Lots going on

I know I haven't posted here in a month, but lots of things have been going on here on the homestead that took me away from blogging so much. I have blogged a little on my main homestead blog though.

As for my health, well, I still have the rash on my back, but very little of it left. My rheumy said that it probably was not shingles and that it must be just some dermatitis. So, now we have no clue what this rash is from. It is still itchy like crazy though.

Sunday morning I woke up to a surprise when I looked into my mirror. My cheeks had swelled up so much, I looked like a chipmunk hoarding nuts. It didn't really hurt unless I touched my cheeks. Mostly tender around my jaw line.

This is a before/after picture to show now much I swelled up. The lighting was bad in my swollen picture, so that is why I am orange. The swelling was so bad that every time I bit down to eat, I bit the insides of both my cheeks. It hurt a ton, plus certain foods aggravated the cuts. I haven't eaten much because of it. Lots of soft foods that I don't have to chew, like apple sauce and yogurts.

I made an appointment with my primary dr to see her on Monday. Worked for me seeing how I was going to be in the area at the Apple store to try and get Matt's ipod fixed. No luck there. When my dr first walked into the room, the first thing she asked me was if I had mumps. She would not approach me until I told her that I had the immunization as a kid so this probably is not mumps. I might want to get a booster shot for it just in case. A friend of mine told me that lots of the immunizations we were given as kids, really did not do much for us and that for her personally, she has very little immunity built up to certain "childhood" illnesses.

My primary asked me a ton of questions and then called the head allergist at Mass General to ask what he thought it might be. He said maybe Lupus, but he wanted to see me. He also asked me to load up on either Benadryl or Zertec. Seeing how I take Zertec daily, he said to take 2 instead of my usual 1.

While I was eating lunch, I got a call from his office to make an appointment. Of course the receptionist I was talking to had no clue why she was calling me to make an appointment and when I tried to explain it to her, she was still clueless. She said that I could not be tested for anything unless I was off all allergy meds for at least days. I told her that I was told by the dr there to load up on Benadryl. She decided to put me down as a consult.  I'll just explain everything to the dr again anyway.

Well, off to my appointment. I'll let you all know how it went when I get back.