herpes or shingles. just a simple case of sbr - spring break rash. can't wait for sbr'06. yea!!

is this thing on??

um, i accidentally made a blog. i'm here in the peace corps office in guate for my mid service med exams waiting for the doctor to show up and give me the once over. no major problems to report, unlike dave. we went to la costa del sol in el salvador (that's spanish for the savior. kind of a heavy name for a country if you ask me.) last weekend and dave got a rash. at first we thought it was from maybe a little too much boogie boarding. but turns out he's got shingles! he claims all the little patojos in his site with chicken pox gave it to him. i'm not convinced. so they gave him some medication valuing over $200. that's about what i make a month. alexa just informed me that shingles means girdle in latin and is also a strain of the herpes. hence dave's new nickname is girdleherp laserhole. anyway, i don't have shingles so the appointment shouldn't take long. if the doctor ever gets here.