Those of you who know me well are aware that allergies are pretty much an on-going issue in my life. The most common ones I deal with are the usual line-up of pollen, dust, alfalfa, and goats (yes, I’m literally allergic to my Ph.D project…). The allergies that I deal with far less often are drug allergies. I’m hardly ever sick, and when I am, it’s usually a cold.

Earlier in the week, my left ear started bothering me. I wasn’t really in pain, but it felt stuffed up, and I could feel pressure in my ear. I haven’t had an ear infection in 17 or 18 years, but once upon a time I was the child who’d had 3 sets of ear tubes before I finished kindergarten and who’s ear drum ruprtured at 18 months old and had to be patched surgically…

Although it had been so long since I’d had an ear infection, I decided it best to go considering my (distant) past history. I get to the doctor, and sure enough, I have an ear infection. It’s not a bad one, but still warranted antibiotics. We went through the usual I’m allergic to penicillan and codeine (bad reactions when I was just a teeny tiny girl), and I was perscribed a sulfa drugs. In the past, I’ve taken sulfa drugs with no incident, so I thought it was fine. I was wrong.

Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad of a reaction…. Basically, it caused my lips to swell to a very large size and my tongue to swell slightly… NOT FUN. I took some benadryl for the swelling, and it’s helped. The only downside is that benadryl, for me, might as well come labled “very strong sleeping medicine.” They also changed my medicine to something that, so far at least, I don’t seem to be allergic to…