July 9th, 2007 by Atomictumor
So MastaG and I trekked out to the allergist today, where we learned… nothing.
Seriously.
He said “Looks like contact dermatitis”, which, ironically, is exactly what I told the lady when I made the appointment. He admitted not knowing much about Henna allergies and PPD sensitivity, and said he’d look it up and call me, but told me that theres not a chance of sensitivity coming from this exposure, which kinda flies against some of the internet reading I’ve done.
So, whatever. I spent hours on the phone getting the freakin insurance referral set up, because the bums at the peds office suck at things like communicating to patients, and whatnot, and finally got the appt, and learn nothing useful when I get there. MastaG’s healing nicely, the scar probably won’t be that ugly, and he certainly hasn’t shown any signs that this thing is anything but a case of contact dermatitis.
Not to say that I’m bitching, because I certainly feel much better about things than I did a week ago, and it wasn’t any skin of my back to make a few phone calls and miss a little bit of work.
July 9th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Any explanation as to why this “contact dermatitis” showed up something like a week following exposure to the henna, but within minutes of swimming (only where the henna design was)?
Glad there’s no call for alarm, but I think I’d still be wanting a better explanation. Looks like MastaG’s stuck with just magic marker tattoos from here on out.
July 9th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
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July 9th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Glad all is ok, I’m sure it was just “one of those things”. Could have been the amounts of chlorine, or the levels of other chemicals that go into pool water that caused the reaction, or something he ate, or any of dozens of factors that caused the henna reaction. Now that he’s been professionally looked at and doesn’t have any other symptoms, I wouldn’t sweat it, either.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Always better safe than sorry. At least that is what myself and the doc told my 32 week pregnant daughter this morning at 5:30am after we spent three hours monitoring what turned out to be false labor.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Hmmm..so no “cool” scarring for G? Too bad for the ladies (well, by “ladies” I mean 10 yr old girls, and by “too bad” I mean now they can’t make fun of him)
Can’t wait to see you punks sometime (hopefully) soon.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Hmmm…
I hope the allergist does some reading and gets back to you.
I’m glad everything turned out ok!
July 9th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
That sucks.
So are you going to get a second opinion, or wait and see?
July 9th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Who was the allergist? I do not what to use that doctor. Could it be a reaction with the henna and chlorine? That is what it sounds like to me. It has nothing to do with MasterG but rather a chemical reaction between the henna and chlorine.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
http://www.thatsfit.com/tag/henna+tattoos/
Could be related? Maybe there’s a similar chemical in the pool?
July 10th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Longtime lurker, first time poster. I’ve been a henna artisit for over 2 years and have never seen anything like this. I contacted my distributer about a reaction between straight henna and chlorine and she has never heard of it. She does henna tattoos on her kids all the time and they live in Florida so they are in the pool constantly. She and I both agree that something had to be mixed with the henna to cause a reaction. It could have been the oil that they “terped” it with. Or it could have been mixed with PPD. However, based on the picture you posted after he got it done it doeasn’t have PPD coloring. What color was the paste when applied? How long was it left on? What color was the “tattoo” after the paste came off? PPD most definatly causes severe allergic reactions (including scarring in severe cases) although it typically reacts much quicker. The situation is really nagging at me as I do henna on kids and pregnant bellies all the time and I would hate for something like this to happen to one of my clients. :( I hope MastaG’s arm heals quickly and with no scar. Although I have to agree with him, that would be a REALLY cool scar to have. ;)
July 10th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Bex, I’ve wondered about the PPD situation myself. It was some very black ink, but up till then I didn’t really know much about the stuff. I’m not going to bag henna, because I don’t have a beef with it.
Pigpen’s is fading away at this point, and he had no effects. I think its something unique to MastaG, frankly. The boy’s a freak.
So far, haven’t heard back from the doc, but I’ll let you know. I might sneak another picture of it now (it is looking better) and pop it on for all you peoples to see.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:13 am
It truly makes me crazy that people are still trying to mix henna with PPD. There are so many great temporary tattoo paints that can last a couple weeks and look super cool. I always have those on hand for the boys because then I can really do some realistic looking tattoos. Here is a really informative link on PPD and Henna http://www.hennapage.com/henna/ppd/index.html