A few days before Thanksgiving I woke up with hives. Couldn’t figure out what they were from, but they were clearly systemic, so it was probably one of the five million foods I’m allergic to. I did what I could, and figured I’d give them a week to clear up before going to my allergist. They got worse, of course. So I went in, she put me on a regimen of several antihistamines, had me check in after a week, no improvement. So she put me on a regimen of prednisone and another combination of antihistamines, including both Allegra and Zyrtec (one at morning, the other at night) with directions to add a second dose of one, then the other if hives came back at all, explaining that she’d rather I be taking lots of antihistamines than the steroid. Which, of course, happened, so I’m currently taking the 24-hour doses of both meds twice a day. Also: more allergy tests. *Whee!*
Called to refill the generic Allegra today, and of course the insurance wouldn’t cover it because I was only two weeks into a one-month supply. Told pharmacist my doctor had increased the dosage, and I had an order for it, so I brought it in.
Pharmacist: “You know this is technically an overdose, right?”
Me: “Umm… that’s what I’ve been taking for the last week and a half.”
Pharmacist: “And you’re not having any heart trouble? No palpitations?”
Me: “Uhh… no…” *blink*
At this point I decided not to bring up the Zyrtec, which was at least over-the-counter.
He explained that the pills I was taking were actually the maximum daily dosage, so anything higher was an overdose, though he was encouraged that I seemed to be up and walking around. And he looked into the product literature and did find that it had been given to healthy patients at higher doses during trials without causing problems, which seemed to reassure him immensely. Though he was still very insistent that I try to cut back on it as soon as possible.
They were able to contact someone at the insurance company and get it approved, on a Sunday no less, though they didn’t have enough in stock to fill it immediately. I take this to mean that they’re probably giving me a month’s supply at two a day, which is more than I’ll probably need, assuming I can start tapering things off on schedule.
Oh, yeah, most likely culprits:
- Stuffed turkey breast. Supposed to be pineapple-stuffed. Had cranberries. There were two types available. The one we thought we were getting (pineapple) didn’t have soy flour. The one with cranberries did.
- Tetanus shot or pneumonia vaccine roughly 2 weeks(!) before the reaction.
- Gingerbread mix “made on shared equipment” with various things.