March 1, 2010

My Doctor Adventures

Sorry that I haven't been very good at writing on this thing. I'm not sure how many of you know my little adventure that happened this last month... Well here goes.

On Saturday January 30th, Jon and I watched as many episodes of Lost as we could before we could no longer hold our eyes open. Then went to bed. I was EXHAUSTED. But unable to sleep. (It reminded me of pregnancy a little bit) At 1am I realized my elbow really itched so I reached up to feel it and there was a bump on my elbow. I started cursing the spider that had apparently bit me and rolled back over to fall asleep. A few minutes later my hands started to itch and hurt like they were swelling and on fire. I switched on our lamp and made Jon get out of bed so I could find the spider and find out if I needed to be rushed to the hospital. That's when I noticed that I had red bumps all over my legs and arms. I went into the bathroom and sure enough they were all over my face as well. I went out to the living room to google and see if this is a common reaction to a certain spider bite. An hour later I came to the conclusion that I was having my first ever allergic reaction.

I only had one problem... Jon and I aren't allergic to anything. I had no Benadryl in the house and it was 3 in the morning. I went back to bed to try and sleep and then figured I would send Jon to the store in the morning. No such luck. I couldn't sleep. I guess Shay couldn't either because she woke up at 4. I sent Jon back to bed and she and I made a late night run to Walmart. We were back by about 5:30 and I fed her a bottle and she went back to bed. I then took my first ever dose of Benadryl and told Jon what I needed him to do for my church responsibilities to be taken care of that day, and fell into a troubled sleep.

I continued to get worse throughout the day and my feet and hands were so swollen I felt like someone was grinding glass into them. It hurt to be alive on every inch of my body. I had hives from my scalp to my feet and everywhere in between.

We finally decided we should go to the Provo instacare since my hives were so aggressive and we were told it would be a two hour wait. I filled out the paper work and after talking to my Mom, who told me they would just give me Benadryl and send me home since I could still breath, I told them I decided I would just leave instead of waiting 2 hours to get more Benadryl. They rushed me back to see a nurse. Who promptly told me that the hives on my face were just zits... news to me. They gave me a shot of Benadryl and told me that would help and the Dr would be in to see me shortly. I had decided by this time that the reaction I was having, was to an antibiotic that I was taking, and had told this to the nurse multiple times. They said I should start feeling better soon but as I sat there my hands started to visibly swell and suddenly the palm of my hands were 10 times their normal size. Kind of a freaky thing to see. My Mom told me that I was the first person she had ever seen visibly swell like that, other than in the movies, until now she always thought they just made that up.

The Dr came in and told me I was being ridiculous. That the reaction was not to the antibiotic because it didn't come from the penicillin group and that I should take a cool bath and use a better lotion and I would feel better. He did add that if they weren't gone in 7 days I should go see my normal dr. Thanks for nothing, dimwit. This interaction made me wonder if he got his degree online. And I still had to pay for the visit!!

He sent me home. Yes he sent me home. I continued to get worse over the night and we went to the BYU student health center that next morning. They gave me a shot of Epinephrine, my hives got worse. At that point the Dr started pulling other doctors in and having them look and see what they thought. 2 hours later, I had 2 antihistamines, an oral steroid and a steroid injection and the shot of epinephrine going through my system and was told if I wasn't feeling relief in 3 hours I was to come back immediately. And to never, never, never take that antibiotic again.

I did start feeling relief at exactly 3 hours and for the next week and a half I was on oral steroids and 2 antihistamines, this was just taking the edge off my pain and itching. So I've been seeing an allergist. Who told me that the way I was treated at the instacare was "atrocious" and I'm getting better. I'm now only on 1 antihistamine that I only have to take once a day and he thinks I'll be 100% better sometime in the next few weeks.

All this for me to say, just don't have an allergic reaction... Luckily I have a wonderful husband who took a week off of work to try and get this figured out. I don't know what I would do without him.

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