Darned Allergies
I guess my body waited till I was in my 40's to decide that I needed allergies like the rest of the family has had for years. First I started having serious sinus issues from pollen, daily Zyrtec helps with that. Then Heather decided to try OxyClean laundry detergent, that made me itch all over for several days till we figured out the cause. In December I noticed red rash like splotches on my skin. Since I had just started using Dove soap to combat the dry skin I get from low humidity I attributed the rash to an allergic reaction to the Dove. Three weeks later the rash is not only not going away it is getting worse. I made an appointment with a dermatologist but they couldn't see me till the January 25th. On Sunday the rash seemed to spread even more so I went to a doc-in-the-box to get checked out. The doctor there determined it was a contact allergy reaction (as opposed to an ingested reaction) due the rash primarily being present on my upper body. He made a comment about washing the linens which clicked a gear that made me realize the cause. We use Bounce dryer sheets and the last box we bought had this new "Refreshening?" feature, I'm guessing that was the trigger as we've been using Bounce since Heather and I were married. We'll find out in a few days between the shot and the Benadryl I'm now taking.
The doctor gave me a 125mg shot of Solumederal (Methylprednisolone) shot. Solumederol is a adrenocortical steroid that started relieving the rash in a couple of hours. Of course like many other things relief isn't free. The injection was intramuscular in the hip. The nurse warned me that there would be some pain in the hip later. Boy she wasn't kidding, the pain kicked in less than five minutes after the injection and lasted over eight hours. This morning there is trace soreness.
While running around Sunday I saw one and was almost involved in a car accident. Sitting at a light, light turns green, truck two vehicles ahead of me slightly rolls then stops, truck in front of me just keeps going, smacko!. On the way home on a 5 lane road with extra shoulder lane road (377 in Keller by Double Dave's Pizza, there's a DPS office with a guy pulled over on the right shoulder, and a guy pulling out of a strip center, I'm in the left lane (natch), I see the guy start rolling out and hit the horn and start to slow down from 45mph, he keeps coming anyway so I slam the brakes and both of us come to a stop with me about 20 feet from his door. He looks up startled, and instead of continuing forward into the turn lane he puts his car in reverse and zooms back into the strip center. I'm still not sure if he looked behind him before zooming back. I gave him a head shake and finger wag (no not that one) and rolled on. On the bright side we didn't hit and I know how my car will react in a panic stop, straight and true stopping on a dime giving nine cents change.
