pity party please

So I've been laid up with poison ivy & impetigo. It's horrible!!

All we can think of is that I got it Thursday night after doing about two minutes of work in the backyard. And being night, I washed my hands, but didn't shower until the next morning. So I'm assuming it was on my shirt or arms and it spread as I slept on it and took my clothes on and off. Saturday morning I woke up with what I thought was a pimple on my chin, but it hurt more than a normal pimple. By Saturday night it was starting to ooze. Sunday it was just nasty looking and I had another spot on my left eye and more "pimples" just forming on my chin. The only thing I could compare it to was poison ivy, but I never really thought it was - I mean who gets poison ivy on their face?! So I went to the urgent care doc on Sunday afternoon who confirmed poison ivy, but also added impetigo to it (some sort of staff infection which is why the spots were oozing uncontrollably). He wanted to give me a steroids shot, but when he realized I was nursing said we couldn't do that. I certainly didn't want to risk passing anything to Abby, so we decided I'd just wait it out. Poison ivy peaks at between days 10 and 14 and takes about three weeks to work it's course. I knew it would only get worse before it got better, but I didn't know how much worse.

By Monday it was getting pretty bad and I was starting to worry about the spot on my eye. I was also getting pretty good at finding the little red dots that warned of spots to come. Tuesday morning I woke up and literally could not open my left eye. It was swollen completely shut. My mouth was all fat and swollen and felt like it does when the dentist numbs it and pulls a tooth. I could barely swallow (who gets poison ivy in their mouth?! That's just wrong.). It was also all over my chest, neck, and face. I could no longer tell the individual spots on my cheek - my face was just one big red swollen mess. And their were more little red bumps on my right arm, stomach, and back. Now if you've never tried to function with just one eye, let me tell you it's hard! I was so disoriented (add to that feeling like crap and fairly nauseous), I could barely function. I had no sense of depth for one thing - I'd reach for something and miss it. I broke down and called Mom for help - I'm pretty bad about asking for help. I figured if she could help me get Ryan to preschool, than I could focus on Abby, put her down for a nap, and then take care of myself. Somehow going to the doctor again never even crossed my mind. I can be kinda tough in a bad way. But Mom gets here, takes a look at me and starts calling doctors. After dropping Ryan off, us girls head to the walk-in clinic. I guess having a shut eye and swollen face has one advantage - I think we waited all of five seconds before they took me straight back.

The doctor (well nurse practitioner) was great. He says we have to do something and we have to do it now. He basically said if I had waited even a few hours longer, he'd been sending me to the hospital. I explained the nursing aspect and he was really helpful and talked to Abby's pediatrician on the phone and Mom talked to the urologist's nurse. Doc finds a combo of drugs that Abby's doctors all okay too and sends me off for immediate iv's. I got probably three hours worth of drugs. Coleson came up while the iv's were going (what a wonderful surprise!) and we left about 2:00. Shortly after leaving my eye slowly started to open. It was so weird though. At first I could literally only open it maybe a 1/16th of an inch - Coleson couldn't even tell it was open. But I could only see black and white, the world looked just like an old movie. It never scared me though - I could see two things in color - Mom's bright yellow Moe's cup and the bright yellow bar on Abby's playmat. So I figured color would come back, but it was just so weird! Kinda interesting. Got my eye completely open around 5 or 6 and the color came back, although it was almost easier having it shut. It got tired really fast, but I can't keep it closed on its own. The swelling in my face went down quite a bit and I was told my color looked better. About 9:00 I started feeling like a whole new person - took a shower and washed with disposable washclothes (actually these travel washcloth things for the kids, but they were awesome). And then covered in different cremes and caladryl.

This morning I woke up and I can open my eye, but it really doesn't want to. It's very sore and hard to hold open. A little hard to focus on this since my left eye is really just a slit. And my stomach was so itchy, I feel like I'm on fire. Took another shower and cremed up again. Several new spots on my right arm including this rash looking thing in my elbow pit. Overall, better than yesterday morning but not nearly as good as I had gotten last night. Eagerly awaiting round two of the iv's today at 3:00. I also go tomorrow afternoon. After that Doc will reevaluate. He's hoping I can switch to orals and not have to continue spending three hrs a day hooked to iv's at the office. I think the biggest factor will be my eye - he seemed to be worried about long term damage. Although now that it can open, even if it doesn't want to or doesn't always stay open, I'm assuming that I'm doing better.

So anyways, I know this is probably the longest post i've ever written and much more info than anyone really wanted to know. I wrote it 99% just for me - to get it off my chest and to help me keep straight all that's happened so far.