Itchy McItcherson

Last night my body decided I hadn't had enough of feeling horrible and that it wanted to give me yet another slap in the face. As if a month of suffering from a severe sinus infection followed by 3 days of the stomach flu wasn't enough...it turns out my body made the choice to reject the antibiotics I've been taking for the past week. I'd already missed 1 1/2 days of work from the stomach flu and then...just when I thought I might actually be able to start eating real food again and maybe go back to work, I look down and I see that my arms are all red and splotchy. I took a couple Benedryl and called my sister, Maggie, who is a nurse. She told me I should be fine, as long as the reaction didn't spread to my face and cause my lips/tongue/throat to swell. She said if I started to feel anything around my lips or tongue to go to the ER. At this time James kind of started freaking out because my entire face was bright red and I told him my lips felt a little bit tingly. I assured him I'd be fine and that I was going to go to bed. At that point the rash was mostly just on my arms.

I woke up around 4 AM and felt itchy all over. I stripped off all my clothes because they were hurting me and I went to the bathroom to see if the rash was still there. At this time it had spread to my entire body...from head to toe. And it itched SO BAD! So I scratched and cried for a while in the bathroom then took a couple more Benedryl and went back to bed...and somehow ended up going back to sleep.

I woke up again around 6 AM and though my stomach felt better, I knew I couldn't go to work in this condition. So I went up to the school (again) to make early morning sub plans. As I left the school, I called and made a Dr. appt. They couldn't get me in until 11:00 so I went home, called my mom and complained about 30 minutes, then writhed in pain for a while and finally fell asleep again.

When I woke up, I had just enough time to take a quick AGONIZING shower (seriously painful), dry my hair, and head to my appt. Luckily, for the first time ever, I didn't have a long wait and was able to get in within a couple minutes. I kind of wonder if it was because I looked like a leper. A male student nurse from JCCC took my vitals and informed me he was following around a nurse for the day. At that point, Anita (my nurse) came in. People...if you ever go to College Park Family Care on 112th Street, you should see if you can get Anita as your nurse. She is the best! After seeing Doc, we confirmed that my skin rash was very likely due to my antibiotics. Doc pitched my old bottle in the trash, added the Sulfa allergy to my file, and prescribed a new antibiotic (Zithromax), a steriod (Prednisone), something for my stomach/allergy (Zantac), and suggested a new everyday allergy medicine (Zertec). On top of all that, he said I'd have quicker relief if I got a Prednisone shot while I was there. I agreed to it, since I was feeling miserable. So Nurse Anita came back in. She informed me that the student nurse volunteered to administer the shot, but she wouldn't let him. She told me she "had my back". So she gave me a nice big needle in the butt and then had me lay down for 20 minutes, during which time she brought me a "blankey" and "tucked me in" so I could be comfortable. She told me she had a daughter about my age and that she would feel just terrible if this ever happened to her daughter. She said since my mom lives 3 1/2 hours away, she'd be my mom for the day. Seriously, good nurses are the best!

So now...I'm home. I've taken my meds (as well as a Benedryl topical cream) and though I'm feeling better than I was earlier, I'm still rather itchy. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. At least my tummy ache has let up (knock on wood)!