Monday 20 February 2012

aarrrghhh itching!!

On Friday morning i was woken abruptly by intense itching behind my right ear. I soon realised I was itching all over!
I took an anti-histamine and got an appointment with the Nurse Practioner who confirmed it was an allergic rash/hives and to keep taking the one a day anti-h for a few days. By 5pm I was covered in hives/urticaria and itching sooo badly. I felt like I was on fire too - especially my ears which felt like they were badly sunburnt. I returned to the GP for an emergency appt and was prescribed some stronger anti-histamines to take.
In the early hours I woke with a raging thirst, bodly seriously overheating and swollen eyes. I called the 111 service and was told to go to A&E immediately!! This meant getting Oz and Lemmy out of bed at 3am *oops*. They dropped me at the hospital and came home back to bed.
I was triaged quite quickly, though the nurse couldn't get any blood out of me and boy did she hurt me trying. I'm now sporting a sore and bruised left inner elbow.
I then waited for 3 and half hours...
I was eventually seen by a Junior DR who said they need to take blood and get a cannula in to administer some drugs. By this point I was so tired and scared that I'm afraid I burst into tears and refused! My left arm was incredibly painful from the previous attempt and I just couldn't face it. They got a lovely lady to come and have a chat with me and she persuaded me to let her try again. So this time in the right arm - and she was gentle and very, very good with me. I did tell her she was only getting one attempt though!
5 mins later and was moved from my cramped and uncomfortable cubicle to a slightly more comfortable bed as I was told the drugs would make me woozy. So I had a large amount of Piriton and hydrocortisone pumped into my IV and then about 20 mins later was discharged.
I was so tired, from lack of sleep and spaced out from the Piriton but totally hyper from the cortisone. Came home and sent Oz back to bed (he'd not been able to sleep, he was worrying about me) and I eventually managed to snooze on the sofa while Lemmy watched a film.
I've only just stopped itching this morning. I feel like my whole skin is a Chinese Burn. This has been a very frightening experience - all the more so because there is no obvious trigger for this episode. I suppose now I'm going to have to push for referral to get tested. I have no desire to go through that again.
I feel quite worn out by it all, partly because it made it very difficult to get a decent sleep and partly because my body has obviously been hit quite hard by this.

But I'm not itching anymore!!