No, not really. But I thought I was.
This week has honestly been one for the books.
And I don't mean that in a good way.
Tuesday after leaving clinical, I came home and jumped out of my scrubs and threw on my coziest of sweatpants (as usual). I noticed that my right knee looked a little bit swollen and ungodly so itchy, but I ignored it and crept into bed to take a much needed nap since I had only slept 5 hours the night before and 2 hours the night before that.
1.5 hours later I woke up to three distinct lumps on my left knee that were also excruciatingly itchy and growing by the minute. I decided to ignore it & maybe it'd go away.
3 more hours passed and the three lumps became one and were continuing to grow. I got a spot on my foot, my finger and two spots on each forearm. Thinking I was dying, I decided to call my wonderful momma. At her insistence, I waited another hour to watch my symptoms, monitor my breathing and heart rate before deciding if I needed to go to the ER or not. After that hour passed, we both decided Benadryl was the way to go and since I had to be back at the hospital for clinical at 6 am anyway, if things got worse, I'd just go to the ER then.
 |
| Bumpy mermaid arm. |
2 Benadryl later, I KO'd.
Wednesday morning, it had gotten worse. My arms were covered in large, itchy spots, my left knee looked like it housed a softball inside of it and my palms and hands were so sore, it hurt to walk and push myself up out of bed. Not wanting to miss my last day of clinical, I went to the hospital, told my clinical instructor what was up and went on to labor and delivery.
It wasn't 2 hours later that I was told to leave clinical and either go down to the ER or go to urgent care.
Why?
My hands hand developed hard, swollen lumps while I was in the hospital.
My thoughts were everywhere as I simply could not figure out what was going on with me... No, I didn't buy or use new detergent, I was wearing clothes I'd worn before, I hadn't eaten anything different than I usually do, I don't live with pets or roommates.
What, dear God, was happening?!
Well I found out not too long afterwards that I am allergic to penicillin.
Yes, the medicine I was prescribed when I woke up with a
sore throat from hell 2 weeks ago (which naturally, turned out to be strep throat).
And what's better than breaking out into hives and having "textbook" angioedema (which is swelling under the skin whereas hives is swelling on top of the skin)?
Thinking you're dying from a mysterious illness and instilling fear and panic into all of those around you.
Oops.
Sorry y'all.
