Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Itchy witchy

Aaaarrrggghh! It's the middle of the night and I'm up again, this time because of the itching. There's always one symptom or the other that's giving me hell. Who knows why? It could be the stress of seeing the doctor, though it wouldn't be stressful for any normal person. She is a very lovely and caring doctor. I didn't feel stressed but that doesn't mean anything to my body.

Afterwards, I accompanied my 82 year old mom to her doctor and basically napped in the waiting room. I get so tired from nothing. Still, it was good to get out of the house. I simply have to and jump at the chance to go anywhere, although I invariably end up sick in some way from it. Not that I'm a gadabout. I don't dare go to the mall or anywhere I might encounter heavy doses of perfumes or dyes. About once or twice a month, I get out to a family dinner out, accompany someone on an errand. See a movie once in a blue moon. That's about it. I don't care. I'll go insane if I don't get out. Then we grabbed a bit to eat. I had fish. Perhaps I will have to eliminate all fish/seafood/shellfish. I dunno.

All I know is I've broken out in several new rashes. Just gave in and took an Atarax. From all the prescriptions I have, you'd think I take a pill every hour on the hour, but I very rarely take anything but ranitidine and Prilosec, and an anti-depressant. I'm very averse to taking medication, especially since it is what got me in this situation to start with. I go for spells without taking an H1 blocker and only do so when I must. I did get RX's for all that I should be taking, and some are the Wal-mart $4 prescriptions so I have no excuse for not getting and taking them. And I have renewed my intention of pursuing the PPA program Rx's. I don't know why I am having such a problem taking care of that. I think it seems like charity to me and I have always hated to ask for anything from anyone, but I've really got to get over that. And I will. I will. I swear.

Oh. One more thing. I've noticed recently that the ends of my nails are turning downward, drastically. This is weird. My nails have never done this before. I asked the doc if it meant anything and she couldn't think of anything. So, I looked it up on the internets. Supposedly it MAY denote heart, liver or respiratory problems. My heart was thoroughly checked out a year ago. I have asthma that kicks up periodically but that has never made my nails do this. That leaves liver. Maybe masto is impairing my liver functions. I don't know. I don't want to think about it. My best solution: Cut the damn nails off to the quick and toss 'em into the river of denial. Don't really have much of a choice otherwise.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My doctor prescribed Zyrtec for the hives and itching. It is mostly controlled now, except sometimes when I am extremely stressed, tired or outside in the heat. Have you tried Zyrtec?

Anonymous said...

I've had many of those nights when the itching drove me wild. It's a thousand biting stinging ants crawling all over - inside and out.
I have tried all the antihistamines with only so-so results. As long as the allergy load didn't get too much, I got along OK. I noticed that Singulair helped the most and started researching it and found the leukotriene-blocking info. That has lead me to mastocytosis.
My reaction to fumes really points me in this direction - immediate headache and dizziness then feeling ill and crappy for some time and itching like mad.
My plan now is to gather info and talk with my doctor, especially about medications and see if there is another leukotrine-blocker or similar that I can take in conjunction with Singulair. That has to be better than overdosing on loratadine or other antihistamines.
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