Oxyclean Nightmare

Who knew that a little bit too much oxyclean could cause so much discomfort, pain and itchiness... I certainly didn't. My husband is determined that I was trying to kill him. I promise you that I wasn't. I was only trying to get his work clothes clean. The only problem with that is that when I wash his work clothes, I also wash his boxers, comfy pants and shorts... and anything else that he puts on his body.

On Monday, Joey started to develop these little bumps on his legs and arm and stomach. By Tuesday the bumps started to get a little bit bigger and widespread. We initially thought that they were just flea bites that he got at a foreclosure property that he had went to. I know that it is a bit cold outside for fleas.. but the house that he went to hadn't been vacant for very long... so we were just guessing that it was fleas. Well by Wednesday they were a little bit worse and spreading out more... but we were still sticking to our initial diagnosis of flea bites. When I went to work on Wednesday night Joey was complaining that his red bumps were much more itchy, widespread and super uncomfortable. I continued to think that it wasn't that big of a deal and that he was fine and we would just have to wait for the bites to fade away. Joey had a horrible night on Wednesday due to the discomfort of the rash and having difficulty falling asleep due to taking care of Addie. He didn't want to take Benadryl since he was with Addie by himself. So I come home Thursday morning (to Joey singing "Boobie buffet" to Addie) and I catch a glimpse of Joeys legs. Holy Cow! I immediately knew something was wrong. This was much much more that just flea bites. It was the worst rash I had ever seen! It was red, crazy inflamed and even more uncomfortable. His rash by this time was everywhere (and I mean everywhere), it was even on the palms of his hands. The only place he didn't have a spot was his face. I told Joey he had to go to the doctor! Luckily he was able to work his schedule out to be able to make it to the minute clinic at CVS by 3:00. The nurse at the Minute Clinic couldn't have been more delightful. She was super sweet! Joey had done a little investigation and read that oxyclean has been known to cause rashes on people all of a sudden who have previously had no issues with it. Then when he found out that ALL of his clothes had been washed in extra oxyclean... a new diagnosis was born. The nurse practitioner agreed that it was just contact dermatitis and wrote a script for prednisone and steroid cream. As a side note... the scripts were super cheap! The prednisone was only 79 cents and the steriod cream was only 49 cents. Crazy huh! Luckily the prednisone started kicking this yucky rashes butt pretty fast. I went home and washed all of Joeys clothes multiple times to make sure that all the oxyclean was rinsed out and then I put the loads on the extra rinse cycle. Hopefully we don't have any of these issues again.


Now just picture this everywhere. Maybe a little uncomfortable... I also don't think this pic does his rash any justice. This was taken when it was already healing.

I feel like it is also important to note that I don't think this is all my fault. I have always used oxyclean on my hubbys clothes (although I did use extra this time...). I think that he reacted the way he did because his poor body is wiped out. He hasn't been getting much sleep since I went back to work, he is crazy stressed with his work and on Tuesday he was sick from paint fumes and denatured alcohol from stripping paint in a room. Last week was not his week! So I feel like his immune system is not at its top potential!