Going Hypoallergenic

In a previous video on my YouTube Channel (VLOGmas Day 1: ELF Cosmetics Haul) I mentioned that I am going as hypoallergenic as I possibly can -- and you may be wondering why.

Well, a really long story short, I had a MAJOR reaction to... something. Isn't that vague? I'll get into the possibilities a little further into the post.

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It all started mid-November around the 13th or 14th. The base of my scalp was itching pretty bad. 

Now... I wasn't thinking I had contracted lice or something like that. While I do work in a Pharmacy, I have very little interaction with the patients, so while it could have been a possibility, there weren't any recent cases of lice coming through the Pharmacy, so there's that out of the way. However...sometimes if I skip washing my hair for a couple of days -- you know, how the beauty gurus say you're "supposed to" -- my hair gets super oily, and no matter what time of year it is, my body temperature runs fairly hot... on top of that I feel itchy where it feels oily cause at this point my hair feels like a greaseball and I'm feeling overheated. Basically, I feel like I need a shower if I miss more than one day of washing my hair.

The next day I was in my Texas Government class (shout out to Dr. Richards!) and my scalp was STILL itching. I felt like I was getting hives on the back of my neck -- I don't have psoriasis or any kind of skin disorder -- so the only thing I could think of was maybe my shampoo even though I had been using it for about a month at this point. After all my classes were over I went home and washed my hair with straight up baking soda with some tea tree oil in it. I figured the baking soda would strip out any residue that was left over in my hair from the shampoo, and the tea tree oil -- if my skin had broken from me scratching -- would help soothe and heal my scalp. It started to feel better. After I did that I washed the remainder of the baking soda out with some shampoo that again I had used in the past. Went to sleep, everything was fine.

The next morning: HIVES! All down my back and they wouldn't stop spreading.

I went into the bathroom and my back was a little itchy. The first cold front was sweeping through West Texas so I figured my back was just dry, but since I had some hive-like bumps on my neck I thought I would look at my back. It wasn't dry... it was broken out in little bumps ... and they were everywhere. I went into the bedroom and had my husband, Aaron, look at my back to make sure I wasn't going crazy. All I heard was "Oh my God..." I couldn't see my back very well on my own, so I had him take pictures.

I ended up having the cut my hair, which was about to my shoulder blades because of the weight of my hair pulling on the hives was too painful. This was while I was getting my hives to go away... it took a good week or so to get them to go away.

This was that Friday (November 16) morning:

A partial shot of my back -- considering the area was CLEAR less than 8 hours before this was taken, it wasn't looking good.

My arms and face were all covered in small hives as well, but we were baffled because of how fast it came on. It wasn't something that started on my neck and slowly worked its way down. It started on my scalp -- I washed my hair with baking soda to get the grime and nasty out of my hair, then washed my hair with a shampoo that I have USED IN THE PAST -- and then just overnight spread all down my back, arms and tummy area. This happened on a Friday morning and the following week was Thanksgiving. On top of that, we had a concert to go to that night -- I was a little nervous.
My mother-in-law is a physician and knew an allergist who owed her a favor. She called his office to try to get me in for that day or the following Monday, and unfortunately, he was going to be out all that next week for the holiday. Luckily, we were able to get in with a Dermatologist and an Allergist (two different doctors) for that next Monday so we could get an action plan started. My mother-in-law was super awesome by calling me in a Z-Pak & Medrol Dose Pak just to get through the weekend which helped so much with the itching and a potential virus that I thought I was catching.

However, each day was still getting progressively worse and worse.

Finally, Monday comes...

It's time for me to go to the Dermatologist. I literally went in wearing pajamas because anything else hurt my skin just by touching it. I looked like a hobo. The fabric when it could graze my skin -- though it was loose -- made my skin crawl, and felt extremely uncomfortable. The hives were so elevated from inflammation that the slightest touch was almost painful. I eventually had to go outside. Inflammation also radiates heat so when I stepped outside -- it was fairly cool outside -- my skin felt relief. Once in the room waiting for the doctor, I couldn't take it anymore and just took off my shirt. The Dermatologist listened to my story and we showed him pictures of how the hives had been progressing. He gave me a prescription for Prednisone and gave me a list of OTC items to buy.

