NOW THAT WAS INTERESTING

I promised in my last post that my blog break was nothing serious and it wasn't, though it did mess with my attention span. Feel free to laugh. Trust me, I am far enough removed to think it was all a bit ironically comical myself.

Most of you know I tore my rotator cuff when I slipped and fell on ice over a month ago.  Well that was getting better and improving daily. I found that rubbing Aspercreme on my shoulder really made it easier to do my therapy exercises. 

Thinking since a little was good, I decided to add regular oral aspirin from my heart attack survival kit to the equation. Did you know some 10% of people are allergic to aspirin??   Evidently I'm one of those special ones.  

From the aspirin I developed my first and I hope, only case of hives. I will have mixed emotions now about aspirin should I have a heart attack.  I'll have to check that out. Kind of glad I found this out now instead of if my heart went bonkers. 

I developed saucer sized,crazy itching welts all over my body. They owned me from top of scalp to soles of my feet.  Though it didn't turn red or itchy like the rest of me, my face quickly swelled but thankfully, not the throat. Ugly is not life threatening. This scary pic is not at my worst but taken on day two. Still it shows some of the dose of puffiness I was working with.

Such a cutie. It was like a really unfriendly stranger with serial killer leanings occupied my mirrors. 
  

Per usual, Pollyanna Patti found a positive and a smile. The swelling did fluff up my wrinkles and gave me those June Allyson eyes I so envied as a kid. Yes, I am that old to remember her. 

During the first day, I actually had lips once more. Those rascals had abandoned me somewhere in my late fifties.  These new ones were Angelina Jolie'ish. They didn't stay around long and it was just as well. How does that woman talk with those things?? I had trouble even getting liquid past those lush beauties without wearing most of it.  Very novocaine'ish. Happily yet a wee bit sadly, they left me after day one. I'm sure I would have adapted.

After zero success for two days fruitlessly trying to find ease from the relentless itching via home remedies, I gave up. I needed some relief and my tongue started swelling so I went to the ER.   None of the doctors I called had gone to their offices that day due to the weather. I couldn't blame them for driving out of my yard was a challenge due to the snow buildup.
   
I impressed the crew at the ER with my allover body decorations and actually got a "wow" out of nurse Mike. Been a while since a fellow looked at my naked frame and went "wow."  Yes I smiled. 

The Doc gave me a script for Prednisone. He also suggested the antihistamine Zyrtec since Benadryl hadn't work for me. It was a bit fun for when I went to pick up my meds, I saw two people I knew and walked right past them unnoticed. This would have been the perfect time to rob a bank.   

Now those meds really worked and boy did I feel amazing for 4 days. The itching stopped cold and I started recognizing myself again. That grotesque stranger left my mirrors. Even my shoulder quit hurting completely while I was on the prednisone. 

The combination of drugs made me quite mellow and I floated blissfully in and out of sleep, easily logging 16 hours a day. Just a delicious time. Not terribly productive but I could live like that. Besides with the snow build up, I wasn't going anywhere.

At the completion of the prescription, I discovered first hand that a side effect to prednisone is becoming prone to infection and bone pain. Yep, I developed a reaction to the medicine that was meant to cure my original allergy.   

My right ear started aching and glands I didn't know I had suddenly swelled trapping infection. Who knew there were so many of those things?? 

Sure is a bunch of those rascals isn't there. I found most of them. 

I also experienced weird, sharp bone pains in my legs and hands. Just turning a door knob was painful.This was when the term "disintegrating with age" first came to mind.

Then, to make sure I was paying attention to the body pranksters, a raw sore claimed the entire roof of my mouth so that eating anything other than pudding cups and yogurt was out and even those weren't fun. Cold milk was to die for.  I probably would have benefited greatly from antibiotics but for some reason, I was a wee bit pill leery. I relied on time instead and a little Echinacea that I completely trusted.

Individually, all these annoyances were quite minor. Collectively, they got my attention and knowing this was all basically self inflicted didn't help.

Feeling quite certain none of it was serious and would eventually become just a memory did help. And it HAS ended.  All is well in Patti's world once again.

Selfie yesterday.  Can you tell I like orange??

Selfies are not an old person's friend. We are like used cars--- best viewed from 20 feet, but sadly, I don't have a 20 foot arm. However,I just couldn't leave you with that first deformed image to give you bad dreams.

Currently nothing itches nor is swollen, my eyes are open, and the cheek bones are back. Sadly, so are the cavernous wrinkles but hey, it is even good to see them again. All pains except the minor shoulder ones (I'm letting time take care of those) are gone and my mouth has completely healed.  YES!!!!

Sometimes it is helpful to feel crappy for a while to fully appreciate our age appropriate health. Perhaps that is why God invented the nasty cold and has kept the cure a secret. Such benign, if unpleasant, trials make us so appreciative of normal.   
  
So I am back to the old me, feeling great and since my attention span has again lengthened, I will be around to visit you all once again.

 I have missed you.