Make up your damn mind

[Peppergirl]

Hi Guys,

First off, Micer - we are very glad you're feeling better.

Secondly, I'm afraid we're going to have to close the thread. It was created near the time we made the rule about not seeking medical advice and we missed it. Our apologies for that.

Again, it's great you're doing well and congrats on the gorgeous baby!

[Seshat]

Contact the tenants' rights association wherever you are, and get them to help you force management to evict the current crop of critters, and place proper gridding/netting/whatever where it's needed to prevent future intrusions.

At least in Australia, if it's a health or safety issue and the landlord isn't doing it within a reasonable time frame, the tenant may do something themselves (with a professional, and appropriate receipts, etc) and send in a duplicate of the receipt instead of their rent.
This, however, MUST be done only under certain conditions: I would strongly advise that if you're thinking of going that route, you check with the tenants' rights association; whatever it is where you are.

(In Australian states, each state has a rental properties board that covers both landlord and tenant rights: this board is who I would consult. I'd like to assume there's a similar agency wherever you are.)

[Sapphire Silk]

Squee! OMG, he is soooo cute!

[Micer]

Thought I'd throw in an update.
Still no idea what caused it, but, things are healing. I still have patches of dry skin on my hands, but considering how many of those little blisters there were, I can only imagine how much of my skin I need to shed before those will be normal again. My heels are a nightmare since it looks like the backs of my feet want to peel off all the skin on it. Otherwise for now, controlling the dryness with baby oil gel that has aloe in it. Still can't touch polyester without getting the urge to itch myself like crazy, least all the cotton clothes have helped out, hoping someday I can wear jeans again.

Still on the lexapro, saw the therapist who thinks that the majority of it has been stress, still on the fence on continuing to see her, I have unrelated issues that should have been addressed with therapy when I was a kid, and it might help with my habit of beating myself up mentally when things go wrong.

Still have the bats, management swears they're taking bids, I'm expecting them to hem and haw until the next breeding season to say 'There's nothing we can do, they're protected again!'

But things are getting better. I got this little guy =)



Thanks again for all your help, advice and support, guys, its appreciated!

[Micer]

So I'm starting to think it's not detergent, it's not food, it's not - well, completely stress (I know the hives stress me out, which I suppose makes more hives) I'm starting to think it's certain fabrics and synthetics that are setting off the hives on my hands and feet. I lay down on my comforter (polyester and poly-something filler) and the backs of my feet go nuts, sheet (microfiber polyester-something) everything goes nuts, I wear my sandals, tops of my feet go nuts. That's all I can come up with, if it's polyester or something like a pad or a diaper, it's hive time, if it's cotton, nothing. I pretty much just spent last night sleeping on a flannel blanket atop the bed and woke up fine, save for some pressure itches.

So guess I invest in some socks and cotton gloves for now -_-

[Micer]

Nope, off of the antibiotics for a couple of weeks now and been off of the doxepin since last week, the claratin wasn't working, but the dermatologist suggested allegra, which seems to be working a bit already, the itching is now down to quick urge spurts here and there (just spent three hours at the department of health for wic and only scratched myself once during that time), I'm still itching like mad when I get up in the morning, but nice to have some relief during the day already.

And otherwise still limiting my sun exposure, going for short walks in the sun just for the sake of different enviroment, but not swimming or laying out, more so since sweating seems to aggravate things as much as getting a sunburn did.

And as an update, talked to management, apparently our previous complaint about the bats was lost, but they're going to call the 'critter catchers' to come back (they just evicted a colony of bats from another unit) and do ours, followed with a fumigation.

[Shalom]

First thing I would have tried would have been an oral antihistamine. Atarax (hydroxyzine) is kind of the gold standard for hives, but you need a prescription for it; nearest thing to that OTC is Zyrtec (cetirizine). If the Claritin's not cutting it, try the Zyrtec. Even Benadryl is useful if you can't find the others, but only by mouth: do not use the topical Benadryl, because it's a contact sensitizer (chemically related to the fabric softeners, as it happens) and can actually cause a rash in some cases.

(I've heard claims that at the recommended dosage, Claritin isn't much use... but at the dosage where it's effective, it's no longer non-drowsy, which was the main marketing point for it in the first place.)

Also, any time I hear of someone taking sulfonamides (Bactrim/Septra is the most common one nowadays) who breaks out in a rash, I tell them to stop taking that immediately, as that's a common drug allergy. Can also cause hypersensitivity to sunlight, so it might not be a good idea to sunbathe either. Are you still taking antibiotics?

