Thursday, May 16, 2013

a rough few weeks...a messy allergic reaction and a tough treatment...

(warning: another ramble about health demons...I'd write something more interesting, but this is what I've got to share....)

Sometimes it's almost amusing....almost....

When I was 13, I started getting hives.  I spent a couple years in and out of doctor's offices, even making it to some pretty special specialists with "hive clinics" and "hive calendars" and the like.  At first, the hives were large welts that pretty much covered my body.  The ultimate conclusion was that they had no conclusions.  Most likely, it was some form of auto-immune reaction.  Which I pretty much read as meaning I'm allergic to myself. 

Over the years, they've calmed a lot, they are nowhere near the horror they were at some points.  But they are always lurking and I doubt a week goes by when I don't have some sort pop-up, particularly on the backs of my knees and other heat-prone areas.  I do avoid a number of classes of medications because they can aggravate them...while the hives come from nowhere, they can also come from "somewhere"...

All this is a long way of saying that I'm used to my skin acting up.  So when my back would get a bit irritated from the capsacin patches, I just kind of ignored it.  I weighed the demons and the patches helped more than they hurt.  Until recently. 

It was probably the "sticky" ingredients in one of the generic patches that was the culprit.  I've had trouble with the steri-strips and medical tape in the past.  The region on my back stayed aggravated for a few weeks and, despite laying off using any patches and dosing with some allergy meds, it got worse.  And it grew.  It took longer than it should have, but I finally caved and saw the doctor.  By that point my chest and arms were also troublesome, which is putting it lightly, becoming a systemic reaction rather than a localized issue.  It didn't help that I kept caving and scratching...so the rash was joined with areas that were almost raw. 

I suspected going in that they'd do a down & dirty course of steroids to knock my body into compliance.  I'd done the oral steroid thing before and dealt with a bit of water-retention and such, but this time it has been truly horrid.  The first few days I was pretty well incapacitated by nausea and a migraine.  I'm still feeling a bit flu-like and need to chase the meds with other meds to control all the side effects.  The steroids are doing the job, there are traces but the reaction has definitely calmed.  Still, it has been a pretty rough time and I will be thrilled when they are gone. 

I'd liked the capsacin patches.  They helped distract me from the back pain, even if they didn't truly treat it, and I liked the non-pill option.  I'm not risking even the brands that I'd been okay using in the past...it is NOT worth the risk and I suspect that I'd be more reactive in the future. 

My mom remarks that there was a time when she thought the hives would be the hardest thing I'd face physically.  Then came the endo.  Then came the back.  Sometimes I think I HAVE to be done....and sometimes I'm terrified what my body has left to throw....

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