Sunday, January 20, 2008
Look away, I'm hideous!
So the hives (which, by the way, are now considered chronic, meaning they likely have no cause and could last for up to two years) were my first indication that my body was maybe not so happy with me and had decided to show it, in the manner of a petulant child. I don't know why, though, really. Except for the occasional indiscretion, I feel like I take pretty good care of it--eating fairly well (at least during the week), exercising regularly, not drinking too much, trying to get enough sleep, etc.
Only this week I've kind of let all that slide, since I've been more stressed (due to a variety of reasons) than I've possibly ever been before. As a result, my body has gone from "petulant child" to "screaming toddler," and has basically declared an all-out war on me. The hives, which up until now have been responding pretty well to regular doses of Benadryl, are now refusing to go away at all--I've had the same bumps and welts on my legs pretty much the entire weekend. As if that weren't bad enough, the hives have moved on to attacking my face, which, trust me, is the last place where you want to have hives. I woke up this morning to find that my scalp itched like crazy, and my right eye was sore and practically swollen shut, as if I had somehow sleepwalked into the middle of a cage fight. I was trying to deduce whether this swelling was a result of the hives, the stress, or crying about the hives and the stress (or the aforementioned cage-fight sleepwalking possibility), when all of a sudden I felt my lip start to swell, too. Great. So I now look even more like a hideously deformed beast, and if the Benadryl somehow fails to have an effect on the face hives, too, it's looking likely that I will not be leaving the house today.
Barring anaphylactic shock (which, fortunately, doesn't really seem to happen in chronic hives cases), I'm trying to put off going to the ER today, since I'm actually still paying off my last ER visit (from the post-Thailand pulled-neck-muscle debacle). I will, however, be making an appointment with my general practitioner first thing tomorrow morning. I'd been putting that off in hopes of being able to find a specialist (dermatologist, allergist or similar), but at this point, the fact that I already have a GP and that they can usually get me in within a day or two of when I call for an appointment is making that the best choice right now. I hope you're happy, body.
UPDATE: Shortly after I wrote this, I looked at myself again in the mirror. While the eye swelling was not that noticeable with my glasses on, the lip swelling had gotten way worse. I have to admit, though, that even though I feel like a hideous monster because I look nothing like myself, the super-swollen lip also makes me look a little like Jennifer Garner. Kind of like how, in Vanilla Sky, when Tom Cruise's face gets all mangled, he looks like a hideous monster but also a little like Luke Wilson.
So the hives (which, by the way, are now considered chronic, meaning they likely have no cause and could last for up to two years) were my first indication that my body was maybe not so happy with me and had decided to show it, in the manner of a petulant child. I don't know why, though, really. Except for the occasional indiscretion, I feel like I take pretty good care of it--eating fairly well (at least during the week), exercising regularly, not drinking too much, trying to get enough sleep, etc.
Only this week I've kind of let all that slide, since I've been more stressed (due to a variety of reasons) than I've possibly ever been before. As a result, my body has gone from "petulant child" to "screaming toddler," and has basically declared an all-out war on me. The hives, which up until now have been responding pretty well to regular doses of Benadryl, are now refusing to go away at all--I've had the same bumps and welts on my legs pretty much the entire weekend. As if that weren't bad enough, the hives have moved on to attacking my face, which, trust me, is the last place where you want to have hives. I woke up this morning to find that my scalp itched like crazy, and my right eye was sore and practically swollen shut, as if I had somehow sleepwalked into the middle of a cage fight. I was trying to deduce whether this swelling was a result of the hives, the stress, or crying about the hives and the stress (or the aforementioned cage-fight sleepwalking possibility), when all of a sudden I felt my lip start to swell, too. Great. So I now look even more like a hideously deformed beast, and if the Benadryl somehow fails to have an effect on the face hives, too, it's looking likely that I will not be leaving the house today.
Barring anaphylactic shock (which, fortunately, doesn't really seem to happen in chronic hives cases), I'm trying to put off going to the ER today, since I'm actually still paying off my last ER visit (from the post-Thailand pulled-neck-muscle debacle). I will, however, be making an appointment with my general practitioner first thing tomorrow morning. I'd been putting that off in hopes of being able to find a specialist (dermatologist, allergist or similar), but at this point, the fact that I already have a GP and that they can usually get me in within a day or two of when I call for an appointment is making that the best choice right now. I hope you're happy, body.
UPDATE: Shortly after I wrote this, I looked at myself again in the mirror. While the eye swelling was not that noticeable with my glasses on, the lip swelling had gotten way worse. I have to admit, though, that even though I feel like a hideous monster because I look nothing like myself, the super-swollen lip also makes me look a little like Jennifer Garner. Kind of like how, in Vanilla Sky, when Tom Cruise's face gets all mangled, he looks like a hideous monster but also a little like Luke Wilson.
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