WOW. I finally got aggravated enough to look up a symptom that I've had for at least 15 years, or at least that I first identified the trigger of 15 years ago. If I go out in the sun during the warm weather, whatever skin is exposed to sunlight itches like mad later in the day. If I have long pants and short sleeves, it's just the arms and hands that itch. If I have shorts on and short sleeves, the itching is in the hands, arms AND legs.

Mark and I went to a baseball game yesterday. I had long sleeves AND jeans on. I figured there'd be no problem with itching. Right? Wrong. It's three freaking AM and my HANDS itch. ARRRRGH.

I don't think I need to describe how STUPENDOUSLY annoying this is. So, since I can't sleep, I decided to check around in Google to see if there's a name for this.

Sure enough, there is. Did you know that there's an actual condition called "Sun Allergy" and it affects approximately 10-15% of the US population? Son of a gun. I've got a whole lot more company than I ever thought possible.

I think I'll need to make an appointment with the doc to discuss possible prescription remedies to relieve this, since I have been trying every OTC anti-itch solution I could get my hands on, for years, with minimal success. The things that help most are solutions I've hit on by accident, over a period of years. Rubbing down the itchy areas with an ice cube helps a lot, though sometimes it takes more than one entire ice cube before the itching goes away. Also, misting the irritated areas with cold water seems to alleviate the problem, though when I employ this solution outdoors I have to be cognizant not to mist everyone who's downwind of me at the same time.

In fact, I think I'm going to go in for the ice cube remedy right now, since that might be the only way I'm going to get enough relief to be able to go back to sleep again.