Not always nice and dandy - Let’s talk allergies

Sunday, 17th of September 2023 [88]

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sat at A&E waiting for my blood tests results to come back and maybe for someone to shed some light on something that has been happening to me and bothering me since around May this year.

I thought I’d kill some time with replying to all the comments and making some threads and waves and I did all that in those 2 hours and since I’m still waiting, I thought ‘Why not write a post?’.

• Flowers post?
• Garden post?
• Travel post?

Plenty of choices to write about, but I really can’t raise my frequency high enough right now to write about something lovely and talk with a lot of enthusiasm. Without it, posts like those I usually write would be incomplete and writing it would feel a little fake I guess.

So let’s talk REAL stuff.

Reality is that I’m so tired of those allergies that have been bothering me since spring and also anxiety that accompanies it or maybe causing it? Who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

Friday was a very nice and unusally productive day for me. The weather was lovely. I got up in the morning and started my day with writing a long form post while sipping my coffee in the garden. In fact most of the day I’ve been sipping coffees and writing. Later on I replaced coffee with small cans of Kopaberg and carried on writing… 4 posts in total… despite my stomach turning and feeling nauseous as soon as I ate lunch around 3pm.

That nauseousness and stomach upset has been going on for 2 weeks now. Many of my colleagues have been off sick with similar sypmtoms in the past few weeks.

Anyway… Friday was a good and productive day. I was hoping to continue my weekend in this way, but when I woke up on Saturday I still felt nauseous, I had a few new hives allover my body and my eye started swelling again. Probably sitting in the garden most Friday was not a good idea, but how could I not?

I took the antihistamine that I take every day now, which is already the strongest available on prescription, but I simply couldn’t face another day of this, so I continued to sleep… all day and night.

This morning my eye was like a balloon and I could feel a little swollen lump in my throat. I can breathe alright, but who knows if it swells some more 🤷🏻‍♀️ I sent a picture of my face to my bestie and she urged me to go to the hospital, so here I am.

3rd hour now, but I must say they dealt with me quick. Within half an hour my name was called and I was taken straight to Minor’s and my blood samples were taken. Waiting for the results is the longest part, but I have now been moved to the 4th waiting place and apparently doctor will come to see me soon.

So what is this post about?

Just a random moan I guess. Just something different than the usual happy post about the flowers. Also I wanted to post in #FreeCompliments community for a while now and I saw ‘Talk it out’ Thursday theme which I thought was a great one to talk just about anything.

I wanted to talk about something different, but since this malarkey just happened, so why not talk about allergies?

• Have you been struggling with allergies?

• Do you know someone who does? Like a close friend or a family member?

• What are your usual symptoms?

• Do you take medication for it?

• Do you know what are you reacting too?

• Do you know of any other than medication ways of dealing with it?

• How did you find out that you are allergic to something and what is it?

• Have you noticed any relationship between your sypmtoms and stress?

For me, like I mentioned earlier, it started in spring, when we had a sudden increase in temperatures. I feel like warmth has something to do with it, because that’s when symptoms are mainly triggered and also because when I’m at work, in air conditioned room, the swelling (whether it is an eye, ear, mouth, nose, hand, foot) usually goes down much faster than when I’m at home.

Even now, sitting in air conditioned hospital room I can see the eye swelling goes down at a fast rate that would never had happened at home.

I don’t have the usual hay fever symptoms. No sneezing, no watery eyes. Just various parts of my body swell and I have a rash in a form of rised and itchy hives also in various parts of my body. Urticaria is one name I’ve been given for it. One of the reasons urticaria might show can be stress alone, but it can be caused by various other triggers.

Sadly I am not yet able to pinpoint what is my trigger/triggers. Sometimes the hives/swelling happens after I’ve been out in the garden, in contact with dust or dogs/cats hair, while other times I don’t react to either of these. Which makes me think it might be also something I eat/drink, but there is no other way of telling what it is than allergy tests which I’m currently waiting for.

I can’t moan about the medical care either. My doctors have been pretty responsive. They tried antibiotics and antihistamines and changed to the high dose ones when symptoms have been coming back over and over again, but in truth I don’t feel like they’re helping much when the swelling starts. They also referred me to allergy clinic, but I still have 2 more months to wait for my appointment.

I kinda wanna stop taking those very strong antihistamines, as I feel that maybe they’re making me tired too. I can easily sleep the whole night and day and another night in a row at the weekends, which clearly isn’t normal, but I’m a bit afraid that the swelling might get worse if I stop taking them.

On the other hand, the nurse that I spoke to today and told about the symptoms and how long I’ve been having them, she seemed surprised that the doctors think it’s an allergy. What else can it be, I wonder? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I guess I might find out when the doctor comes to see me… at some point. Or not?

Truth is that I’m just tired.

I’m tired of this mystery and I’m tired of seeing my body swelling and I’m tired of being tired.

I attach only one flower picture… the one that reflects how I feel today. The once beautiful tulip that is now spent and tired of blooming.

Look like I’m about to be seen by the doctor now. She just went to bring me an even stronger antihistamine!

Half an hour later and nonethewiser. My blood tests are normal, apart from slightly increased white blood cells, which confirm that I’m having an allergic reaction. The doctor wants to keep me here for a few hours to see if I react well to the medication they gave me.

If I feel better they’ll send me home, if not, they’ll keep me overnight. I guess I better feel better cause I really, really don’t wanna spend a night in the hospital 🙈

She also told me I’ll get another referral to an allergy clinic, which may get me an earlier appointment and she’ll also give me an epipen and intructions how to use it. When she comes back I’ll ask more questions about the medication I am currently taking and her opinion of whether I should be taking it every day. Even though it’s meant to be a non-drowsy medicine, she said some people may still feel tired and sleepy after taking it.

Camera:	iPhone11
Photographer:	@fantagira