Monday happenings ...

Allergies, gotta love 'em. I went for my weekly (okay, sometimes bi-weekly) shots today. I started a new vial and they bumped it from 1:5000 concentration to 1:1000 concentration. My arm said no. Normally I don't feel anything, but will often get splotchy, sometimes about the size of a fist, around the injection site. This is normal for me. I've done it the last 2 or 3 years of shots. Don't ask, my allergies stopped making sense a long time ago. Every now and then I will feel the splotchiness start to develop but pay it no mind.

The office wants you to wait 20 minutes to make sure no bad reaction will start - usually I wait 10 and then take off since my "normal" reaction has occurred (and is so normal, I don't show them anymore). Today, I felt pain, but didn't think anything of it. As I walked out of the office I glanced at the injection sites - I had a welt on each arm larger than a dime and the one was close to 1/2" thick. I immediately went back in and showed them. They measured, globbed anti-itch cream on me, told me to take an alavert (which I carry in my purse) and told me to advise them of how it progressed. So on my merry way to lunch I go, take the alavert, and smear some more anti-itch cream on by the time I get back to work.

Quitting time rolls along - my arm hurts. It doesn't just itch, the injection site hurts like someone punched me! The welt around the injection site has gone done, but there is a slightly raised area bigger than my first, which burns and hurts and is hard. So back to the Dr.'s I go. Good thing I can almost see their building from my office. The nurse sees me come back and starts toward me. I slightly lift up my sleeve and say "I've still got the reaction". The other two nurses in the area immediately come running. Apparently it was quite a reaction. I guess not many react that way. All 3 check it out, decide it's okay, measure, and tell me that my vial will definitely be diluted. I was advised to take a benedryl when I got home, but I didn't b/c I didn't want to sleep, lol. It's still slightly warm and tender, but the swelling has gone down completely and the color is almost back to normal.

FWIW, I only do this on one side. Only one injection sets it off - I get one in each arm. Yet the other one doesn't do it. I guess I just have to have trouble allergies.

~QB29