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Jan. 22nd, 2014 06:43 pmSo...I've been sick for the last few days...
I think it's just a cold since it doesn't feel as bad as the flu I had last year. That knocked me out for days... I had all the symptoms of the flu: fatigue, chills, aches, cough, sore throat, sneezing, runny and stuffed up nose... But this year, it just seemed like a milder version of it. I started off with the mildest of coughs that lasted a few days. That led to a sore throat, which wasn't that bad, to tell you the truth. The day after that, is when it really started to hit me. I was hit with dizziness I hadn't felt since I was in elementary school. When I get sick, I don't usually get dizzy. I don't even usually get headaches, which is funny because I get a ton of headaches normally anyway (yay tension headaches). But damn, Monday was like any smallest movement felt like I was whoozy. Even without any movement, it felt like I was swirling around. I spent the day asleep but it was strange because I thought that would fix things but each time I would wake up, I would still end up feeling dizzy.
I think I ended up sleeping around 20 hours on Monday. That's when I started taking something for the symptoms, mostly because being dizzy was really annoying. My mother had some DayQuil from her bought of sickness the week before (guess who I caught my cold from?) and I had taken DayQuil back in middle school and I didn't remember any side effects so I thought I would be safe.
I was super tired, but I wasn't feeling the aches I was feeling last year. It just seemed like everything was just not as bad as last year which is why I thought it was just a cold. But I was still crazy tired. On Tuesday, I spent most of it asleep as well. I would wake up for two hours and then go to sleep for four. But during one of those two hour stretches where I was awake, I found out I was having an allergic reaction to the DayQuil. Hives, everywhere on my body. It was crazy itchy... My hands were red and my fingers swollen. It hurt just making a fist. And it itched. And was painful, like stinging needles. It was worst on my arms, hands, legs and feet though. It looked like I was sunburnt, it was red all over. And the spots that wasn't just lobster red, I had the red, raised bumps. It was over my neck (a particularly itchy spot that is still bugging the hell out of me right now), my back, chest and torso, but mostly just splotches and intermittent bumps.
I really hate hives. They're itchy in the a way that's unlike normal itchiness. And they're painful. Why are they painful?!
But I took it calmly even though this reaction was actually worse than the one I had last year. Thankfully, I only took two doses of DayQuil before I found out about the allergic reaction so it might have been even worse if I hadn't slept through the time when I should have taken that third dose... I took an Allegra since this reaction was so much worse than last year. It was the only antihistamine I have in the house... Everywhere online says to take a Benadryl but I've never used to because I've always heard that it knocks you out and I really don't like to be drowsy. So I take non-drowsy allergy meds for my hay fever. It seemed to work since I started to feel better an hour after I took the Allegra. I would have slept through it if I could but I couldn't because it was too itchy and too painful to sleep.
Today, I'm still itchy. Still red. Still have the bumps. The redness is not as red which is good. I still see and feel the raised bumps, and it will never stop being freaky to me... My normally smooth skin... T_T
I really wish I could avoid the whole hives thing. I mean, I've taken DayQuil before. Sure it's been like 15 years but I don't recall having an allergic reaction to it... But I still should have known better. I mean, DayQuil has acetaminophen, which is essentially Tylenol. And I'm allergic to Tylenol. And it has dextromethorphan, which was in the medicine I took last year that I had a reaction to as well. Before taking the DayQuil, I thought about the acetaminophen and wondered if I should risk it. But the thing is, ever since I started having an allergic reaction to Tylenol when I was a kid (elementary school age, so young), I've avoided Tylenol. No acetaminophen entered my body for the last 20 years. My pediatrician switched me over to Motrin and I've been taking that ever since. Yay ibuprofen. It's what gets me through my cramps every month so thank god I can take something for pain relief... But the thing is, it's been so long since I last took acetaminophen, that I started to wonder if I wasn't remembering my allergies wrong... And I was hoping I also grew out of it... I mean, people grow out of their childhood allergies, right?
Yeah, not so much. :\
But at least I know now. No more Tylenol. Ever. Because hives suck. And they don't go away for days and who can hide away for days anyway? Seriously, how do people with chronic skin problems deal with this because I don't know what I would do if the redness stayed forever and not just a couple of days...
Outside of the itchiness, I'm still tired. This is the only thing that makes me wonder if I didn't just get a mild flu because how can I still be tired with as much sleep as I've gotten the last couple of days. All I want to do is sleep... I wake up for food and then I sleep. I'm watching the Australian Open right now but I feel as though I'm gonna nod off any moment from now...
