All went well and Sarah and Parker headed home as did Caitlin and I did..."Baby Jarrell" needed a little nap. And as I said, everything was going great until later Friday night. I was sitting on the couch and suddenly began to itch a little bit. When I got up to put my pajamas on, I noticed several large red spots on my collar bone. Hmmm....I wasn't too concerned. Then my back began to itch. I got up and asked Robby to look and see if I had anything there. "YES!," he said..."Lots of bumps...go take some Benadryl now." I got up and took the Benadryl. Of course, I got sleepy and headed off to bed. I woke up at some point itching...SEVERELY. Upon inspection, the itchy spots from the night before had turned into a full blown case of the HIVES! Not only my collar bone and back had these hives, but there was barely a place on my arms that did not have hives...and they were continuing to break out (ugh!!!). Obviously, I began to panic. I wracked my brain trying to determine what in the world could have caused the hives. I called my doctor, whom I had just seen on Tuesday. The only thing that I had done differently was to take my flu shot. Was there any way that the flu shot could have done this to me this many days later?! We were not sure but I was put on steroids and two other medications to try to get this case of hives under control. I was going to try my best not to let the hives ruin my fun, fall weekend (sigh...).
I made a trip to the pharmacy to get my medication and Caitlin and Allison rode with me; we were getting pumpkins to decorate for Halloween! I had seen something new on Pinterest that I wanted to try this year. We bought some crayons and melted them over the pumpkins...I think they turned out GREAT!
Later that evening, all of the family came in to attend a friend's engagement party. The weather had turned much cooler and thankfully so...I could hide my "spots" with a long sleeved sweater dress! But the intense itching continued...
By the end of the evening, my red spots had begun to swell even more and you could barely tell where one began and the other ended...I continued to itch...and tried not to scratch! I decided Not to go to church on Sunday morning because I was not only miserable by this point but I truly didn't know what was causing these hives. Everyone wanted Justin and Sarah to bring Parker over for the day and Robby and Caitlin decided she needed to spend the night with us. She entertained everyone, as usual. And we ended the weekend with her and Poppi making Gingerbread Waffles...
By Sunday evening, thankfully the swelling and itching of my hives were getting better; I apparently was getting enough of the steroids into my system. Well, thankfully in the sense that the hives were getting better, not so thankful that I was now unable to sleep (sigh...). However, on a positive note, perhaps all of that extra energy I had going could work to my advantage and could get a lot accomplished this week!
Monday morning, I called my allergist and discussed the medications my general practitioner had put me on during the weekend. He asked some more specific questions about what could have possibly caused this outbreak. And the answer to one of those questions has apparently seemed to solve the mystery. You see, I had a slight sore throat the last two days of my New York trip. I came home on Monday and went to the doctor on Tuesday. While I was there, I asked to get the flu shot. And, although they asked me if I had been sick in the last couple of weeks, I did not consider a "slight sore throat" as being sick; after all, it wasn't sore any more. Well, the though is that I possibly had a viral infection. That being said, any sort of viral infection makes your immune system compromised and the flu shot can have this effect on you. NOTE TO SELF: Do NOT take a flu shot EVER again if you have the sniffles or sore throat or ANY sort of ailment! LESSON LEARNED!
Barbara......sweet photos and so sorry about your hives and general yuckiness...gentle hugs xo
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