I arrived in Pittsburgh today! It was a pretty drive through Kentucky, Ohio, even a wee bit of West Virginia. Very green and lots of water—always a plus for us desert rats. It was only about a six hour drive today but of course there was some drama. I mean why not.
When I woke up this morning, the entire right side of my face was swollen, to the point where my right eye was only open a tiny slit. My neck was really swollen as well. I had woken up around 5:00 am and all was fine. I fell back asleep, and when I woke up again around 8:00, things were definitely awry! It was quite alarming. Nothing was red, hot, or painful. I messaged the doctor here in PA, and later in the day both she and her nurse called me to follow up. By that time my eye had improved some but the rest of my face was still very swollen. We agreed I should try to get to an urgent care center.
I found one somewhere in Ohio, don’t ask me where, and by this time, my upper right arm was also very swollen. What the serious hell. I went to urgent care but the guy there said they wouldn’t be able to help me and said I should go to the ER.
Nope. If I’d gone to the ER, I’d still be there right now, and I still had about four more hours of road time ahead of me. I messaged the doctor back again, telling her this, and reassuring her that I was not having any breathing problems. She responded back that if things worsened, I definitely needed to get to a hospital.
But… everything seems to have returned back to normal. So… spider bite? Bug bite? Initially I thought it might be further reaction to the prednisone but I’m guessing not. Just a really bizarre coincidence and super crappy timing. Leave it to me to attract an arachnid on a road trip.
I found the house in Pittsburgh easily enough (what did we ever do without GPS?), and it’s very lovely. I think it will be perfect. I’m directly across the street from a small police station and also next door to a fire department—the alarm has already gone off once! But noises like that don’t bother me. There’s a small store at the end of the street and apparently some good restaurants nearby, although I brought an ice chest full of food just to help keep costs down.
The hospital is about 20 minutes away. Wednesday I go for the day-long Rituxan infusion, and Thursday I see Dr. A in person.
I’m here. It’s happening. YAY.
Low, Low, Low 