{"id":50,"date":"2012-06-26T22:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T22:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethanlewis.org\/icarus\/2012\/06\/26\/day-18-update-its-the-itchy-and-scratchy-show\/"},"modified":"2018-12-25T16:33:15","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T21:33:15","slug":"day-18-update-its-the-itchy-and-scratchy-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ethanlewis.org\/icarus\/2012\/06\/26\/day-18-update-its-the-itchy-and-scratchy-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 18 Update: It’s the Itchy and Scratchy Show!"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, things have been going very well since my back operation. \u00a0I haven’t had to take any pain medication beyond some over the counter Aleve and I feel like a brand new person. \u00a0Until suddenly on the 15th day after the surgery, I broke out in hives all over my back. \u00a0I have been taking two Benadryls every four hours, plus spraying on Lanacane plus smearing on hydrocorisone cream to no effect. \u00a0I have also spent a lot of time with ice on my back to cool things down. The itching and the pain is terrible!<\/span><\/p>\n

I went to see my family doctor today and he speculated that it was related to something that was used on me during the surgery (or, less likely, a reaction to the dissolvable stitches inside me). \u00a0He prescribed me 5 days worth of Prednisone, and suggested I take Claritin<\/a> and (believe it or not) Zantac as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, I tried to find more information about this on Google, and it seems somewhat common! \u00a0The query\u00a0“hives after surgery<\/a>” yields 73,000 hits and “post surgical hives<\/a>” has 1.3 million. \u00a0Some people seem to be plagued by this for a long time. \u00a0I hope I am an exception!<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at least I don’t have to go see THIS <\/b>doctor:<\/span><\/p>\n