So, Monday morning, before I get in the shower, I notice a rash on my abdomen. Little tiny red bumps. No itching, no swelling, no other symptoms. Just this vaguely bumpy rash. But I had to report it to my psychiatrist, so I called her to check in and she called me back that afternoon. She told me to get into my physician and have it checked out as soon as possible. See, while I was reasonably sure that the rash was benign, there’s this little thing called Stevens-Johnson syndrome that is a rare, but serious side effect of one of the drugs I’m on (Lamictal) which can be life-threatening. So, again, while I was relatively sure there was nothing to this rash, I was still mildly panic-stricken.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, there was fortunately no visible difference in the rash. No better, but no worse. In looking at it more closely, Terry discovered that it pretty much seemed to be the areas of skin that I had exposed to the sun on Friday when we were out working on and sailing the boat. We suspected it was some sort of reaction to the sun or sunscreen.<\/p>\n
I worked from home on Tuesday and ran out to see the doctor in the early afternoon. She checked it out, we agreed that there were no dietary or soap\/lotion\/etc. changes recently and she didn’t believe it was a drug reaction. She has had people who have reactions the first couple of times they are in the sun for the season. She’s also had people who have an allergic reaction to old sunscreen. Since mine was technically from last year, we’ll throw out the little bit that was remaining and already bought a new spray can for me and for Terry. So, she prescribed an allergy medication (Allegra) and a topical cream. So far, no change, but I’ve only taken one pill and used the cream once.<\/p>\n
I called the psychiatrist back today and let her know what the physician had to say. I’ll be seeing her next Tuesday, so we’ll see if the rash has cleared up by then.<\/p>\n
On the stitching front, I was able to finish the other half of the Italian cross stitch band on Barnabee on Monday night. Yesterday evening, I worked and then slept, so no additional progress. We’ll see what I can get done, if anything, the rest of the week. Hopefully, I will get some stitching in this weekend, if it’s not too nice. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, Monday morning, before I get in the shower, I notice a rash on my abdomen. Little tiny red bumps. No itching, no swelling, no other symptoms. Just this vaguely bumpy rash. But I had to report it to my … Continue reading