molting follow-up

I've pretty much finished molting. I went back to the office for the first time on Monday, after working from home for about 3 weeks. I have to say - I got accustomed to having a fireplace in my "office". I'm going to miss that. That and spending more time with Judi. But mostly the fireplace.

Here is the latest udpate on the whole skin peeling off / rash thing.

1. The dermatologist says it's (was) the most severe case of erythema multiforme (minor) that she has ever seen that didn't involve the patient (me) winding up in the hostpital due to it (the rash) either spreading to places like the esophogus (and therefore having breathing issues) or organs, or from getting some sort of secondary infection due to the large areas of missing skin (think burn victim, if it helps to visualize).
• After my first visit, she actually called me at home a couple days later to make sure I was doing okay. At first I thought this was a really nice thing for a doctor to do, but then I came to the realization that it was because she genuinely believed I should be way sicker than I was, which worried me somewhat.
• She also took my case with her to a local convention (I'm assuming a convention with other Doctors, but possibly it was dragoncon), and apparently all the other people there (presumably Doctors) agreed that I should have been way sicker than I was. So.. yay me for being special!
2. Treatment involves "staying comfortable" and keeping the skin moist. And letting the rash run its course. And trying not to scratch yourself while you're asleep.
3. In many cases the thing that triggered it can never be determined. Once everything settles down for good, I'll seek out an allergist to see if my "exotic woods" theory might hold any merrit. The trouble with my "exotic woods" theory is that the rash wound up in places that the wood had no contact with. And if it's something I breathed (wood dust) I should have had some breathing issues, which I didn't. Years of troubleshooting computers prevents me from accepting the fact that sometimes you can't determine the source of a problem. My "best guess" currently is that I had a contact reaction on my arms, neck, and to a lesser degree on my chest and ankles, where it first appeared. Then I figure I must have also been allergic to (something in) the ointment that I was given initially to dry out the skin. As I rubbed the ointment on, the rash grew and grew to new surrounding areas. Whether this is the case or not, the description fits the symptoms. I'll find out eventually once I determine if I'm allergic to those things.
4. I have the blood of a 20 year old, apparently. (I was told this as she was looking at the results of some bloodwork). And I'm otherwise healthy. Just a little itchy now and again.
5. And that's about it.

molting

(Or - a medical entry with forced humor so people don't think i'm dying.)

So apparently I'm some sort of crustacean all of the sudden.

And it's molting season.

You know when you get sunburned, and then you peel? It's a lot like that, except without the sunburn. And the "peels" are crunchier.

Nice imagery, huh?

From what I've read, it appears that in humans, it's called (medically) sloughing, but please do yourself a favor and don't do a google image search for that. If you do, rest assured, that I'm not looking anything like that.

For the 90% of you that just did that search, I'm willing to bet that you wish you'd stayed with the crunchy sunburn imagery.

Anyhow, what started as a mysterious rash on my forearms, and then turned into what looked like a bad case of poison ivy on my arms wrists and neck, has now exploded into a lovely, itchy rash that's spread (at least in some capacity) pretty much everywhere except (fortunately) my face and my... uh.. how to put it delicately... "boy junk".

So, being the health-conscious person I am, I made my first visit to a doctor since... oh... the early 90s. I guess that's not technically true. I visited the doctor with Judi when she was pregnant (late 90s) and I went along with Andy to some of his doctor's appointments. Nonetheless, pending the results of some blood tests, I'm a model of health. (Except for, you know, the molting.)

So I got some 'roids, some antibiotics (yes, Mom, I remember that I'm allergic to Penicillin), and some ointment. And a follow-up appointment next Monday. And a shot in the ass, which, surprisingly, was far more pleasant that getting blood drawn. I used to donate blood pretty regularly, but for some reason, the last few times I've given, it's been way uncomfortable. Downright painful, even. So I guess in retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised that getting the shot in the butt was less painful than giving blood, but I think that's an understandable assumption.

I hereby declare that I have the option to revise my "comfort preference" with regards to things being stuck in my arm vs my butt. (see: colonoscopy and/or prostate exam.)


So what is it? The Doctor said he thinks it's a mild case of
"Stevens-Johnson syndrome" Don't look up pictures of that one, either. If you already did, rest assured that the pictures that you find aren't in any was representative of "mild". I'm hoping to get the results of the blood work in the mail soon. (Mainly because i said they could mail them to me if they were negative. They'll call if it's bad news.) And I'm supposed to "not be a hero" and "go to the emergency room" if I start "not being able to breathe". Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my medical advice to not be of the "no duh" variety. I understand, though, he probably has to mention things like that, lest he lose his license.

More followup after next Monday.


Oh - the other thing that totally sucks? I have no idea what triggered the reaction, but there's a good chance it was one of the woods I used when woodturning. Evidence of this increased when, like a genius, I used the leafblower to clear out the sawdust accumulated under my lathe in the garage. Symptoms worsened shortly after that. More sucky - having just gotten the lathe, and having just gotten a bunch of random pen blanks, I've been exposed to a shit-ton of different wood species, in a short amount of time, so I can't really narrow down the culprit(s) easily. When this is all said and done, I'll have to find a good allergy specialist who can help me figure that one out.

On a "good news" note - it's only 2:15 AM, and I'm starting to get tired. I haven't slept more than a few hours each the past 3 or 4 days. Surprisingly, I've felt totally refreshed throughout. Of course, I'm on-call this week. I'll probably get paged a billion times now...