[Micer]

Yep, they're pretty much in all the unit buildings, they come out from holes between the roof and wall in the evenings and pretty much swoop around, but otherwise, if you live on one of the end units, it also means you can knock on your walls and hear squeaking and rustling.

And when it gets colder, a chance of the bedbugs that infest them to come along looking to infest you. Anyhow, the owners have been swearing up and down that they're getting someone to 'evict' the bats, but had to wait until their mating/baby bats are now grown up bats season was passed because they're protected. ...yay Florida.



That's one of the little guys that got in through the access hole to the dishwasher (boarded up now, they've also gotten in through the vent in the kitchen - which is now chicken-wired up)

[Teefies2]

Wait, you have bats in your apartment on a regular basis????? And a newborn?

I'd be calling whoever regulates Landlord-Tenant law, as well as the Health dept. Hope you feel better soon

[kpzra]

You've done most anything I would suggest, but I do know it's kinda common to have a postpartum itch/rash from the hormone changes along with you may have had a reaction to something they gave you. I had a mild bit of it, but we knew it was a reaction to the antibiotics they gave me with my c-section. Sorry, i know it sucks.

[Micer]

So the OB didn't have any idea what was going on either, if I was pregnant and hivey/rashy, she'd know what was going on, so woooo.... $88 friggen bucks down the drain, anyhow, they put me on Lexapro (anti-depressant/anti-anxiety med) and suggested I go to a therapist.

Not too thrilled about the therapy thing, but I'm willing to give it a try. Sadly, they're closed til next monday, so that leg of this adventure is gonna wait until they return my call.

Anyhow, still itchy here and there and learned fairly fast that I want to take this medication closer to bedtime... thankfully the little guy took a long enough nap for me to conk out this afternoon myself, but I think I'd rather sleep through the nausea.

And if anything could get any worse, hubby was working on a new model, dropped something and lo and behold, the bats in our apartment have yet again given us the gift of bedbugs like they did in our last apartment. Least I know these aren't bedbug bites, we had the bed gone over with a fine tooth comb and sealed up when we were thinking this was fleas -> bedbugs -> scabies, but for fracks sake - throw us a bone here life!

Management is reeeeeally going to love it when I go into the office tomorrow with the happy little fellow for show and tell, I'm just hoping this is an unlucky fellow that fell through the vents and haven't attempted to establish themselves.

Seriously, which deity did I piss off?

[bainsidhe]

I hope they can find something that works for you, hives are hell. Earlier in the year I had a rash that lasted for a good two months. It spread over various parts of my person, but centered on my lower right leg. I finally got rid of all but the leg rash before I broke down and went to the doctor. The doc determined it to be a type of contact dermititus. He gave me a cream that helped a little and the rash eventually went away. What helped the most was...just not itching. I know that sounds terrible and it's frankly impossible when you itch just so bad. But clawing at my person just aggravated the hives. I had to force myself not to itch and the rash eventually went away.

It sounds painful, I wish you the best and hope you get rid of this soon.

[Micer]

I really don't know what they gave me epidural wise, but I do know this started when I got out of the hospital, so got a starting point there, otherwise they looked at me, looked at the fact that I had a panic attack last night where my heart was going nuts and I was literally crying for no reason. Wasn't sad, wasn't upset, wasn't sobbing, just tears pouring out of my damn eyes while I was calm and trying to nap with the little guy. I did it again at their office, was talking fine one second and the next, here come the waterworks without any warning.

They want me to go back to my OB and see if maybe I have post postpartum depression and if it has a hand in the fact that the hives haven't responded to anything, otherwise staying on the clobetasol, back on the steroid cream for the raised patches, and switching to Allegra allergy medication wise. That and got a half dose shot of steroid and benydryl to try to calm things down for today (still itching, trying to fight it)

So get to do that tomorrow -_- Wooo.

[Sapphire Silk]

This is coming rather late, but a thought occured to me:

Micer, did your OB give you Duramorph in your epidural? It is notorious for causing hives and itching.

If he did it should have metabolized out of your system by now, so it seems far fetched. But it's all I can think of.

[crazyofficeclerk]

This may sound a little strange, but what you have sounds a little like what I had when I mysteriously got Fifth's Disease. Even though most adults don't get the rash... I did. All over my body. I was miserable. Very little helped. The doctor looked at me like I was from another planet. The only thing that gave me relief was a version of Eucerin lotion. It was a spray. I could spray it on my skin and didn't have to rub it in and that help by not touching it. Of course they stopped selling it in my area. I'm not sure it was the lotion itself of the spray part that helped the most.