Not-so-luscious lips

Camy here. Warning: this post is a bit TMI, so stop reading if you want.

Remember two weeks ago I talked about lips and lip balm? Well it has bitten me back.

I have developed a yeast/fungal infection on the skin around my lips. It’s a little like a yeast infection you-know-where, except it’s drier. I’ve got a red rash around my mouth that looks like I’ve been overindulging in strawberries.

This totally sucks! At first I thought I had a few weird pimples, but Neosporin cream dabbed on them only made them worse. And then they started itching like crazy and seeping a teeny bit of clear fluid—and I knew what I had, because I’ve had this before.

This happened once when I was on vacation, and it pretty much ruined my entire vacation. So, I’ve taken precautions since then to ALWAYS BE PREPARED.

I got that yeast infection cream (miconozole) and have been using that on my skin. It’s slowly healing.

Now girls, here’s a word of warning—I tend to get this kind of infection because of lack of Vitamin B. At least, that’s what my doctor told me, and then I Googled it and it seems to be true according to lots of other websites, too.

I have been a Bad Camy and not taking my daily multivitamin. So if you don’t take a multivitamin every day, try to score some.

You can also get Vitamin B from stuff like milk, lentils, potatoes, shellfish, fish, and meat (especially liver). So guess what I had the first night this infection broke out? Fish/clam chowder! Yeah, baby! Milk, potatoes, fish and clams! Vitamin B OD!

Anyway, my skin has been clearing up, which is a good thing because the itching was driving me crazy. I no longer look like Bozo the Clown with all my red splotches.

I know you guys are probably tired of older people telling you to listen to them, but trust me on this, you don’t want your face to be itching so badly you feel like you could scratch your skin off.

Vitamin B! Daily multivitamin! Be healthy and stay itch-free!

Camy Tang is the loud Asian chick who writes loud Asian chick lit. She used to be a biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs (namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...), the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website contest going on right now, giving away five boxes of books and 25 copies of her latest release, ONLY UNI.