A bit proud of myself

So this is mostly a pointless thread but I don't have anyone else to celebrate with. I got diagnosed with CIU or chronic idiopathic urticaria a few months ago, although I've been suffering from it for almost a year now. It's a chronic illness, believed to be an autoimmune disease and honestly this past year has been absolute hell. It basically causes severe allergic reactions, like swelling of the lips, under the eyes, my entire face pretty much. And hives, really bad. I don't know if I can describe it well so it might be better to look up pictures online but most days my entire body would be covered in probably hundreds of hives. My face, my neck, my arms and legs, my stomach and back. I have a ton of scars now because it just made me scratch until I bled. Also there was reactive arthritis and sore throats. I have been tested and do not have allergies, I was basically told that my immune system has gone haywire and my body is just waging war on itself lol. So I was told to take 4 antihistamine tablets a day by my allergist to keep it under control since the normal dosage of antihistamines are totally ineffective but she also wanted me to get blood work done to rule out certain problems. She didn't really go into much detail about what these problems were since she didn't want to stress me out, I know she was worried about my thyroid not working as it should for one thing.

Anyway, she gave me a referral for a phlebotomist and I took it although I honestly didn't intend on going. I know that's really irresponsible. I'm ridiculously squeamish and it may sound stupid but blood tests are probably one of my biggest phobias. Not so much needles, not so much blood, just getting blood drawn. It's just really gross. I actually couldn't even be in the same room as my mom whilst she got her blood drawn…I ended up puking and shaking and sweating a lot and she had to drive me home because she didn't trust me to drive…

Like I said, I never intended on going but in the past week…I don't know what happened but I just decided I should take my health more seriously. Because if I do have some underlying problem, I should really get treatment instead of letting it progress. I mean, I'd already put it off for three months (I got my referral in February) and I don't know, I just decided I'd go today. It was so surreal and I still feel like it isn't real, I just felt removed from everything…if that even makes sense. I couldn't believe what I was doing. I still feel kind of queasy but I'm glad I did it. By the way, I didn't puke like I thought I would although I did come close at one point. They made me lie down because apparently I looked super pale haha. Honestly, it went a lot quicker than I thought it would. I do have some advice and that is; try to relax your arm while they're doing it, I was really tense the whole time so it made the process harder and more drawn out than it had to be. My arm's also kind of sore now but again, it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

So yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself…even if blood tests are such an insignificant thing to someone else, it was something I thought I could never do. Like it felt impossible to go in and get it done but I finally did today. It's a huge weight off my shoulders lol.