Myself!!!!
Got back from Kansas City. A pretty good day as The Headache waited until I was almost home to move on up the pain scale. Much better than my last trip to the big city where it was to the point I couldn't make sense by 9:00 AM.
The occipital stimulator must be helping The Headache (surely) as my blood pressure was at a level I haven't seen in a couple of years - my normal 110/70. The stimulator seems to make me a very sleepy driver so I have been turning it off while I drive. Not sure if I am just imaging this or not, but I am dangerously sleepy with that thing on. Wish it would do that at night! Maybe this is just chance, because I have had some bad nights right around my last three solo driving adventures and I may have been abnormally tired??
The big news of the day, I don't need to worry about the dog, cat or horse allergies - they barely register when compared to my allergy to MYSELF. That's a hard allergen to avoid. They looked at my giraffe spots where past hives had left their mark, and of all things poked on my freckles on my back, which made a hive pop up on my wrist about 5 minutes later, and then started my lips swelling when I was almost home. They haven't ruled out mastocytosis, which my last immunologist thought (but then didn't think so but then did wonder if) I had that or a related disorder, but say I definitely most definitely have autoimmune hives.
I have been put back on Plaquenil which I felt gave me a small improvement last year to address the autoimmune aspect. I have been taken off the Xyzal (which I felt didn't do a thing) but will keep on taking the Singulair. They gave me a script for a lower dose of doxepin, and said the results from it won't be immediate - it make take months...sigh. But the doctors cheerfully told me I should be happier overall because it is an anti-depressant!!! I guess that they are assuming I am depressed. I don't think so but perhaps I am in denial - you know...that river in Egypt... I go back in November.
In addition to returning, they want my primary care doctor to run regular blood tests for them, and for me to get a biopsy done of a hive attack if I get a "really big bunch of them". Not sure if they mean "big" as in size, or "big" as in many or both. I guess I will just have to let myself break out and get it biopsied at the emergency room while I get treatment for them - NOT. I don't think that one is going to happen. I also have to have a "plaquenil" eye exam done sometime in the next couple of months whatever that may be...
Had a pleasant ride around Kansas City, and drove through some neighborhoods I haven't seen in about 25 years. One old downtown warehouse where they wholesaled prizes for circuses and carnivals is now a yuppified condo complex. Kinda miss the old scrubby warehouse, which is now occupied by classy urban folk sipping lattes in the coffee shop at street level. A doctor's plaza where my niece went to a pediatric opthamologist many moons ago (he was able to prescribe her with glasses before she was one year old!) is completely gone, and the small community type hospital near by is now a mega hospital that towers over the surrounding buildings. I guess I should go back more often, eh?
Off to buy coffee - we are out, and apparently everyone forgot it until it was time to make a pot!
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