Allergy Recap

Thursday, May. 29, 2008 - 12:27 a.m.

IMPORTANT: This TMI entry is full of cooties and girl germs.

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Okay. Let's review my known allergy symptoms around an amoxicillin reaction, shall we?

Sunday night / Monday morning
I took the amoxicillin at nine pm. I felt wonderful at eleven pm. I actually convinced myself that maybe I was going to get a freebie and that all of my little hurts and things were going to be cleared up and out and stay gone for awhile. I took a telephone call from Omaha Dave at around midnight that lasted for an hour and a snip. By the time the phone call was done, I felt a prickly waking up from sleep sensation in my hands. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and noticed that I was a deep rosy orange, not unlike the Golden Gate Bridge.

Monday
Through the night and into the morning, I slept poorly. I ingested a total of six Benadryls and four aspirin. John was up, bringing me water and taking my temperature. It crested at around 103F. In the middle of this fun, I had an accident with my ostomy appliance and had to change it, despite being nearly unable to work the scissors with my painful hands to cut the device to fit. My mucus membranes had a mixed reaction; my labia became inflamed to the point of urination becoming so uncomfortable I cried out, and my tongue turned a pale pink / off white for a few hours. Incredibly, nothing terrible happened with my respiration. My breathing never became labored, and my heart rate never wavered. My eyes had begun producing off-white pale congealed green gunge. At one point, when I looked in the mirror on Monday evening, with my wild hair, my dark orange skin, and my whitey green eye clumps, I thought that the Ganguro had nothing on me. And it was then that I knew I was truly hallucinating. I'd been able to keep down tater tots and a piece of toast and a little water and a little cran juice. My tongue had become sensitive to carbonation and alcohol, which meant my mouthwash rinse and then later my customary cup of diet cola both felt terrible, and I have also currently lost most of my salt taste. I haven't had sugar since being told by Scott Hysmith that a bad reaction to amoxicillin probably meant that the bad flora as well as the good flora have been killed, so stay away from sugar because it will give the bad flora an opportunistic atmosphere.

Tuesday
I am starting to peel on the side of my neck, where my pendant always is when I sleep. Off it came, placed on the altar until I feel better. My hands don't hurt as much, but it's still hard to get out of bed and stay out. John took a day off, and one of the things he found for me was a numbing agent called Vagisil. Whew. He also found me a quart of plain yogurt. I've started eating it, dosed with splenda and cinnamon. I emailed my doctor, told him what had happened, told him what I was now doing to overcome the symptoms, and after receiving a dressing down of some magnitude, he agreed with me to let my body fight this as much on its own as I could, and to continue my present course as long as I kept getting better and not worse. Dinner was sausage and eggs because it was quick and basic and savory (no salt!). Peeing is still absolutely no fun, and yes, the topical fungus that has come and gone over the last few years beneath my ostomy has returned with the vengenace of a lost spirit in a New York library. (I hope somebody out there got that!) I'm dealing with the latter with a double barreled attack of liquid Lamisil and paper towels, and it seems to be keeping the fungus at bay. I'm dealing with the former by stepping into the shower and having the cold spray pointed at the appropriate area.

Wednesday
I'm changing back to my normal color. My face broke out in about seventy little zits across the bottom half of my jaw. It no longer hurts to type. It's still not quite a joyride when peeing, but the chafing and dampness is now held in check by my newest old friend, Gold Bond Medicated Powder. I'm also all set for the sloughing process and have set in a store of things to scrub with and moisturize with. This feels like a bad sunburn. I still don't have my salt taste back, but I'm finding that I can still smell anything and everything, which is always part of the food process for me, so maybe if it stays gone, that might be good for me in the long run.

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It's now early Thursday, and I just took a whiz and remarkably, although it still wasn't back to normal, it was simply a case of sitting astride the throne and getting the deed done instead of acting as if I was mounted atop a bucking bronco that would pitch me off onto the rug.

Normal seems within reach. Knock on Formica.

So there, so far, is my story. Don't do this, not even on a dare.

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Have a good Thursday.

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