I have had the longest 24+ hours. At about 10pm on Monday I noticed a small patch of hives on my stomach. Familiar with Tristen's allergic reactions, I assumed something didn't settle right that I had eaten and took a little benedryl before bed.
I awoke to it having spread to most of my chest and lower back. I took some more antihistamine and went on my day (Tristen had a second eye surgery yesterday and with one whopping children's eye surgeon in this region, I could not reschedule. It takes months and months just to be seen- ps, he did great. It was our second tear duct surgery).
When we got home, I could tell the hives had spread even further. I had Travis take the kids, I took Benedryl, and went to bed. Four hours later I now had a reaction on my scalp, ears, entire trunk, Legs to my knees, and the bottoms of my feet- basically everyplace except my ankles to knees. Horrible. Went to urgent care and avoided the million people convinced they have swine flu. They've put me on three meds to try and break through. We can't figure out what it was. I've never experienced anything like it.
The prednisone (?) I got at urgent care seems to have helped a lot (though we think I had an allergic reaction to that too- my lips and tongue went all tingly within 2 hours...so, more benedryl to counteract that). I'm down to small patches everywhere instead of full coverage. Unfortunately, overnight I developed some on my face and now look like a hormonal teenager with bad acne. Fun. My feet are still terrible, but I'm on 2 other meds to hopefully get me back to normal.
The doctor didn't mention it, but I think I may go in for allergy testing once this is all of my system. I cannot do that again. I've never experienced anything like this. Absolutely nuts, and for the life of me, I can't figure out what it was that caused it. The only thing I can think of is that I've developed a new allergy, because I was only exposed to things I always have been (to my knowledge)
oh no. fwiw i took Raym to the doc for those hives. He was given a new antihistamine and said benedryl was only good for the original breakthrough. Anyway the doc said that hives are a idiopathic systomatic reaction or something to that affect and said Hives are never from something your skin contacts. Only something in your system. I hope you figure out what it is soon. It sounds miserable
-- Edited by 3s_a_crowd on Wednesday 23rd of September 2009 08:56:32 AM
New laundry detergent? New clothes that you wore without washing?
I've broken out before (very mild, nothing like your situation) from detergent on sheets at hotels.
That's the funny thing, nothing different. Same detergent, same soap, same shampoo. By how bad it wsa, the doctor said it was something I ingested. I did eat at the commons for lunch and had soup, but I can imagine what would be in minestrone soup that I've had a hundred times that would do that.
I'm feeling even better after my morning meds. I am for sure setting up an appointment with my doc to follow-up.
She also checked me for a couple of infections, but I won't hear those results until today since it was so late there. Strep, and UTI. She said sometimes if you already have an infection, even one you don't know about yet, that can trigger an even worse response where you might have only had a minor reaction otherwise.
The doctor was suprisingly thorough for urgent care. I think she was just taking a long break from the million people there thinking they had the flu (as a non-doctor looking at them I could have told 3/4+ of them they didn't. Both universities, mine included, is telling any student who has even the most remote symptoms to go get a rapid flu test at urgent care. They are swamped).
Ugh, that is awful! Have you been on antibiotics recently? I once had a head-to-toe delayed reaction to amoxicillian - hives all over every inch of my body - it was miserable. I developed the reaction a few days after I finished the medicine. The dr said that sometimes it can take the body a few days to react to an allergen and sometimes the reaction is immediate.
