Loooong Week

Can I just say that this has been a really crappy week?! It all started, sort of, a week ago from yesterday, on a Thursday. Rob had been called and actually had an interview for a Graphic Design job, the first for months! We were so excited. We should have known. For the third time, yes this has now happened to us THREE times, Rob got a call a half an hour before his interview from the company telling him that they actually realized that they can't afford to hire anyone right now so they are cancelling the interview. What! They didn't figure this out before posting the job and setting up interviews?! I don't understand how they don't know this before, and I REALLY don't understand how it's now happened to us THREE times!! The first two were for just random jobs from local stores, but this was the first for an actual graphic designer job. Needless to say we were discouraged. But, we tried to forget about it and go about out day. I worked that afternoon, and about 20 minutes after getting to work, the back of my neck by my hairline started itching. Then my hip started itching. When I had a moment alone, I finally looked at my hip to discover that it was covered in a hive bigger than my hand. Luckily I only worked for two hours, so as soon as I was done, I headed home. By the time I got home, the hive had spread and almost completely covered my torso. I took some benedryl and tried not to itch! After about an hour or so it did finally start going down, and I thought we were done. Wrong! At about 10 that night, my whole body started breaking out again. It covered my legs, arms, stomach, back, etc. I'd say I was at least 80% covered in angry red hives. I was going insane! So, we called my parents, my dad came up with the kids, and Rob and I headed to the ER. I was given an epinephren (sp?) shot, along with three other medicines, and after a little bit, my hives finally started going down again. They sent me home with some prescriptions, and I hoped we were over it. Wrong. I woke up the next day and still had hives, mostly on my legs and arms, but as the day went on, they moved around my whole body, including my face. I kept on my medicine, and tried to not go insane from the itching. We took the kids to Rob's mom's house that night because Saturday was Rob's birthday and we had planned on having the kids sleep at his mom's house so Rob and I could go camping and then fishing in the morning for his birthday. We dropped the kids off, and then went home because I was too miserable to go camping. We watched TV, and went to bed. Poor Rob! He was so good about it though and just wanted me to feel better! So, I woke up the next morning at 7:00 because my lips felt funny. Turns out my face was totally swollen as well as my hands! This scared me a bit again because I was afraid it was going to spread to my throat, so we made another morning trip to the ER where I got another shot of epinephren. It took away the swelling, and again we were able to leave after a couple of hours. We went and got the kids, and honestly, the rest of the weekend is kind of a blur to me. I was on a lot of meds to keep it under control, including benedryl, so I was pretty out of it. I went to a dermatologist on Monday, who finally prescribed me an epi pen to have on hand in case I ever have another reaction like this again. I think we've finally decided that what I had the reaction to was the anti-biotic Microbid, which I had been taking the previous week for a bladder infection. I guess it is kind of common to have delayed reactions to medications, especially anti-biotics. I was glad to have figured it out because it was kind of stressful not knowing what caused it because I didn't know how to avoid it. So, by Tuesday, the hives were pretty much gone, but all the meds, especially the steriods, took their toll and wiped me out! Tuesday night and Wednesday night I had insomnia and probably slept a total of 5 hours between the two. Yesterday I woke up to discover that I had another bladder infection, and spent part of the day going to the instacare again to get tested for it, and then start more meds for that! I feel like I've gone full circle! I had a bladder infection, which I took medicine for, had an allergic reaction to, started to recover from, only to end up starting over again with another bladder infection! Will it ever end!!! So, I finally slept a little better last night, but still don't feel well today, and I am just hoping it all starts settling down for good for a while! One blessing this week has been that this is our break at work for swimming lessons, so I haven't had to work at all through this. I do work tomorrow and hopefully I'll be doing better. Next week starts the summer hours, and I will be working closer to 30 hours a week, so at least this happened at a time when I wasn't having to work or take it off! And that concludes my really long week.

This is a picture of my leg on the second day, when it wasn't so bad!