A Series of Unfortunate Maladies...

Wednesday: Toe accident
Thursday: First hives outbreak
Friday: Second, more severe hives outbreak
Saturday: Third, milder hives outbreak
Sunday: Phew!

It seems like the hives have taken a break today. I don't know if its because I circumvented their appearance with an early does of allegra or if they have finally begun to subside, but today passed without much fanfare.

Friday was a pretty crazy day. After lunch, the hives started popping up below my chin and started moving up my face, then my legs started itching as well so I knew that it was bad. I decided to ditch my last meeting of my summer internship and run out to a doctor's appointment that I managed to scramble to get at the last minute. The receptionist at the doctor's office said that she felt itchy just looking at me, I don't blame her, it was really that bad.

The doctor gave me a shot, took some blood to test for allergies, gave me some free samples of allegra and wrote me a prescription for some topical cream. The directions said, apply to affected area. On Friday night, I slathered the cream on like it was moisturizing lotion, since that was pretty much "the affected area". The angry red welts started disappearing around 4PM and was pretty much all clear by 6PM. Phew! At least I could still enjoy my Friday night.

Then on Saturday after lunch, the hives started coming back again. Although Rick and I were planning to go to Staples and run some errands, he took me home right away so I could take my medication. It really worked! This time, the hives were limited to my lower body, my lower back took the worst hit, but besides that they faded without too much to do.

It's been a rough few days. My throat has beenconstantly parched, I think as a side effect of taking allegra. The good thing is that I ended up really just picking at my food most of the weekend because I was worried that eating anything triggered a flare up. Tonight, I broked the rule for the first time and ate, actually, too much! No hives yet, keeping my fingers crossed for now. I plan to adapt "food picking" as a new habit as I move into this "lifestyle change" of healthier eating and exercise.