Born: June 9, 1972
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October 20, 2005 at 09:05 am
Poison...something...
You may have noticed that I’ve been a little quiet here over the last couple of days (or, maybe you haven’t — which is ok, I guess).
The first reason for this is because, Monday, a power surge fried our server here at work. Because of this, our internet connection has been down — not so good for a web designer like myself. But, our downed internet didn’t really affect me too much on Tuesday.
Why?
Well, Tuesday, I was all holed-up and hopped-up (in bed and on Benedryl respectively). It turns out that Sunday, while doing some yardwork, I came into contact with something that my body didn’t like very much. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t poison-ivy or poison-oak, but I’m not ruling out poison-sumac just yet. (But, it could have just been something that I’ll never know.)
So, Tuesday, with a swollen and red face, and a pretty gnarly rash all over my neck, arms, hands, and chest, I made my way to the doctor. I was given yet another prescription for Prednisone. Yuck. (Here‘s a photo I took of my last bottle.)
Yesterday (Wednesday), I was a little better and back at work. The swelling had gone down, but I still had plenty of blotchy red patches in various places on my face, arms, and hands. And, it still itched pretty dang bad (thank God for Caladryl!). Our server was still out for repair, though, so I still didn’t have internet access.
Today, I’m even better, but still pretty red and itchy (the swelling has gone down significantly on my face, but the redness seems to be spreading a little on my hands).
The weird thing about all of this is that, until yesterday, I thought I was veritably impervious to poison plant-types. I used to be a pretty avid camper and hiker (when I lived in a location where places to do those things weren’t very hard to find). I’ve done a lot of yardwork around poison-ivy and poison-oak with nary an occurrence. But, my doctor told me that most plant-induced topical allergies sometimes take three or more exposures to actually affect someone. He said that I could have come into contact with whatever it was that gave me this blight last fall, and then again last spring, and now, this time, it hit me. Weird, no?
Hopefully, everything will be much better by the time Julianna, our friend Jill, and I make the drive to St. Louis on Friday to see our recently-returned-to-the-US friends, Rob and Erica.
It’s not fun to go through life feeling like your skin is crawling!
Needless to say, there may be a barrage of Blog entries in the next few minutes, as I had just a wee bit of time to write yesterday.
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Comments (3)
By the way, they make Caladryl Clear now! (No more yucky pink stuff.)
– http://shop.store.yahoo.com/buyinprivate..
Oh, also… Yours looks MUCH worse than mine!
But I do find it slightly amusing…
For me, I’ve no idea what I came in contact with. They say in two weeks I can do some tests to try and find out any reaction to chemicals, etc., but I’ve been telling myself there’s no way that I’ll ever know. Maybe it’s better this way, although I would very much like to know what in the world happened.
I believe something came through my already wounded hand and then spread from there, but it should be pointed out that it only spread to my upper arm, underside of left arm, and face and ears. Definitely not as bad as yours though.
I remember when Grandma used to give us Caladryl up at Clear Lake whenever we got bug bites or anything itchy…I need to find some myself, at night my hand sets itself on fire.
After another visit to the dermatologist today I was told to lessen my prednisone schedule because it’s looking significantly better. I suppose this is a good thing, my softball foes would probably like it better if I were off the steroids…