pseudo-sunburn

the strangest thing happened to me on wednesday night.

i was minding my own business, getting dressed and putting on my make-up before work, when suddenly my ears started to hurt and burn and turn an impressive shade of fiery red. i kind of started to freak out, cause this was obviously not a normal thing to happen. then, my chest started to tun bright red, then my arms and hands, and this progressed all the way down my body. all the while, the sensation in my skin is changing from merely hot to really really hot and itchy and burning and like needles were jabbing me all over.

at that point i'm thinking, "hmm...maybe i shouldn't be going to work right now, there appears to be something wrong with me," so i called the charge nurse that night to tell her what was going on and say that maybe i shouldn't come to work that night because i would probably be visiting our fine emergency department instead. to which she said, "we are short-staffed, but that sounds pretty bad...how about you come in and we'll check you out...oh, and take some benadryl."

ok, so i sent jaymz to the store for some liquid benadryl [yum?] while i finished getting ready for work and tried not to claw off my skin while putting on my scrubs. then he got back, we mismeasured the benadryl, and i took a whole bunch of it...which really isn't that bad for you...it just ended up making me feel better and making me sleepy. then he drove me to work, where i went to my floor and everyone was staring at me, because at this point my whole body is this horrible bright red 'i was stranded on a desert island for three days with no clothes and no shelter' kind of color. i got to the front desk and the nurses started taking my blood pressure and looking at me in a perplexedly worried fashion.

my vital signs were: blood pressure 157/110, pulse 154...and i stopped reading there and started on my way to the emergency department. so, rest of the long story short, turns out i had an allergic reaction to--get this--niacin, a.k.a. vitamin b3, which i had taken that evening with dinner to help lower my cholesterol.

so much for trying to take good care of myself and be proactive in solving my blood chemistry problems! now all i've got to show for my efforts is a full bottle of niacin, an empty bottle of benadryl, and a still-itchy body.

craziness.