It Itches To Be Me

Urticarial Wheals Are Being Served

Woke up this morning feeling a little out of energy.  I went to bed last night earlier than usual and was awake and stirring earlier than usual.  There was quite the rainstorm going through the area, so I waited a little to start my commute to work.  I thought maybe the lack of energy was due to the storm.  The weather moving through the area had caused The Headache to poke and stab several times in the night. I had my daily 2 am jab to the temple to complement the other stabbing pains, but they all only lasted a few minutes so overall it was not too bad.  Stopping the Klonopin brought The Headache back into the almost manageable range again, so I was correct in thinking it was the medication.

Went to work, had to have my heater on in my office because I was way too cold.  Ate a fast food lunch which is an uncommon occurance since The Belly and I agree not to eat at work.  Eating makes the continence issues or lack thereof more of a problem, so I try to limit food and drink during working hours.  Didn't feel too well for most of the day, had taken zofran for nausea before lunch, and then was not feeling too hot after lunch - which I attributed to the amount of fat in my food : there was much more than the 5-6 grams of dietary fat I try to keep to with each meal, but it might have been the hives starting to act up.

I always have some hives somewhere on my body, have since 2007.  They almost disappear some days but in the evening they are always worse. I've been diagnosed with autoimmune chronic urticaria so I'm allergic to myself more than anything else.  Driving home I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed my forehead and face were getting bright red, and my ears and the inside of my nose were feeling mighty itchy.  This is not a good sign for me.  It means the hives are getting ready to pop out, the mast cells are gathering to degranulate, and I am going to have a miserable night trying to resist itching.

By the time I got home, I had gone from bright red all over to bright red hives.  Some are raised, and some are just red blotches of mast cells just under the surface of the skin.  I took a vistaryl tablet and waited to see if it would help.  Nada.  Nothing doing. Hives still popping, and now I can feel them behind my ears.  Not good news either, because hives behind my ears and soon I have sticking out ears like Mr. Rumbold on "Are You Being Served?"

I have now taken 25 mg hydroxyzine (Atarax/vistaril), 50 mg diphenhydramine (benedryl), 25 mg promethazine (phenergan), and 5 mg montelukast [Singulair] but I'm still broken out and still getting new hives.  They are not as large or as tightly grouped as they were so maybe this combo will slow things down.  I have epipens but really don't want to use them unless it is totally necessary.  The interior of my nose is a little swollen but I don't feel my vocal cords swelling so hoping I knocked the hives back enough that I won't need to use epinephrine.  I feel like I'm starting to get hives on the bottoms of my feet which is not great either.    I have ranitidine (zantac) which is an H2 blocker I can also take. Most of what I have taken have so far been H1 histamine blockers with the exception of Singulair which is a leukotriene inhibitor.  Generally the H2 blockers don't help me too much.

Wondering if the fast food restaurant cross contaminated my food with fish or seafood products.  I have to be extremely careful when eating out but most fast food places have good processes where either they warn you that cross contamination is possible or they just don't cross contaminate seafood/fish with other foods.  The inital help from the medication is already wearing off, and it's only been about an hour since I took it.  Gonna be a long itchy night at my house tonight!  Trying very hard not to be whiney but I itch so badly.  Waaaaah!