My parents' health insurance has a nurse hotline that you can call and get advice on medical problems, so my Mom called them today about my rash. She described it to them and both nurses she spoke to agreed that it sounds like an airborne poison ivy allergy. I guess this is the time of year poison ivy spores in Wisconsin and it's in the air, which is why the only parts of my body affected are the ones not covered with clothing and why it gets worse instead of better every day even though I'm drugged up on Benadryl and doused in Hydrocortisone.
THEN they proceed to tell her that an allergy as severe as this can quickly move into the organs and cause infertility. Like within a week! Guess how long I've been dealing with this? Yup... a week. I am FREAKING OUT! I am leaving Tuesday after breakfast and driving home and going to the clinic and pray like heck it hasn't gotten that bad yet. I'm just pissed at myself for passing this off as a minor allergy for so long and letting it get to this point.
And I guess the reason I never knew I had this allergy was because poison ivy doesn't grow where I grew up, nor is it common in California or NYC (obviously, it's a concrete jungle) so I've never been exposed to it in this amount before. Of course, it could still end up being something else but for now I'm told to assume that's what it is and get away from is ASAP. I wish I could leave tonight but I need tomorrow to train a replacement last minute. Joy.
Re: Are you freakin' kidding me!?!?
Jaye, that's crazy! I've never heard of that before. Let us know what happens, I'll be thinking about you and throwing out some vibes your way.
I hope it turns out that this is no big deal and hasn't affected anything other than what you can tell.
OK, now that I've had the night to calm down and be reasonable with myself I'm not freaking out as much. He said the first organ it affects is your lungs and it hasn't gotten there yet, so I should be good. But yeah, sounds like some steroids for me here soon. There is a clinic here I can go to but it's more expensive and I don't know the doctors. I know my doctor there and trust her to do what's best for me AND she knows my history better. I've already had 3 steroid injections this year (shoulder) and I'm worried about getting another and I just trust her judgement, you know? So home I go!
Plus it'll be nice to be babied by my Mom and see my dog again. At least if I'm going to be itchy and miserable I can be itchy and miserable around people I love.
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