Trying Not to Do Anything Rash

I don’t usually write much about my own health, mostly because I usually think that it’s a boring subject. Not this past weekend, though. Last Saturday, the first day of the first weekend I’d had to myself in 2 weeks, I was sitting right where I am right now, at my computer. I was itching a little on my hands after I had just washed them. I looked down and the sight that I saw was not pleasant. My arms had what I thought were hives; nasty red bumps, the kind you get from an allergic reaction. It got worse with each hour. Now, a day later, from my head to my toes and everywhere in between, I’m covered with an angry red rash, and it itches like crazy. I could barely sleep Saturday or last night from the itching (it seemed to move around, like a forest fire).

The culprit, it turns out, was penicillin (or rather, Amoxicillin, in the same family of antibiotics) The Friday before last week I made a follow-up visit to my dentist, after root canal work the preceding Monday. I didn’t write about it here because aside from the discomfort, it wasn’t all that notable. In order to head off a possible abscess,  I’d been taking 3 Amoxicillin a day for about a week. All of the sudden, on day 10, this rash hits.

The clinic was closed on Sunday, but this morning I went in and saw a doctor, who prescribed some antihistamine and Cortisone lotion. Hopefully in a few days I should be better. In the meantime, I look like a disaster (not being able to shower or shave for 3 days doesn’t help either). No photos are necessary, believe me.

I’m now wondering if I’m going to have to wear a Medicalert Bracelet. Being allergic to a raft of foods like my friend Matt would be one thing, but being allergic to Penicillin seems a bit scarier, even though these days the ‘wonder drugs’ are less effective on all of these new super-germs than they used to be. At least this new discovery is not something that will bother me day-to-day (I hope).  As I try to keep from scratching and releasing new histamines into my bloodstream, I also try to think of that.