Christmas. What a joyeous time of year. Time to get insular with the family unit. I love it. This year marks the first time in over a decade that I get to spend time with my side of the family. We moved back to Winnipeg this past Autumn and up until now my husband’s family have had the monopoly on such festive events (which have been lovely in their own right.)
Needless to say, we were up and atem at 7 am and on the road to Auntie Pam and Uncle Pete’s house at 7am. We got here, after picking up cousins in the city, about 7:45 am and the kids were all still sleeping. Coffee and tea were on, the living room was FILLED with presents and excitement filled the hearts of big and little people.
I, personally, had NO IDEA what was in store for me as I made no Christmas wish list. My Auntie Pam was amazing. She got me (from Santa) a sheepskin full body massive massage mat; a new heat pad (I blew out two this year), and a full body heated blanket throw…for a sick person, is there anything better for sick days??? I don’t think so….
What IS lovely is that I’m having a pretty good day, despite having to use an epi pen during the night. Despite being told that I HAVE to go to hospital when I use an epi pen by my new Immunologist, Dr. Hicks, I didn’t want to ruin Christmas with a trip to hospital and felt better after I used it. This was the 3rd attempt at sleeping in my bedroom and the third choking reaction I’ve had in my own room/own bed. Not sure what is going on but something is awry in my bedroom. So after the epi pen, and puking a bit, I was wired for sound for a bit and finally fell asleep with Benadryl and sleeping pills on the couch.
I am still covered in the remnants of hives, which are still flaring every 3-4 hours if I don’t keep on top of the Benadryl, from some sort of reaction midweek. I needed an epi pen earlier this week too. I know, I was supposed to go the hospital then too. My legs are covered in little red dots from my scratching the tops of the hives off. I know it’s time for more Benadryl because I start itching like hell. I’m starting to give my friend Scotty a complex. He came over last night and I started scratching….he said “every time I come over you start scratching. Are you allergic to me?” I assured him it wasn’t him. Just had a rough week.
On top of all this, I think I have a bladder infection today. I can’t pee, despite needing to really badly. Frak. Trying to avoid the hospital at all cost though.
Later: had to use another epi pen. To go to hospital or not to go to hospital…on Christmas Day? OMG…no. We caught it early in the reaction, so really I felt a tonne better quite quickly. I KNOW I’m supposed to go in but…ugh, I have prednisone, ranitidine, stemetil and Benadryl here, and most of that in injectable form so I can use that if I’m puking too. There I was at Auntie Pams minding my own business and I just started flushing and hiving for no reason, then the uncontrolled, involuntary, hacking started, then mucus started forming in my throat and I started gagging and uncontrolled coughing, then it felt like a bear was sitting on my chest and my husband called it. It just keeps getting worse if we wait. We’ve done this enough times to know now. My family were very cool about the whole ordeal actually. With 19 people there to celebrate Christmas, it could’ve gotten ugly but I have a supportive family and they were great. They sequestered me to the couch with pillows and blankets and all kept an eye on me. I love my family. They made me stay there for the rest of the day.
You gotta love the unpredictability of Mastocytosis.
I hope your Christmas Day was infinitely less reactive and calmer. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and wishing you all the joy, personal peace, love, warmth and prosperity you can handle in the year ahead.
1 comment:
Sorry to hear you had to use Epi over Christmas! Do you ever react to smells?
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