• Xyzal
• CereVe for Eczema Lotion
• Ranitidine 150mg -- (updated 12/1/2021: this is no longer made, so try something like Famotidine 20mg)

Later that day I met with an Allergist -- since it's OBVIOUSLY a reaction to something. My appointment was for around 4:00 PM on the same day that I saw the dermatologist. My hives were so bad, I felt like crying. I couldn't scratch them, cause I didn't know what was causing it and scratching would just spread it and at this point, they were all over my body. I was also using some of the thickest Eucerin Cream for relief as well.

This was one of the worst days... I think I took three baths with Aveeno lotion afterward.

The day we went to the dermatologist and the allergist. 

The nurse came in to check my vitals and could tell I was uncomfortable. The doctor is literally the only doctor in the building -- no Physician's Assistant...no Nurse Practitioner...just him -- so I was waiting for a while, which was fine. There were a couple little kids having a hard time, and I'd much rather suffer than have a little kid suffer. The doctor's staff was super awesome. The nurse checked with the doctor and asked if I could have a shot of epinephrine. Thankfully he said yes. His wife works there and she brought me some crackers and a Coca-Cola out of the machine too, they were just super.

After getting some epinephrine shots.

About 30-45 minutes go by and they give me another shot because I'm still uncomfortable and my hives are looking better but still extremely elevated. At this point, I'm feeling super wired between the prednisone I had taken from the dermatologist and then all the epinephrine. The doctor comes in and starts asking me questions to see what could have triggered the hives.

We hadn't changed:

• detergents or fabric softeners -- we actually use a hypoallergenic formula
• shampoo, soap or anything else. 
• Aaron did go buy a bunch of Aveeno products to try to get the hives to come down and decided that's what we would use from now on. Allergist approved.

However, I had been feeling a little sick a couple of days before the hives started, and there was a cold front. He said he sees most of his hive cases when the temperature drops. I've lived in Texas my whole life and know the hormonal ways our weather works and never have broken into hives before. Then the allergist asked me a question that threw me off.

"Is there a chance you could be pregnant?"

"Well, I guess there is always a possibility..." is how I responded, however just a couple of days ago I had taken a pregnancy test because I somewhat seriously asked Aaron "What if I'm pregnant and I'm allergic to the baby? That would be the saddest thing in the world." Just to make sure that wasn't the case, I took a test and it was negative. He ordered a pregnancy test on top of a slew of other tests to see what could be wrong. I had the blood work done that Wednesday. Thursday was Thanksgiving. The next day -- Friday -- Aaron checked our email account and saw that the lab results were ready. He shouted down the hall "Hey... Whitney. Your lab results are ready." I opened them and saw:

I'm pregnant!

I ran into the living room and said: "Did you see the... the... hCG thing?" I couldn't even get the words out. He smiled really big and said "Yes!" Based on Aaron's voice then and when he told me the results were ready, he knew that I was pregnant before I did -- which was kind of funny but I wish I could have been able to surprise him.

I still didn't believe that it was true. I took at least three pregnancy tests throughout the day, and they were all positive. 

Since it's unknown what exactly caused my breakouts, I went through all of my makeup, skin care, etc. and anything that wasn't hypoallergenic, safe for sensitive skin, or didn't contain known allergens. I will expand on those brands in which I kept in another entry. 

I think the plan is I will be allergy tested after the baby is born (I'm due August 1, 2019) to see if it was something in particular that triggered it. The hives could have been from me being sick... the cold front... the early part of pregnancy, or a combination of all of them. Basically, my treatment was a high dose of prednisone and I was slowly -- very slowly -- lowered. I finally was taken off the prednisone mid-February. I was also on Xyzal, Singulair and had to only use Aveeno products when I showered and use CereVe lotion religiously to keep my skin from drying out.

I am happy to say I've been hive free since the beginning of December, and I've kept my skin moisturized. My pregnancy is going smoothly and hopefully, I don't have another breakout while I'm pregnant, cause that would suck.

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