Halleluja! It's a miracle!

Well I broke down yesterday (pretty much at the insistence of Evil Genius Husband who is not generally an insistent guy) and rang my OB's office about the hives.

I spoke with Dr. H's wonderful nurse, Tammy, a tough, no-nonsense, always smiling, little lady who has been my willing confidant and support system for 6 years now. Every time I've done this over five pregnancies - waited, suffering with something because I, 1) figured it would resolve on it's own and/or, 2) didn't want to ring up and seem bothersome or needy, she has suppressed her sighs and helped me out.

Yesterday was no exception. My hands were swollen so badly that I couldn't pick up anything small, like a pencil, and so sore that I was having trouble lifting Fiver (I had to get Boy to help me drag Bulk onto his bed to be changed since I couldn't lift him onto the changing table and my knee prevented me from getting down on the floor).

First she told me to ditch the Loratadine and go back to the Sudafed and take it regularly. Those things are histamine blockers. They don't treat outbreaks, they prevent further ones and I wasn't taking them regularly and so was shutting the barn door after the horse had gone.

I saw immediate lessening of the itchies. She also got one of the docs to call me in a script for prednisone, a corticosteroid, which EGH picked up for me on the way home.

Sweet Mother of Stan Lee, the difference.

You take a large initial dose, spread out over the day, then less and less each day for several days. Well, if you get the meds late in the day, you just take the whole day's dose at once (or in big chunks).

Now, I have NO idea if it was psychosomatic, or if it was going to do this anyway, or if it was the prednisone, but by the time I went to bed last night my hands - which looked exactly like latex gloves that had been inflated - were noticeably less swollen.



This morning they almost look normal. I still have itchy wheals but it's just a slight thing - the grotesque swelling is gone. My feet - which were ballooned up and felt as if I was walking on chunks of glass - feel almost normal. Amazing.


In other news we're still battling the tail-end of the thrush. I ran out of the Nystatin oral suspension and so went a day without treatment. All in all, however, we're lookin' good. I've been faithfully eating my porridge (that's oatmeal BTW) and gulping water, both at y'all's suggestion, and my supply has indeed picked up. I'm feeling let-down now and noticing fullness on the side that's 'on deck' to be nursed next (I alternate boobs* - one side for one feeding the other the next).


And lastly, just in time to be included in the Fortnight From Hell: everyone seems to be getting the snots. Of course, at this juncture, a few little headcolds don't impress me. BAH! Bring 'em on!


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And now, baby pics! (Just to reassure you that I haven't neglected the kids too badly.)



When sisters attack II!



Devo? (Please note the grisly remains of EGH's chocolate poptart on Bulk's face. Gruesome!)

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* and would this also not be the perfect phrase for a woman who went back and forth between boyfriends?