This year hasn’t been great for me so far. I’ve had near-daily headaches that I assumed were due to a flare up of my Idiopathic Intracranial Hyptertension, but a recent Lumbar Puncture showed that my pressure was normal. So, possibly these are yet another stress-induced issue: migraines. I’ve been “treating” the headaches with paracetamol & ibuprofen – which brings them from an 8/10 on the pain scale to a 5/10 – because opioids can increase intracranial pressure. However, I’m only allowed to medicate for 3 days a week, so that’s been fun!
In November, I had an allergic reaction to an unknown trigger, and in addition to facial swelling, a bright red itchy rash covered my face, neck, chest, belly and legs. I’d had a similar reaction in the year previous, so assumed it was some seasonal allergen. Ended up taking a couple of weeks worth of Prednisone, which cleared the rash but left me with a nasty case of folliculitis (aka random spots of acne in odd places all over my body) that I then had to take antibiotics to treat. Because my body doesn’t like to do anything right, I then had recurrences of the hives & itching!
My GP has diagnosed stress induced urticaria (and to be fair, being a chronically ill person in the middle of a pandemic is fairly stress-inducing), and her dermatology referral was declined because apparently they’re not taking appointments due to Covid. Nice. So I am still insanely itchy and covered in rashes. It’s not helping my mood, as you can imagine.
The pandemic has set my anxiety & agoraphobia back to “shitty”, after I’d made quite a lot of progress in 2018 & ’19. I don’t want to catch Covid – I’m triple vaxxed & wear double masks when out (which is only when absolutely necessary). I don’t know how my body will handle it, as I have many co-morbidities that would complicate a recovery. Last time I got the ‘flu, even though I was vaccinated, I also developed pneumonia. It sucked, and so I’m not taking Covid lightly.
Anyway, I’m ready to trade in my body and upload my consciousness to the internet whenever Big Tech is ready!
