Need some medical reassurance.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

I'm sure this is nothing horrific, but I need somebody else to tell me that because I'm freaking out for my dad right now.

My father was completely fine last night. This morning when he woke up, his face was visibly deformed and swollen, much like an allergic reaction -- sagging and shininess around the eyes, etc. In addition, his arms and hands were swollen and he was itching. We thought "allergic reaction", though we couldn't figure out what he was reacting to. He went to the doctor to maybe get a shot or something to mitigate the symptoms.

Now they're apparently sending him to the next town over (which has a bigger, better hospital) to get some bloodwork done, because they think it's a fast-moving infection.

Anyone have experience with something like this?

Red_Arremer

Did they give him anything for it? If he's on his way in an ambulance he should be alright, since there are medical professionals watching him. There's some pretty badass antibiotics out there.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

I'm not sure...I don't think they're sending an ambulance, though, just letting my parents drive over.

Red_Arremer

Well that's kind of stupid, but it's also a sign that it might not be so serious.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

Yeah, the rational part of my brain says it's not that serious if they're not doing the ambulance thing.

The other parts of my brain, of course, are just like "But he looked really bad..."

Al_wat

I wonder if what they gave him was epinephrine. They usually do that for serious allergic reactions don't they?

Fats

Al_wat wrote: »

I wonder if what they gave him was epinephrine. They usually do that for serious allergic reactions don't they?

Probably not in this case, they like to observe you for a couple hours after giving epi in case you have a shitty reaction.

I wouldn't worry about anything right now, all the transfer means is that the first hospital wasn't sure what was going on (smaller hospitals aren't very heavily staffed on weekends) and they knew the second hospital would be better equipped to help. Allergic contact dermatitis is a good guess (did he put freshly washed sheets on his bed last night?), but they've got to rule out the more serious stuff.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

Problem solved. He'd been taking Cipro for the last 15 days because of something else, and took the last one a few days ago. Turns out, people often have allergic reactions to it after they stop taking it. Go figure.

Fats

Happy to hear it wasn't serious. :^:

Bionic Monkey

Al_wat wrote: »

I wonder if what they gave him was epinephrine. They usually do that for serious allergic reactions don't they?

Usually only when the airway is compromised and in danger of closing off. That's what I was taught in my EMT class.

Edit: Glad to hear it wasn't serious OP.