So last November right around the time of Super Saturday (which I was on the planning committee for) I broke out in a terrible itchy rash all over my arms, and legs. I was told it was a pregnancy rash, or a herpes type rash which is stress related, I was even told I had an infection. I saw a few Doctors and my midwives about it. Nobody really knew for sure. but no big deal, within a few days they went away. A month or so later, it happened again, all over my arms and hands and even one on my eye. So I went to the Dr. again to try and figure out what was wrong with me. I saw a friend of mine who is a family Dr. and another walkin clinic Dr. Still nobody knew was it was other than some speculation that it probably had something to do with the pregnancy. About a month later, again, then it picked up in frequency and started happening more like once a week but just really sporadic and no real pattern to it. It didn't seem to be because of stress and I tried all sorts of different eating habits to see if maybe I had developed a sensitivity to certain foods this pregnancy. Nothing really did anything and everyone was stumped. I was really frustrated because the itchiness kept me up crying at night it was so bad sometimes. I couldn't sleep when I had a fresh outbreak because the itching was that bad. After Jake was born it didn't go away as most of the Dr.'s said it probably would. If fact, they actually increased in frequesncy, which was extra annoying. Now, not only am I up at night itching, but I am up with a baby that needs to be nursed, so basically, I was one tired mama. I went for my second biopsy when Jake was a month old and both times there was no real conclsive data other than maybe a disease called "sweet syndrome" and another one that it could be called "wells syndrome" Wells syndrome had 80 reported cases. Ever. Awesome, I thought, I am a total freak. Well one day I was really tired after a rough night with Jake, so at about 6:00am I told josh I was going to go sleep in the spare bed (in the basement) with Jake so I wouldn't get woken up by the kids in a hour. I occasionally take naps down there, and josh often sleeps down there after a night shift for more quiet). Well an hour later, I still hadn't slept and was itchy as could be, I got up and looked in the mirror and had fresh welts all over my body, and one nice one right on my eyelid. Great. So I gave up on the idea of sleep and decided to scrub the bathroom and tidy up a little and then go make breakfast for everyone who would be awake soon. Might as well be productive since I am not going to sleep right? this was a Sunday morning and by that night my eye was really swollen, people at church were asking if I was ok and at family dinner, my family was really concerned. To me it was almost just another day. I had gotten so used to it. The eye one was really annoying though. The next morning when I woke up I literally couldn't even open my eye. I had to cancel a play date and a photo shoot for the next day and booked an appointment with my family Dr. I saw him and he referred me to another dermatologist. I was looking forward to seeing someone else and hoped that maybe this new one would have some answers for me. josh suggested I go down to sleep in the basement that night since I was beyond exhausted, so I obeyed, took Jake with me and tried to go to sleep. However sleep did not come because once again I was itching everywhere! I had been doing the laundry and we usually have black sheets on that bed, but i didn't get them put back on so i was just on the mattress cover. I got up, turned on the light and threw back the covers this time, determined that there was something in the bed! Wouldn't you know it, there are 3-4 little red bugs crawling around on the mattress. I ran upstairs at woke up josh and made him come to look. i said I am sure they are bedbugs, so he went online and did the research and sure enough they looked identical to the pictures online. I was probably the most excited person ever to find bedbugs in their house. I was bouncing off the walls! I got out the vacuum and started plowing away on the carpet and mattress and Josh did more research about how to get rid of them etc. It turns out it is a lot of work!!!! I kept telling Josh I am 100% sure this is what has been going on! How we did not notice them earlier I will never know (it might have something to do with the black sheets though....) I called every Dr i had seen to tell them the great news and then we called the pest control guys. it was a long process of a LOT of laundry, cleaning and spraying from the pest control, but we are now rid of them and my life is back to "normal" I couldn't be happier. I am so happy that I don't have a rare freaky disease, and I am so happy that we did a huge fall cleaning of the house in the meantime! Below are some pictures to show you just how bad it was!!!
And for those of you wondering why didn't Josh get bit? They say that some people don't react to the bites! Lucky him! I even mentioned to the naturopath along they way that it seems like bedbugs or something since I always seem to have the new ones show up when I was sleeping. She asked if I had seen any or if Josh had been bit, I replied no to both and we dismissed the idea!!! When we checked the mattress they were lined, eggs and all, along the creased part of the mattress! Gross!!! And they are clear excet after they have fed and then they are red like this sucker in the photo!!
Do you feel all itchy now?
1 comment:
I'm so glad to hear it was bedbugs too! At least it was something you could fix! I'm surprised doctors never thought of it, but I'm so glad to hear you are done with it. Are you going to be paranoid about mattresses from now on?
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