ProfessorTomoe

You're more than welcome. Enjoy.

Thankfully, he's only the doctor on call, and not my regular hematologist.

Good lord. I see your point. No rashes for you. Meanwhile, on my end, the doctor called, and damned if he didn't try and get me to go to the ER. First up, he said I should take 50mg Benadryl. I told him I'm already doing that. Next, he said he was going to call in some oral steroids for me to make the rash go away. I told him I can't take them because oral steroids give me heart fibrillations. He then said he was going to give me a topical steroid. I told him it would have to cover 75% of my body. That's when he told me to go to the ER, so I could get IV steroids instead. I told him I couldn't afford another $250 ER visit (I can't). He then got snotty with me, mainly because he thought I'd said I merely "didn't want to take" the oral steroids. I corrected him, told him I was allergic to them, and said I *couldn't take them*. He said for me to come in to the office on Monday, keep taking the Benadryl, and go to the ER if the rash gets worse. The guy was a bit of an asshole. I've seen better bedside manner in a rat. Anyway, here's hoping I can hold out until Monday, and that I can get an appointment on Monday.

I am trying to get in touch with the hematology doctor on call to figure out what I should do from here. I kinda doubt he'll tell me that I need to go to the ER.

FOLLOW-UP: Oh. Joy. Monoferric is the iron infusion drug I took last week. I don't know if it would cause a rash this far out (I had it last Friday, and it just appeared yesterday (Thursday)), but I was told that I wouldn't see benefits of Monoferric for two weeks after the IV, so maybe it can set in this far out.

And now for my next plague, I'm getting a rash. It's all over my legs, groin, butt, and back. It looks for all intents and purposes like my hair follicles are getting inflamed, but I can't say for sure that the placement of the tiny red dots corresponds with my hairs. I do know that the rash on my back itches, but none of the other areas itch. I'm taking 50mg of Benadryl every 4 hours in addition to my regular meds in order to fight it. I'll give it until Monday. If it doesn't go away, or if it gets worse, I'll go and see a doctor, but not before I call my hematologist to find out if this is a side effect of the iron infusion I had last week.

I'm having a bit of trouble with my blood pressure. The cardiologist insisted that I get a new blood pressure meter (do they still call the fancy digital models sphygmomanometers, or has that term been relegated to the analog realm?) so that I can check myself when I have a "passing-out" spell. Sure enough, my blood pressure runs low when those happen, not so much on the systolic side, but definitely on the diastolic side. I'm going down below 50 on the diastolic, which is Not Good. For now, all I can do is get up and walk it off, but I'm going to have to call the cardiologist and find out what he wants me to do eventually.

Erm...no. I took those back in my 20s and wound up getting vascular issues in my arms and hands (blue fingers). Never again.

The Monoferric iron IV infusion went well today. No real negative side effects during the infusion procedure, and afterward, just a ton of fatigue. I've slept most of the day since. I've been told to watch for joint pain over the course of the next two weeks, along with continued fatigue ("it gets worse before it gets better"). I guess I'll have to borrow my son's Red Bull drinks for a little while.

I am resigned to agree.

Just cooked up a pan of homemade chile con queso for the family, or more accurately, chile con Velveeta Plus. It was by no means a slap-dash affair: the cheese, while mostly a Velveeta loaf, also consisted of a bowl of Mexican Four-Cheese Shreds. I diced fresh onion and minced fresh garlic for it, and sauteed them with a can of Hatch chopped green chiles and a can of Mexican-style Ro-Tel. Add to that some whole milk and my secret spice blend, and you've got dinner. Larrapin'.

It probably should.

Drinking an offering from Dutch Bros. - a 9-1-1, with a soft top, whipped cream, and a caramel drizzle. We are nothing if not hedonistic.

I have some cool fans, and I don't mean the three- or four- bladed kind. I put out a call in a couple of spots for donations to my web page's Tip Jar for a software upgrade fund to get Cubase upgraded from v13 to v14. Not only did my fans come through for me on Cubase, they donated enough to let me upgrade Wavelab from v11.2 to v12, and to get a new drumpak for my Addictive Drums 2 application. Cool fans indeed.

D-dimer can also be an indicator of the dissolving of a clot, which means the clot may already be gone.They may be playing Whack-a-Mole with it.