What has happened in the last month? In the middle of February Robert had an allergic reaction to a new medication that he happened to take. He stopped the medication immediately and went to the doctor. The reaction involved was a fever, lethargy, head ache, joint pain and a rash. The first trip to the doc resulted in antihistamines and steroid cream. He started getting better but then two days later it got way worse. He spent the day in the ER on February 21 receiving oral steroids, having labs that revealed that his liver enzymes were 15 times what they should be, and then was sent back home. On the 23rd he started swelling along with the painful body-covering rash. He went back to the ER on Sunday the 24th and they decided to keep him. They called in a dermatologist because they couldn't figure out what was wrong. The dermatologist knew immediately that it was DRESS syndrome because Robert's liver was being attacked. DRESS Syndrome is characterized by the horrible rash that shows that the body is battling an auto immune response that was attacking internal organs. Blessedly, only his liver was being attacked so far. This is a rare allergic reaction that they really can't even tell him what to expect in the predictability of the syndrome. The main way of treating it is an enormous amount of steroids to combat the symptoms to keep the internal organs safe. And it can be 6 weeks to a couple of months before he will be out of the woods. He spent 3 nights and 4 days in the hospital and then came home. He hasn't been able to work as much. Since he went to the hospital he has been able to work 2 part time days and then he was just spent and exhausted and the rash started coming back. That was just two days ago and he went to the ER to get labs to make sure all of his organs were safe, they were, he just needed even more steroids. They are trying to taper him off of the steroids within a month but it is looking like he may have to be on them longer. And he will continue to get sporadic labs to make sure that his liver is improving and all of his other organs are safe. Anyway, that is the main thing that has been going on.
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LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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