Mrpghgmm

Every time I think poison ivy can't get worse, it does.

This morning, woke up with _entire_ face swollen. I look like Egg Shen. Weeee! Got a doctor appointment at 1:30, though. It seems pretty clear that this is what they call systemic, i.e. the crud is in my bloodstream and happily popping up any ol' place. The answer to that is, apparently, steroids. (Today's irony: it seems one of the common steroids they use is prednisone. Which is what Mage's pills for his gut problem are. I was really tempted to just pop one of those...yes yes, I know it's all wrong, but--!)

Zanfel seems to be a mixed bag; certainly wasn't The Magic Bullet, but it's definitely helped with the smaller rashes. Interestingly, the actual skin of my face feels a bit better than yesterday--it's just that I'm swollen underneath it. Torso rash got worse, though.

This is somewhat good for the diet. It's troublesome to open my mouth more than a tiny bit, so eating is too much of a nuisance to want to do.

Back from doctor

So, the poison ivy is systemic (Go Me), and I'm getting steroids for that. However, the swelling is on account of a secondary infection; I'm getting antibiotics for _that_. She hopes we will catch it before it gets bad. (I don't wanna see bad if this ain't it.)

It seems that I'm particularly susceptible to poison ivy. Greeeeeat.
She says that it's likely to get worse each time I'm exposed, too, so pooky has decreed I'm not allowed in Beth's yard. (I wonder if this is at all related to the mild hives I get from evergreen sap?)

I do feel better now that we're attacking the root of the problem. I hope that, with a little help from the modern pharmacopaeia, my healing factor will be able to knock this bugger out by the time I leave for SF.

(Oh, and the financial grumblings from t'other day are resolved. So I am more sanguine about things.)

Yuck

This is seriously gross. My face is so swollen that my lips don't fit together right, so it's making me constantly drool a tiny bit. (So there's little tiny bits of dried drool...*shriek*)

God I hope these antibiotics kick in fast.

I wish I could do something useful with this time, but the pressure on my eye is painful and distracting. The most I can really hack is flopping on the couch watching pretty pictures on the magic box. (I just watched _Pride and Prejudice_ in entirety.) It's like having mono, although certainly not as bad as that was. At least I can eat and (sort of) sleep.

Popsicles help.