So why all the posting today?

Well, I'm stuck in my bedroom with a bad case of hives.  It's the only room we have with air conditioning for special occasions like this or for Aliyah's naps on those super hot killer days.  

Chigger bites

Well, it all started Sunday when on a short morning walk I happened to get one of the worst cases of chiggers I've seen in a long time.  I had them from my ankles to my neck - hundreds of them.  They itched like crazy and I need to kill them asap.

The little red dot on the washcloth is a chigger.  Just barely visible to the naked eye.
So I took some sulfur powder mixed in lotion, that I've used many times in the past to prevent chigger infestations, but this time I put it on my whole body.  Even though I showered within the hour, shortly thereafter I began breaking out in hives. 

Little hives

At that point I began using hydrocortisone cream which seemed to help with the itch but did nothing to stop the spread of the immune reaction.  I took some benadryl that promptly knocked me out but again slightly slowed the reaction.  The next morning it was worse than ever, so I consulted Dr. Jeff, Dr. Joel, and Dr. Renee (my neighbors and the founder of the hospital who has the most experience with problems caused by the creatures of nature here).  After a bit of marveling at the site of my allergic reaction, I promptly received a shot in the butt of steroids.  Everything cleared up for about 6 hours before returning with a vengeance.

Big coalescing hives (they're all merging together).  This one is probably 3x 6 inches.

Today my body looked like one giant hive on my abdomen and another on my back.  There were large wheals on my arms and legs too but the worse was the hives on my face, scalp, and ears.  My lips started to swell too.  It was getting worse despite the hydrocortisone cream, benadryl, zantac, and a big shot of steroids  . . .  so, it was time to put out the ABP for prayer (thanks World Medical Missions!)  Rimas tried to convince me to take one of those medical textbook pictures of my body with this impressive show of hives but the best you get are these close ups.  For goodness sake, I just had a baby, you don't want to see much more of me:)

After consulting with the pediatrician and the OB nurse practitioner and reading a lot about which drugs were safest for Aliyah since she still is nursing, we came up with the follow regiment:

-60mg (hefty dose) of prednisone (steroid) every day for 4 more days

-5mg of Claritin (antihistamine)

-150mg of Zantac (different type of antihistamine)

-topical spray on benadryl

-pumping and dumping the breastmilk 4 hours after taking all these meds everyday when the concentrations are highest in the breastmilk.

My bedside nightstand is becoming an arsenal of immune-suppressing meds

About 4 hours after taking these meds today (and friends/family beginning to be worried enough to start praying) I began to see my trunk clear of hives.  After about 6 hours my face isn't swollen anymore and my lips feel normal again!  I still have some on my extremities but I'm feeling much better.  The big test will be to see if the meds will hold them off all night until my next dose tomorrow.

So, why the reaction?  Well, it's documented that chigger bites themselves can cause this, but it could obviously be the insane amount of sulfur I rubbed over my entire body too.  Also, our 3 beautiful mango trees have just started to produce ripe fruit this week.  Although I've never had an allergy to mangos in the past, I never picked them fresh before either.  The tree is related to poison oak, poison ivy, and cashew tree - all of which are highly allergenic to humans.  When we pick a mango the milky sap from the stem sprays everywhere.  Many people who are allergic to mangos can eat the fruit but just cannot touch the fruit skin, tree leaves, or the milky sap found in the stem.

Hopefully I'll have some good news in my next post...