Warning: Exceedingly unflattering pictures to follow.
Here's the story, or at least the summary. Back on Sunday, October 1, I had noticed a red, itchy area on my leg. I thought something must have bitten me and tried to pay as little attention to it as possible. We continued with our schedule as normal, and that evening the man of the home asked if something had bitten me. I knew he couldn't see the spot on my leg, so I asked what he meant. I had spots on my neck and one between the bridge of my nose and my right eye. Hmmm. They offered me a cream to rub on the spots, but I decided to wait until the following morning since I didn't know what it was.
On Monday when I got up, a couple of my "head spots" were gone, but I had others, and the large place on my leg was still there. Over the course of the day, I developed more red splotches. Some of them itched; some of them hurt. Some of them stayed flat; some of them were raised. Maybe I was allergic to something? After leaving our lunch visit, we swung by Jorge and Ligia's to pick up some Benadryl that I had stored there for "just in case."
Over the course of the afternoon and evening, I steadily became more splotchy, and some of my less-ideally placed spots became grossly enlarged and painful. The Benadryl had seemingly had no effect at all. Or maybe it had, and I would have been even worse if I hadn't taken it?
Before we went to bed, Kim and I talked about going to the hospital. The splotches I had were definitely hives. I was growing more uncomfortable, and my tongue felt like it was starting to swell a bit. I decided to wait and see how I was feeling tomorrow. I'm not big on doctors and hospitals and such things. :-)
Things changed around 11:30 pm. I could tell that my tongue was continuing to swell, and my throat was horribly sore. I laid there contemplating the options. I mean, I could still breathe, so it wasn't really an emergency yet, right? However, I also knew that I wouldn't sleep a wink under the current circumstances, so at last I made the decision to wake up my poor co-worker and head to the emergency room. Said place was a destination at which I had hoped to never arrive, but it looked like the time had come!
When Kim and I were ready to leave the house, we woke up the lady of the home to tell her what was up and headed out to find a taxi. The place where we were staying had no car, and no taxi service that our hostess had called answered their telephone, so going out to locate one seemed to be our only option. I wasn't exceedingly happy about it since it isn't the best part of town, but I figured that under the circumstances, the Lord was likely to look out for us. And indeed, we hadn't walked too awfully far when a taxi came down the road, deposited its occupants a couple of buildings from where Kim and I were standing and came back to take us to the hospital.
I ended up being surprisingly impressed with the emergency room. I'd like to think I wouldn't have had to wait in the paperwork lines had I actually not been able to breathe, but as it was, I had sufficient air to answer all of their questions and present all the necessary documents. After those two lines, I waited a rather minimal amount of time in the waiting room before being called back to get my vitals taken, etc. After that, it was another wait before being called back "for real." It seemed quite evident that I was having an allergic reaction, so they hooked me up to appropriate IVs, gave me some sort of a shot and sent me home with a prescription.
One of our friends had showed up in the middle of this whole process, so he waited with us until we were finished and took us back to our place of stay for what was left of the night. By the time I left the hospital, my tongue was back to normal, and my face seemed a bit less swollen in general. I decided that as long as I could breathe, a rather favorite activity of mine, I could handle the rest of it okay.
We did decide to take a few pictures once we got back home, in case I needed to present my face case to a medical professional at home at some point in the game.
I'm definitely not cute, but I sure do look a lot better than I had a couple of hours previously!
Elbow spots
Interesting side note: This is the number of steps on Kim's pedometer when we arrived back home from the hospital.
We found a sign of Patients' Rights in the lobby of the ER. The last item on the list didn't exactly comfort my heart.
12. Right to a dignified death
Okay, then!
On Tuesday morning, I was much better, but other parts of me were beginning to swell, the most noticeable of which was my bottom lip. New red spots were appearing as well. Not exactly what I was hoping for!
We decided to go ahead with our lunch plans. My appearance wouldn't scare anybody overmuch, would it? We took the afternoon easy and then went to our evening study in Tulcán. We spent the night with Eduardo and Adriana again.
