Like sleeping in a hotel in my own bedroom

It has been ages since I last bought sleeping pillows. Six years, actually, and they had not been washed since, although I make it a point to replace their casings every one or two weeks. Every other week at the max. No more than that. It leaves me feeling uneasy if I don't. I could bet my Html skills off that at least 80% of humans succumb to the same shamefully disgusting and unhygienic passivity I have towards my sleeping pillows. We sweat our heads off on them every single night, making them a breeding ground for bacteria and, eventually, dust mites who may in turn give us allergies. Dreadful, I know, yet the idea easily escapes the minds of normal, living beings.

Just last week, the inevitable happened. I asked our company doctor to have the sides of my wrists checked for what seems like traces of allergic manifestations. What I did not disclose, however, was the fact that I also had traces of the same micro-protrusions and terribly itchy sores on the insides of both my thighs, albeit barely noticeable to the naked eye. She gave me anti-histamines to hopefully counter the allergens causing my discomfort. She was thinking I got the sores from dust mites, whose portrait I had kindly provided here for your viewing displeasure. Note that this image is magnified several hundred times such that, as DrGreene.com puts it, "30,000 of these tiny creatures [could be found] in one ounce of dust." Just fucking beautiful!

Two days had gone but the itching sensation persisted. I had been controlling the strong urge to scratch but I do not know how much longer I could put the compulsion off. I again went for consultation and asked for a topical cream or anything that could probably provide me faster relief. With a prescription in hand and a firm conviction at heart, I set out to buy the blasted cream cursing that I would, from that moment onwards, do everything I could to analyze what events happened within the last week or two that made me have the allergic-reactions-cum-dust-mite-induced blisters.

Culprit number one was a container-full of my comicbooks our house helper brought in my room which probably had colonies of silverfishes and thousands of microscopic what-have-yous that may have served as a breeding ground for the mites. The said box had not been opened nor aired out for the longest time (read five or so years) making it one perfectly passive agar plate. As she set it down in one corner of my bedroom, the thump may have shifted the box's contents which in turn stirred the mites inside from their reverie. I returned the box back to the living room where it originally was. I then began spraying Lysol all over like a mad death eater in an all-out Adavra Kedavra frenzy. I followed on with a timely anti dust mite solution I had found earlier at the grocery store. It smelt like apple and linen all over my room. I hurriedly went out and closed the door shut behind me to make sure the mist seeps through every crack and covers every square inch of exposed surface area.

That night, right before sleeping, I got my pillows, vengefully slid them in a large garbage bag, and threw them away. Heck, the thought of having a whole network of dust mites inside a pillow placed between my thighs as I sleep gave me the shivers, evidenced by me instantly manifesting goosebumps on my goosebumps.

I slept without pillows that night. A situation that lasted me two uneasy sleep cycles.

Over the weekend, I made an effort to hunt for affordable and dust mite warding pillows (if ever there were any, which at the time I had no clue over) to replace my loss. I got me goose down feather pillows at True Value. You read it right, I now am sleeping like a royalty in the confines of my own room. What more, I could look forward to a pillow-fight where feathers would actually fly around as the casing tears instead of ugly lumps of cotton or polycotton or polyester threads bouncing about. Besides, those queen-sized, sleep-well pillows cost around like P500 when a goose down counterpart would only cost you P700. I got two king-sized ones for a couple of hundred more, each (whose brand, by the way, is Majestic bought from True Value at the Rockwell). It says in the pretective plastic cover that the pillows are machine washable, hypo-allergenic, and dust-mite proof. Plus, words would definitely fail me if I were to describe how my first two nights of sleeping on them felt like.

Thankfully, all traces of allergies on me had gone.

I can now hear my pillows calling my name. I wish you pleasant dreams as off to bed I'll go.

In parting, remember, don't let the dust mites bite.


Click on this link for a DrGreene.com guide on how to care for goose down pillows.
Photo from the Honolulu Community College web site.

Labels: Lifestyle, Practical Stuff

posted by Fritz @ 12:01 AM