[StorybookMama]

I had a coworker who cut off 3 fingers and part of his thumb a couple of years ago. It was a disaster and quite traumatic, needless to say. He was gone for quite a while from work while recovering from the "reattaching" surgery and the physical therapy.

Of course, I work for a great company where we all care about and love each other so we all pitched in and made meals for the family for weeks. One person coordinated and we all just brought what we could. I made them banana bread and pumpkin pie (one of my specialties). Neither were terribly low-carb... but oh, well.

I can't even imagine.

[StorybookMama]

Itchy Marie -

Take Benadryl, use Benadryl cream.... and also take TAGAMET. Yes, it is marketed as an "acid reducer" but it is also a class B antihistamine. Take double the recommended dose and it works well in conjunction with the Benadryl.

Also, take Claritin - can be safely combined with all of the above. If you have Prednisone, take some as a one-time only deal and it may help.

My dh takes Clarinex, Hydroxizine, and Benadryl every day to keep his hives under control. We keep Prednisone, Tagamet and Epi-pens on hand to add to all of the above for his really bad reactions. His breakouts can (and do) last for weeks or months sometimes. The biggest hive I've seen on him was about 8 inches in diameter... that sucker was huge.

Anyhow, hope any of this helps. You can get generic Claritin at Target for just a few dollars.. but the Tagamet is worth the price, imnsho.

This is not medical advice - but simply what we do to help my dh deal with his hives.

[Theo'sgirl]

I will put in my 2 cents...

I was in nooooo hurry to get married. I was 31. I had the kids and bought a house with DH before I even talked about getting married.

My wedding horror story of course is a wedding dress story.... I will tell you the moral up front....DON'T SHOP AT DAVIDS BRIDAL! hahahaha Long and short the inexperienced girl working there took an order for a dress that they couldn't even make in my size. I waited the 6 weeks for them to make it and then called to see where it was they had no record of the order, then told me they couldn't have even taken the order in that size & told me to go buy another dress, of course I had looked and looked and this was THE dress. Finally after a week of yelling at managers and emailing corp head quarters I said "Either you make me that dress and get it here OR I will come down to your Beaverton store with picket signs and I will call every news crew in town", they told me they could make it and they did ,but they make their dresses in the orient (******* cheap labor sweat shop supporters I would have never bought a dress there if I knew that before) anywho, so then they tell me that it will not arrive until 2 days AFTER my wedding (what the F do I need the dress for after my wedding) I called the CEO of Davids and emailed him too and theatened to picket again, amazingly they got the dress here 3 days before my wedding, they altered it for free, gave me matching material for it so I could have a jacket made to go over it, gave me my jewlery all for free and my petticoat for free and they did the preservation and cleaning after for free. See what some good ol american B*tching can get you!! ahahahaha Needless to say it is funny now but at the time it was gut wrentching!!!

[marie.]

lol! wow! no wonder I have hives! Im going to try that claritin- thanks for the advice....I've been taking benadryl and using the gell but no luck...what has worked a little is menthol and camphor cream....but Im still bruised from head to foot from scratching with my stupid acrylic nails

I got married at 19....uh...and at 25.....both those marriages ended not because we didnt care for each other but because of terrible tragedies...my first husbands brother shot himself in the head at his parents dining table...his parents just went crazy after that- he moved in to help them and he ended up becoming a basket case like them...we ended up divorcing
My second marriage ended after our daughter died....He just couldnt take it ( his first child) he was on suicide watch at UCLA, diagnosed with sever PTSD and depression....starting crawling in a bottle and then started taking it out on me...a month after we seperated his best friend of 15 years went in for routine knee surgery, and died when the epidural pooled in his spine and then cut loose and went to his heart....he was lost after that....but now he seems ok...is remarried and we get along fine

I heard on the radio that there was university study of 82 couple over 10 years...after the 10, 16 couples were divorced...the overwhelming concensus of all the couples was that the way to stay together is "lower your expectations" sounds like a joke but I guess its true....when you learn to say....I hate that, but its just the way he is and I love him despite it, you learn to live with each other as humans....of course thats got its limits.....most of them arent evil....just dumbasses.