Seven Star Hammer Test!

Well, PUPPPs, you've gone and made me feel crazy again. This time, it's for poking myself repeatedly with itty bitty needles. Need a little explanation for that statement? You can read up on my Seven Star Needle journey here: Seven Star Needle Posts. Anyway, I finally had a patch of rash that deserved some extreme attention. So, I pulled out my "hammer" and gave it a go.

I documented the process, so you all could follow along with the crazy. 

Here's the before picture of a lovely little patch of rash on my hip. Red, raised, and SO itchy. I tried not to scratch before this picture to keep it from looking too inflamed. 

And here's what I used in the process. Cotton balls for sterilizing my skin, the torture device (aka the seven star needle or plum blossom), and some isopropyl alcohol. 

Here I am sterilizing my skin. You need to give it a good long, vigorous scrub for the alcohol to be effective, at least 5 minutes. 

All clean and ready to commence!

Sterilizing the hammer. I let it sit there in a capful of alcohol for 5 minutes. 

Then I went to tapping! I did a little video, but my internet connection is sketchy right now, so I'll have to upload that later. I tapped until there were little spots of blood all over the patch. Yes, it hurt! Let's see, how shall I describe it... Well, it felt like seven tiny needles pricking me over and over and over. I found that the faster I tapped, the less I recognized the pain. I also tried it on a patch of skin in a more "sensitive" area that I didn't feel comfortable photographing. It hurt a lot more there.

Here's the skin right after:

And here it is about an hour later:

And this is a full day later:

Pretty well healed up from the pricks. The hives are less obvious, and I will say that this patch has not bothered me at ALL since the treatment. Unfortunately, the patch in the more sensitive area is still crazy itchy. CRAZY itchy. It could be that I didn't tap as hard, since it hurt more. I even tapped that area for a second time today without success. It still itches!!

I will continue to monitor the patch on my hip to see if the itch returns. I'm not sure what to make of this PUPPPs treatment. It seems very effected for the patch on my hip but hasn't improved the patch in the sensitive area at all.

I guess I would recommend giving it a try, provided you understand the risk of infection and consult with your doctor/midwife ahead of time! I'll let you know if my condition changes in the near future! I'd be quite curious to hear if any of you try it and how it turns out! Please be careful in your efforts!

UPDATE: It's been roughly a week since I tested the hammer, and here's the status...The patch on my hip has disappeared. There is no itch in that spot. However, two patches cropped up right next to that patch. I don't know if it's related to using the hammer, but they sure do itch. I'm considering trying the hammer on them too. Now, the patch in the "sensitive" area is just as itchy as ever, maybe more. I don't understand why it appeared to work in one place but not the other. Very strange. I will post an additional update if I decide to test it again.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roughly two weeks after the first hammer test, I decided to give it a go again.  I had developed two additional patches on my hip, right next to the original patch. I pulled out the hammer and followed the same steps as before. It's been 3 days since I did this, and those patches are nearly gone! You can tell there used to be rash there, but there are no raised hives, and they do not itch. I'm more and more convinced that there might be something to this remedy!