I walked into the ER on Sunday. I had broken out in hives on Thursday. I had tried treating this issue at home, with some assistance from a surgeon in Appleton, who had just performed a full shoulder replacement on me. I had been on an antibiotic because of my shoulder replacement. Once I started breaking out in a rash, which turned into hives, I discontinued the use of my antibiotics, was prescribed a steroid pack, and was told to take 2 Benadryl every 6 hours, to help alleviate the intensity of the hives. As the hours went on, my hives got progressively worse. This is when I went to the ER.

Tyler was my nurse, and within a few minutes of me being in my room, he had a feeling he knew what the issue was. He had noticed that I had an allergy to yellow dye, which is found in Benadryl and the 81mg aspirin I had been taking. They ordered blood work, gave me an IV steroid, IV Benadryl, and a bag of fluids. They also changed my at-home steroid. I was there for quite a few hours, with Tyler and Dr. A giving me their undivided attention, even though they were very busy. They showed kindness and compassion, got me feeling better and I was released. They said if I had any more issues, to not be afraid to return, they were there to help.

Monday morning I was worse than I had been, I was having pain in my chest and my throat was very full feeling, was very hard to swallow. I went back to the ER and was treated just as kindly as I had been Sunday evening. Deb was my nurse, and Dr. F was the physician. Again, I got more IV steroids and blood work. I ended up with a CT scan, because of an elevated blood level. It all turned out okay and I was then released again. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of your ER staff, I would have continued taking the Benadryl, to help with my hives.

It was the worst case of hives I’ve ever encountered, I was miserable, my body was covered. So the more Benadryl I took, the more damage I was doing to my body. I will forever be grateful to your ER staff, and all they did to make me feel better. Turns out the antibiotic I was on, was the culprit for the original outbreak, which Dr. F concluded on Monday. From the front desk staff to the nurses, doctors, lab techs, x-ray techs, CT girls… every single person I had contact with, was simply amazing. Caring, so very caring and kind. I cannot thank them all enough, for all they did for me, which could have been such a worse situation without them!