naming the puffy

[radfrac_archive]

It's called angioedema.

I would not recommend reading the Wikipedia entry on it, as that makes it sound like a violent, agonizing, frequently fatal immune collapse, when as far as I can gather from other sites it is generally a non-life-threatening allergic reaction on the same spectrum as hives -- in essence, your face is one big hive. Also, what happened to me is in no wise as severe as what I saw in the pictures posted to the web. It may not even be angioedema in the strict sense, but what the doctor described sounds remarkably like what happened.

My doctor is excellent. He is always kind and considerate and he figures things out that other doctors don't seem to.

He thinks it's stress, and I have to admit that makes sense. I tend to have an inflammatory reaction to emotional duress. When I left my evil ex many years ago, and went home to visit my parents, I developed a violent case of hives that endured for over a week, and for months afterwards I'd get random swelling in irritated areas of skin at stressful times. It went away after a while. and I stopped consciously expecting it as a stress reaction. I think part of what alarmed me so much about this (other than its idiopathy) was that it reminded me of that time, and how out of control everything felt.

The thing is, though, okay, the thing is you should not look up your diagnoses on the Internet. Because then you will find a single reference to people dying during dental surgery of the most severe hereditary form of the thing, and you will think about your dentist appointment on Tuesday, and you will not sleep at all well.

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Comments

[kainhighwind-dr.livejournal.com]

Dude... now I understand your reference to how you knew what auto-immune disorders are like. I hope it's not as severe as all that...

Stress does strange things to the body. If I don't break out in hard, painful, itching nodules on my hands, I get pukey. Even arachnid encounters one night will have me vomiting and dizzy come morning.

Do try and get some rest and relaxation. Angioedema or not, stress alone is bad enough for the body. Heh. This from a neurotic who couldn't handle stress mere days/weeks ago. ;}

[radiantfracture]

You handle it fine. Expressing distress is a good way to cope with it. Not least because then your friends get to lecture you.

My mom's had some kind of autoimmune disorder, maybe lupus, maybe something else, for about ten years. She and I seem to share many health issues, so it's not such a shock to have these kind of symptoms.

I used to just get these tiny blisters on my hands, but the scale seems to have changes.

Spiders {{shudder}}

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[foxymuffins.livejournal.com]

doubly good advice for aspiring medical students. or psych students. or people who are trying to learn about illness. resist self diagnosis. lol.