Friday, February 12, 2010

Something New

I had the pleasure of learning tonight that you can develop an allergy to pretty much anything while pregnant. Me, well I have a pregnancy induced allergy to seafood. Within 10 mins of finishing my shrimp and fish at Red Lobster tonight, my palms started itching . . . then my jaw . . . then my neck . . . it just kept spreading. We went straight to Walmart to get some Benadryl where the Pharmacist told me I couldn't take antihistamines while pregnant. But, I specifically remember seeing it on my "okay to take" med sheet my doctor gave me. They have it listed as a sleep aid. I bought it anyway and called the oncall OB/GYN while chugging down the suggested dosage. At this point, my entire torso was itching and I had large lumps and hives swelling on both sides of my neck. The on call doctor promptly returned my call and confirmed exactly what I thought. ANYTHING is possible during pregnancy and the Benadryl is completely safe. He suggested I take it along with a cold shower to help with the itching but if it progressed to difficulty breathing or wheezing to go to the ER for an Epinephrine shot.
About an hour later the itching, hives, and swelling had gone away. AND I will not be eating anymore seafood for the next 10 weeks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yucky! That's scary!

Benadryl is what they gave me as a sleep aid in my IV's when I went into preterm labor.

Yeah, stay away from the seafood, I guess!

Jennifer Ricker said...

man! the cold shower sounded like adding insult to injury - i had no idea you could get pg induced allergies...good luck with the final countdown!