I am so over being sick.
I think it's just a cold since it doesn't feel as bad as the flu I had last year. That knocked me out for days... I had all the symptoms of the flu: fatigue, chills, aches, cough, sore throat, sneezing, runny and stuffed up nose... But this year, it just seemed like a milder version of it. I started off with the mildest of coughs that lasted a few days. That led to a sore throat, which wasn't that bad, to tell you the truth. The day after that, is when it really started to hit me. I was hit with dizziness I hadn't felt since I was in elementary school. When I get sick, I don't usually get dizzy. I don't even usually get headaches, which is funny because I get a ton of headaches normally anyway (yay tension headaches). But damn, Monday was like any smallest movement felt like I was whoozy. Even without any movement, it felt like I was swirling around. I spent the day asleep but it was strange because I thought that would fix things but each time I would wake up, I would still end up feeling dizzy.
I think I ended up sleeping around 20 hours on Monday. That's when I started taking something for the symptoms, mostly because being dizzy was really annoying. My mother had some DayQuil from her bought of sickness the week before (guess who I caught my cold from?) and I had taken DayQuil back in middle school and I didn't remember any side effects so I thought I would be safe.
I was super tired, but I wasn't feeling the aches I was feeling last year. It just seemed like everything was just not as bad as last year which is why I thought it was just a cold. But I was still crazy tired. On Tuesday, I spent most of it asleep as well. I would wake up for two hours and then go to sleep for four. But during one of those two hour stretches where I was awake, I found out I was having an allergic reaction to the DayQuil. Hives, everywhere on my body. It was crazy itchy... My hands were red and my fingers swollen. It hurt just making a fist. And it itched. And was painful, like stinging needles. It was worst on my arms, hands, legs and feet though. It looked like I was sunburnt, it was red all over. And the spots that wasn't just lobster red, I had the red, raised bumps. It was over my neck (a particularly itchy spot that is still bugging the hell out of me right now), my back, chest and torso, but mostly just splotches and intermittent bumps.
I really hate hives. They're itchy in the a way that's unlike normal itchiness. And they're painful. Why are they painful?!
But I took it calmly even though this reaction was actually worse than the one I had last year. Thankfully, I only took two doses of DayQuil before I found out about the allergic reaction so it might have been even worse if I hadn't slept through the time when I should have taken that third dose... I took an Allegra since this reaction was so much worse than last year. It was the only antihistamine I have in the house... Everywhere online says to take a Benadryl but I've never used to because I've always heard that it knocks you out and I really don't like to be drowsy. So I take non-drowsy allergy meds for my hay fever. It seemed to work since I started to feel better an hour after I took the Allegra. I would have slept through it if I could but I couldn't because it was too itchy and too painful to sleep.
Today, I'm still itchy. Still red. Still have the bumps. The redness is not as red which is good. I still see and feel the raised bumps, and it will never stop being freaky to me... My normally smooth skin... T_T
I really wish I could avoid the whole hives thing. I mean, I've taken DayQuil before. Sure it's been like 15 years but I don't recall having an allergic reaction to it... But I still should have known better. I mean, DayQuil has acetaminophen, which is essentially Tylenol. And I'm allergic to Tylenol. And it has dextromethorphan, which was in the medicine I took last year that I had a reaction to as well. Before taking the DayQuil, I thought about the acetaminophen and wondered if I should risk it. But the thing is, ever since I started having an allergic reaction to Tylenol when I was a kid (elementary school age, so young), I've avoided Tylenol. No acetaminophen entered my body for the last 20 years. My pediatrician switched me over to Motrin and I've been taking that ever since. Yay ibuprofen. It's what gets me through my cramps every month so thank god I can take something for pain relief... But the thing is, it's been so long since I last took acetaminophen, that I started to wonder if I wasn't remembering my allergies wrong... And I was hoping I also grew out of it... I mean, people grow out of their childhood allergies, right?
Yeah, not so much. :\
But at least I know now. No more Tylenol. Ever. Because hives suck. And they don't go away for days and who can hide away for days anyway? Seriously, how do people with chronic skin problems deal with this because I don't know what I would do if the redness stayed forever and not just a couple of days...
Outside of the itchiness, I'm still tired. This is the only thing that makes me wonder if I didn't just get a mild flu because how can I still be tired with as much sleep as I've gotten the last couple of days. All I want to do is sleep... I wake up for food and then I sleep. I'm watching the Australian Open right now but I feel as though I'm gonna nod off any moment from now...
I am so over being sick.
