Pins and Needles?!

Have you been waiting on "pins and needles" to hear what in the world is going on with my jacked up body?! Well...I've had to deal with a lot of needles if it makes you feel any better. Here's a break down of how things have played out...

Friday-one little hive pops up on my foot...
Saturday-urgent care, steroid shot
Sunday-Back to urgent care-benedryl IV for several hours
Monday-Regular doctor visit-options 1-steroid pack, 2-hospital for steroid IV (picked 1...)
Tuesday-no needles, but didn't work either
Wednesday-Went to work, had to leave after calling my mom to come pick me up because I could not move. Back to regular doctor, who threw his hands up in disgust, well not really, but he sent me to the allergist. That appointment ended with another needle and 4 vials of blood later. Testing lots of things like lupus and arthritis.
Thursday-no work again
Friday-back to work, somewhat normal, pretty rough night with joint pain
Saturday-pushed through any thought of pain because we threw my parents a 30th Anniversary Party
Sunday-horrible pain in knee, waiting for blood results
Monday-pain moved to elbow, still waiting...
Tuesday-Nurse calls and the doctor needs to see me to go over my blood test, which sends me in a panic because why can't they just tell me over the phone, and I'm going to die, and I don't want to die, and I'm really nervous....(dramatic, I know)

The answer to why Nichole broke out in hives/rash with severe joint pain...........

not sure, but they are pretty confident that it's has to do with my thyroid, big surprise. My blood work showed that my body is making antibodies that are attacking my thyroid, therefore causing my thyroid not to work properly which in turn leads to the rash thing. The solution, even though my thyroid level is "within normal range" they are going to up my medication (goodbye those last few extra pounds-yes, not that I would be happy to use medication to lose weight, but if I have to have something good come out of this whole thing then this has got to be it!) to make my thyroid fight back against the antibodies that my body is making. Confused...me too kinda, but I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what is happening. But, I did not get out of the office needle free. Another level, my SED rate (which looks at inflammation) was high which could mean a number of things so they took 2 more vials of blood today to run some more test that I should have the results of in 10 to 14 days.

That's all I got people. I'm very over this rash thing, which is still over a good part of my body, but not bothersome or painful. I'll try to do better about updating, but seriously my fingers and wrists hurt so badly that it's hard to type. My next post will be about my parents anniversary...yay! So, as always, please REMEMBER JACKSON!

Not the Way I Planned on Getting Back to Blogging...

If you can recall, about this same time last year I was going through a bit of a "mini-hell" when I broke out in horrible hives right before my scheduled cataract surgery. Don't remember, or want to revisit, click here. Well...they are back, the hives, with a vengeance this time around. They are not covering my whole body like last time but seem to be around all my joints causing swelling and a good bit of pain. I've been up all night pretty much popping pills to stop the itching, but it looks like I'm going to have to go in for a shot and some of the stronger stuff. Fun times. So, my welcome back to blogging starts off on a rough note, but is anyone surprised by that?! I'll update about what the doctor says...