We had a Wednesday morning Bible study scheduled as well as a visit with Sra. Clara Luz, but I ended up cancelling everything. I just didn't feel good! We went to Jorge and Ligia's, repacked our bags and headed to Sra. Alicia's early. I had told her earlier that we wouldn't be coming until afternoon, but I didn't figure she would mind. Indeed, she wasn't even home when we arrived. We let ourselves in, and I went to bed. When I came out of my bedroom a little before noon, Sra. Alicia, who had arrived sometime in the interim, took one look and asked what was wrong with me. Apparently, I was worse again; I hadn't looked in a mirror. She wanted to take me to a homeopathic doctor just down the street that she had heard good things about, so I conceded.
After he did all his testing, he declared that I was allergic to the B Complex vitamins that I had begun taking a month or two previously. He gave me another shot and two unlabeled brown bottles to take a capful at a time until they were gone. Though I still felt crummy, I was delighted to think that those B vitamins were the cause of my problem. I'd just throw those things away and be in the clear from here on out!
However, as the afternoon and evening progressed, I started really swelling up - all parts of my face and again, my tongue. I didn't even have what it took to attend the midweek Bible study that was taking place just out in the living room. And when Sra. Alicia came in to see me after the meeting was over, she firmly suggested that she and John could take us to Quito in the morning to see a doctor there. While I had found the emergency room in facilities in Ipiales adequate for my needs, the town doesn't have the best reputation where medicine is concerned. She contacted LeRoy. I agreed to go. And it was settled. We would leave at 4:00 on Thursday morning. They needed to go to the border to get the paperwork required for taking their vehicle (and their persons) all the way to Quito, and poor Kim had to go along and get her passport stamped as well. They left the house around 10:30 pm and returned an hour or so later. It would be a short night!
It's hard to smile when your lips are four times their normal size!
We got away a little after 4:00 the next morning and headed south. Before we had even gotten beyond Tulcán, John had to stop and change a tire. Fortunately, we sailed through all the police checks with no problem. (It doesn't take as long in a privately-owned vehicle as it does on the bus.) We stopped for breakfast partway to our destination, and they brought my food to the car. I was actually getting better as we traveled. Something about laying down seemed to exacerbate the swelling of my face.
It was funny how the swelling seemed to move around - first my nose, then one eye and then the other, my bottom lip and then the upper.
We met up with Alberto and Vaughn at the bus terminal on the edge of Quito so that Alberto could direct us in to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital, I was really quite a lot better. I probably looked more or less like the picture above shows.
I didn't have to wait AT ALL in the general waiting area of the ER at the VozAndes hospital. I was taken back immediately to give history, explain my current problem and have my vitals taken. After that, there was a little wait to see the doctor but nothing extreme. I was diagnosed with an unspecified allergy, given more IVs and received a prescription for more steroids to take orally over the next five days.
This time by the time I left the hospital, I basically looked normal. That was, of course, a good thing. However, LeRoy had made arrangements to fly from his field to Quito. I don't know if Sra. Alicia had painted such a dire picture that he thought he might need to come and have my funeral? By the time he saw me, he probably wondered what in the world all the fuss had been about! From the hospital, we went to David Lansdale's house, where several workers ended up congregating before the evening was over. Kim and I left after supper and spent the night in the suite at Warren and Karen's before making the trip back to Ipiales the following day.
Warren had told me about an allergy doctor close to where they live that apparently has a very good reputation. I decided that it would probably be a good idea to pay her a visit when I was back in Quito in a little over a week. So, with that as the plan, I put up with the continued symptoms - lesser but still annoying - over the next several days. Fortunately, my tongue stayed its normal size.
Once we got back to Ecuador on Monday, Oct. 16, I scheduled an appointment for Wednesday. After putting me through the testing process (see below), it was determined that I am allergic to ibuprofen and naproxen and all medications included within those two families. Not quite as convenient as being allergic to B vitamins but better than having a serious allergy to some food ingredient that could get slipped into my soup without my knowledge.
Forty-nine scratches topped with liquid
DON'T take these! EVER!!!
And so, we think, we hope, that the mystery is solved.
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