A Series of Events (Part I) - Prologue

This past weekend was met with mixed results for yours truly. There were some very happy moments, and there were also a few unpleasant ones as well.

Sunday specifically led the charge of both extreme personal highs and emotional lows in which I am still trying to digest and wrap my brain around in conjunctuion with Christ's words on peace, grace, and calming my inner spirit.

Let me first start by saying that after almost two weeks of various allergy medications that have messed with me in more ways than one, my rash or 'hives' finally seem to be under control. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it here before, but back in 2006 I developed a very serious skin rash. Something I never had never experienced before and it scared me as well as being very miserable on both a physical and emotional level.

We were on vacation when my body began to swell up. My skin developed 'hives' of such an intense nature my skin felt as if it were on fire....literally radiating heat to the touch and causing extreme discomfort with the persistant 'itchiness' of it all. Since we were on vacation at the time, my local doctor was nowhere to be had. I ended up going to an emergency room in a far off city to have injections of ephedrine and cortisone and placed on a knee-jerk perscription of anti-inflammatories, anti-histimines, and anti-itch meds. They had a very limited effect at the time and I suffered for the next few days until I could return home and see my regular doctor, who in turn recommended me to a dermatologist.

The dermatologist took two skin biopsies from my leg and blood samples and sent them off for testing. While my hives did not get any worse, I was not really improving either. And to be quite honest, I sorta looked like a walking freakshow. You wouldn't believe the stares I was getting, and the swelling did temproarily disfigure my face. My forehead and bridge of my nose was so bad, it looked as if my eyes shifted an additional inch away from each other.

My blood work came back as did the biopsy reports a few days later, and both can back negative. I suppose that's the good news....no wierd tropical disease or cancer or virus. However, the bad news was that no one had an explanation as to what brought it on or even had a guess to what I may have had. I have never in my life had that before and we all sat around scratching our heads as to what may have been the trigger.

That was May of 2006. It is now June 2008 and I can tell you I have had the incident repeat itself a total of 5-6 additional times. I have since seen an allergist and have had my blood tested again and a full work up of allergy tests (skin scrapes). My blood still tests negative (normal), and allergy tests have only confirmed what I already knew....a few certain foods, some grasses, weeds, molds, etc. that most people are allergic to anyway and didn't seem to be a trigger for it.

Fortunately it has never been as bad as the initial time and I have learned how to detect the onset (feelings) at its earliest stages so I can attempt a premeditated strike of medications. I can't stop it, but I have learned how to lessen its impact and try to become as comfortable as I can under the circumstances.

The various doctors I have been seeing 'think' they may now know what I have: Chronic Uticaria. I say 'think' because they are not 100% positive, bit nothing else fits the symptoms right now. The bad news is there really is no effective cure, nor does science know exactly what causes it. So it appears that I developed a condition out of nowhere in May 2006 and will be subject to it the remainder of my natural life...with tons of pills in plastic containers ready to take at a moments notice. God forbid I get another illness and have to combine even more drugs.

The symptoms today: swollen hands and some facial swelling, itchiness of the scalp and hands, some discomfort in normal breathing, and probably the most visible cue - red 'splotches' on my head, neck, arms, thighs, sides of body and can include my hands and feet, and at times, radiate heat.

Here are a few things I have to do: stay cool and out of direct sun for long periods of time. No extreme physical exertion (no gym, no intense labor, avoid projects that I have to use my hands alot), watch my stress levels and blood pressure, try an avoid scratching as best I can when I itch. Take cool showers. Take anti-histamines. Take anti-inflamatories. Take steroids.

So you're probably wondering why I am going into all this detail now. Well, I suppose I'm just giving you some background information on me to help set up my next few posts about this weekend.

To be continued....