February 10

So, as many of you know, this was the day of my much anticipated allergist appointment.  I have had several incidents where I have been stung by wasps and yellow jackets in the past few years.  I now carry an epipen because two of those episodes have landed me in the hospital with anaphylaxis.  (Throat closed up...completely unable to breathe)  The ones that haven't landed me in the hospital were deemed 'severe localized reactions' which meant that when I got stung on my wrist, from the tips of my fingers to nearly my shoulder was red, swollen, and covered in hives.  Even with benadryl and steroid cream on a 24 hour basis for two weeks, it took it almost that long to shrink down to just my forearm.  It's not a pleasant thing to have happen.  Even taking benadryl every 6 hours I was itching like crazy.  And that was just the last episode.  I've had several of those kinds of reactions.  So anyway-my doctor decided that I needed to see an allergist and do something called immunotherapy.  So I went to the allergist.  They started out with tiny scratches on my forearm to do a skin test of the five different stinging insects that cause anaphylaxis.  Literally miscroscopic amounts of venom that had been diluted for testing.  After 10 minutes I had some tiny red bumps, but no large reaction.  Then they did a line down my upper arm with syringes.  A small amount (1mcg) of each of the five (plus two control) were injected in my arm.  After ten minutes, still no visible reaction.  So the moved next to that and did a little bit more (2 mcg) of each one.  When they came back to check 10 minutes later, both lines of tests on my left arms had blown up to huge red dots with hives.  Except for the bee, wasp, and white-faced hornet.  So then they moved to my left upper arm and did a little bit more (3mcg) of those three venoms and a negative control (for those of you who are counting, I now have been poked by needles/syringes a total of 25 times).  Ten minutes later, all those were positive except for the white faced hornet. So the allergist said that my best course of treatment is venom immunothereapy.  Which means that venom of the four stinging insects that I am allergic to (honeybee, yellow jacket, yellow hornet, and wasp) will be injected into me once a week for several months and then once a month for several years.  It will help my body deal with the reaction and though I may continue to have localized reactions, my chances of dying from a sting will lessen considerably.  Now, in theory, this sounds completely awesome to me.  I would love to spend time in my garden or outdoors in the spring/summer/fall without having to worry about getting stung and dying.  My poor kids have seen me have this reaction twice and they are terrified.  They are terrified of all stinging insects and the fact that I have had to train them with an epipen in case I am incapacitated breaks my heart.  So I'm going to do it....even though its a huge commitment of time (I have to be monitored in the doctors office for a minimum of 30 minutes following every injection) and it's really scary (I have to sign waivers saying that I know that death is a possibility because they are injecting substances that I am allergic to).  I also am pretty sure that because I am allergic to four venomous insects, that I have to have 4 shots a week.  I don't know as of right now if they can mix them.  And even though I cam home last night and took a benadryl (hence the no blogging...I was a total drool monkey) -I have rows of red itchy bumps on my arms and a couple of them are turning into those localized reactions.  Just from the tiny, diluted amount that I was given.

So-that's life!  We deal with the cards we are given.  It might suck, but the alternative sucks worse.  

On the bright side, Jeff drove me to the doctor and we actually got some time to talk to each other.  With kids and work, sometimes it's hard to connect...so even if he's driving me to a needle sticking appointment and home with itchiness and hives, we got to talk and eat lunch together and just enjoy each other.  So-remember to find the small moments in an otherwise mostly crappy day and be thankful for them.  Because they are the things that matter the most!