I went to have my ct-scan this morning and everything was proceeding smoothly, normal traffic, normal waiting time (after I finished the 2 bottles of barium), they got my vein for the contrast in one stick, the scan was fast, got up to leave, walked down the hall towards the changing room and felt my neck was itchy. Got to the changing room and looked in the mirror and saw that I had hives all over my neck. Ack!
So I turned right around and went back to the scan room and they sat me down, put oxygen in my nose, took my blood pressure, did the pulseox thing (that thing they put on your finger the measures heart rate and blood oxygen levels) asked me a zillion questions, called the dr. (the resident came first). Meanwhile I am getting itchier and itchier, my face, my ears, my eyebrows, my neck, etc. They then lay me down on the ct bed and more drs. come in, they take my blood pressure about 500 times, they try to stick my other hand to get an iv in in case they need it (which they didn't but I have a giant black and blue hematoma for their trouble). My face feels tight, but still no breathing problems. But my arms and legs and chest are now covered in hives.
They go back and forth about whether to give me benadryl and when. The issue is that I can't drive home if they do, and they apparently like to watch and see with a reaction like mind (which is considered mild, because even though my entire body is breaking out in hives, my breathing is normal, so it's not anaphylactic). They move me to one of the PET scan waiting rooms where they have a recliner and there they decide to give me a benadryl. So I call A. and ask if he and Z. can come down on the train and pick me up (so we don't have to leave my car in the parking garage). Luckily A. was working at home while watching Z. that day.
They start telling me that my face is looking a lot better. After drinking a couple cups of water I get up (dragging the oxygen tank along with me) to go to the bathroom and look in the mirror in horror. That's looking better? I don't want to know what I looked like before. My face was all puffy and distorted, including my eyes, my nose even looked crooked.
After a while the Benadryl kicked in, I drank more water to try and flush the stuff out of me, the itchiness got better, but my face still felt tight. When I went to the bathroom the next time my face looked better but my eyelids were still puffed up. They called another dr. to check me. He said that most of the time the reaction is immediate or within a half hour, but in some cases there could be a delayed reaction. He thought it unlikely in my case since my reaction was so immediate. So they had me wait till A. got there, had another dr. give me one last check and instructions and let me go.
This excitement I don't need! So now I have another allergy to add to my list (I have 4 drug alllergies and 1 food allergy). So from now on when I get my scans I will have to take a steroid (prednisone) the night before and a few hours before and will have to stick around for a bit afterwards till they are sure I am okay. I told A. that from now on he will have to go to scans with me, I've always done them on my own, but not anymore.
As I left I asked the tech when I could call for a fax of the results and she said tomorrow, so hopefully I will know by then. Right now I am a bit drowsy from the benadryl, and will be spending the rest of the day close to the bathroom. My eyelids still are puffy but the hive appear to all be gone. I am feeling pretty calm so far about the results. That will change as it gets closer I'm sure, but for now I'll take the relative calmness.
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2 comments:
Wow. How incredibly scary.
Hope you're feeling better by now.
Oh my! The first time I read it, I missed the part that this happened after your scan. I was worried that you'd gone through all that for naught! Jeez Louise, it's never ending. Puffy {{{hugs}}} and here's to good results!
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