Caught a cold over the weekend... on top of that, all the anti-histamine I have been loading up on each day is really wearing me down. I have been getting these itchy red blotches all over my body each day late afternoon for the past 8-9 weeks and Benadryl has been my temporarily relief and comfort. While it totally knocks me out each night and then me waking up feeling groggy all day - that's better than me scratching the living daylights out of my own self.
I could not take any cold meds over the weekend since I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday - have to be 'drug' free for tests to be done. It was also the earliest doctor's appointment date I could secure!! What do I have? Absolutely no idea - and as the allergist said... "I see this in healthy women - I can definitely rule out food allergies and therefore what you have may be idiopathic."
Idiopathic = arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause.
GREAT! Even she has no idea what the cause is!! :(
I had to have some blood drawn for tests and they took a lot of blood!!! If you don't already know, I am terrified of all things medical and dental! Thank goodness husband was there with me for moral support! The kind nurse started on my left arm - band tied over arm, squeeze ball in hand, alcohol swabbed, vein found, needle in, now waiting for Sher's precious blood... nothing! "Hmmm... it appears you are dry on your left side." Is that good? Bad? Fine?!! "Let's do the other arm then!" Icks! I am punctured on the left arm and there was nothing to be drawn... okay.. no panicky... same little feeling of a slight prick. Band tied over right arm, squeeze ball in hand, vein found, needle in. OOwwww!!!! She missed the alcohol swab part!! Okay.. blood flowing this time and I was just counting down the seconds for it to be over only to realize there were 3 other vials to be filled and they are in different sizes.
There are reasons why I do not and can not donate blood... and I really should (give me some more time to warm up to them needles!)
1. My fear of needles.
2. Underweight - therefore making me ineligible ( I tried before!)
3. I come from a country where there is Malaria. Conditions are to wait 3 years after living in a country or countries where Malaria is found and/or wait 12 months after returning from a trip to an area where malaria is found .
4. My fear of needles!
Anyway... I am still awaiting to hear the results to all the blood tests they are doing. They are testing for everything. Until then, I have been presribed Zyrtek which is also an anti-histamine but one that would not knock me out as fast as Benadryl. Even so on day #2 of taking this Zyrtek - I do feel somewhat drowsy! But guess what.. no more hives and itching last night. Whoohoo... even if I was - I was too knackered out from the meds to realize anything since I literally passed out after dinner.