Unfortunately, I think this is going to go on longer than anticipated/hoped. I tried to submit a post from my Blackberry last night while in e.r., but I guess it didn't go through.
Late yesterday evening my face was getting more swollen, I was having occasional difficulty swallowing and I was feeling more sort of "out of it". So I called my primary care doctor and got the doctor on call. She said it sounded like my lips and/or tongue were swollen. I knew for sure that my lips were swollen and it felt like my tongue could be a bit swollen, so because of that she thought I should be checked out, and with the weakness I was describing she thought it would be better for me not to drive, but call 911 instead. So I did that and the paramedics gave me a benadryl shot en route to the hospital.
In typical e.r. fashion, it took me about 5 hours to get to where I was actually getting medical care, but then I was there for about 7 or 8 hours receiving i.v. medicines which brought the facial swelling down considerably and also made me feel significantly stronger. But I still have a little swelling in the face and I'm not up to my energy levels of a week ago, when I was thinking about starting to look for a job.
I got a new prescription, a histimine blocker, so hopefully that will help keep the symptoms manageable until we find out what the actual root cause it. I still see the dermatologist tomorrow (Sat.) morning and see the allergy doctor and the fill-in primary care physician (while my regular dr. is on maternity leave) on Monday. The allergy doctor's office agreed to let me come under the circumstances even though I might not have the money for the co-pay.
That's all for now, except to say that if I have some days that I feel reasonably well I might return to the subject at hand, the file I'm working through, but I don't want to try it when I'm not feeling up to it because my thinking won't be as clear to adequately address some of the issues.
Part of the reason why I was going as fast as I was in pumping out these blog entries because ever since my return to the States from Russia in 1997 it seems like I can never quite finish anything, because something always comes along to interrupt it. At least I feel like I've taken a big bite out of what I need to say and there are a lot worse points in the sequence for temporary leave taking. This is one thing, though that I'm going to try my darnedest to finish, though. Come flood or high water, I'm going to do it, by golly!
Meg
