Poison Ivy

My most recent efforts to post consistently have once again fallen by the wayside. I was doing ok until the poison ivy hit- three times within the last month! Lots of fun for me.

Antihistamines knock me out, but just to prove it to the allergist, I've taken a couple different ones with less than stellar results. My allergist told me that in all the years he's been a doctor he's never had anyone who couldn't take at least one of the antihistamines available. He doesn't know what to do with me, which isn't something you want a doctor telling you. I've done two rounds of prednisone, which helps clear up the rash and itching, but also knocks me out a bit. I just finished the second round, and we did a lower dose for a shorter duration, which took longer to clear up the rash but didn't knock me out too bad.

I got some allergy testing done, and supposedly I'm not allergic to anything. Not surprising, since my last allergy test twenty years ago said the same thing. A bit frustrating, but at the same time encouraging. If I'm not allergic to anything, than hopefully all my food sensitivities are temporary and will eventually go away as my intestines heal (which I've read does happen). In the meantime, I just have to be patient. But as my doctor sister mentioned, the skin tests aren't super accurate, so I really could be allergic to stuff and the tests just don't show it. So I guess I'm back where I started....

In between all this, I've been trying to finish up LMS's room. I had started on other projects, but then I realized I needed to finish that room before moving on to anything else. So I went back to working on the last bits for her room. I'm building shelves for her closet to make the space more usable, and then I need to build her a nightstand. After that, I just need to put up some decorations and then it will be done.

I'm off all the meds and my brain is finally my own again. In fact, I even felt well enough to go for a run today! The first time in I don't know how long... The house hunt and move and meds really threw off my routine.

There's a one mile loop close to our house, but we have to go through some trees to get there. Since I start itching every time I go outside, I decided to stay away from any unnecessary contact with foliage and went to the mailbox and back. The round trip is about half a mile and I did it three times: walked the first, ran the second, walked the third. The lane has some rolling hills and our driveway is a bit steep, but I managed to run the whole half mile, ending with pushing LMS in the jogger up the hill to the house. It felt really good to finally get out and run again, and my asthma didn't act up (a bonus since my inhalers give me heart palpitations- just one more example of my body being stupid). I can't wait to keep going and build my mileage up again  :)