Tuesday, August 3, 2010

My Allergic Reaction: A Case Study

If you read my previous post then you know that I've been dealing with an extreme allergic reaction to an antibiotic...Keflex/Cephalexin to be exact. Funny thing is that Eli has been the one taking the medicine to clear up an infection that he had, and, not wanting him to have that yucky medicine taste in his mouth, I had been nursing him immediately after giving him his medication. Apparently there has been no documented case of a mother being introduced to an allergen via her milk ducts from a substance in her baby's mouth. Aaron asked several of the OB/GYNs at his hospital if they had ever heard of something like this and none of them had. So, Dr. Aldape asked the librarian at the hospital library to research to see if there have been any reported cases such as mine. The librarian came up empty, so it looks like my allergic reaction might be an interesting case study, the first of its kind! In a few weeks, hopefully this thing will be cleared up by then, we're going to do another little experiment and reintroduce the antibiotics via Eli's mouth when he nurses and will see what happens. If I break out again then Dr. Aldape will get to submit my reaction as the first documented (as far as anyone knows) case of a mother contracting an allergen from her baby during natural feeding. Pretty interesting! Looks like a publication might be on the horizon for Dr. Aldape, which has him pretty stoked! Haha!

We took some pictures, for medical documentation of course, of my reaction. If you are faint of heart or weak of stomach do not proceed...but, if you're interested in seeing me in all of my itchy-ness, then just scroll down...way down...and you can feel sorry for me!!!
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keep going, I didn't want these pics to just pop up on the computer monitor for those who might get a bit nauseous from them! Haha!
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okay, here you go:

This is when it was really starting to get going...by the time I had broken out fully nearly every square inch of my body was covered! ITCHY!!!

Day 3 of my reaction...still going strong, despite the benadryl and steroid shots that I got to keep it under control.

My hands (and even my palms) were fair game...this is one nasty reaction!

And, the pièce de résistance, my poor back...the rest of my body was looking like that at this time, but I didn't feel like showing off my stomach!
Pretty scary stuff!

For those of you who made it this far, here's a little treat! I figure I'd better leave you with some cute pics...don't want any of you having nightmares or anything about funky skin conditions!

Here are my sweet boys!

Here is poor little Eli, totally zonked from all of the benadryl I was (am) taking! He slept all day Sunday!


My Boys!

Signing off for now,
*Queen Itchy!*

4 comments:

Gail said...

Oh Gracie, that looks miserable! I'm sorry it's taken quite a toll on you! Fear not though...it didn't gross me out at all....but I did (and do!) feel very sorry for you! Hope you get to feeling better soon.

Love you,

Gail

Ivy said...

oh poor you!!!! Those are really awful! And I bet being on benedryl is also a bummer considering you are probably already tired.

You also though are quite brave to be willing to subject yourself to it again in a few weeks.

Emily Minich said...

Oh Grace! That looks terrible.... and I can't believe you are willing to go through it again for your hubby's career... no, I can believe it. Because you're amazing! And you love him. Tell him congratulations from us for having snagged such a fabulous wife. :)

Courtney Elizabeth said...

Oh Grace, that looks SO painful! Praying that they go away soon!