You would think I'd know better by now...

but no, of course not. *sigh*

So this week I had to fly to Fresno for work. One of my bestestestest friends lives in Lemoore (about a 40 minute drive from Fresno) where her DH is stationed with the Navy, so I chose to take a couple of personal days to hang out with her for a bit. She's a very... earthy... girl. Loves to be outside, walk around, etc. She has an orchard on her property - pomegranates, oranges, lemons and grapes.

We took walks around her groves where she showed me stuff and the entire time I was in the sun but I didn't think anything of it. Then, the next day we went walking around an outdoor mall and had lunch outside on the patio at a restaurant, also in the sun. I was wearing my sunscreen (as I always do - it's second nature now to put it on) but I KNOW that anything more than 15-20 minutes in the sun, even with sunscreen, is too much.

That night I started breaking out in hives. I took some Benadryl to help calm the itching and put some lotion on them before heading to bed. Around 3am I woke up in so much pain that it took everything I had to not lie there sobbing. I forced myself to get up and get into a hot bath to see if it would help, but no go. I had to work that day (yesterday) and it was seriously horrible. The "lupus mask" was so prevalent, despite all of the make-up I was wearing, that I received several comments from people asking if I had a fever, that I looked flushed, etc. *sigh* Of course, the only med I had with me was Advil... which, of course, does nothing in a flare like this.

I'm currently at the airport and I know sitting on the plane is going to kill me, being cramped into that small space. But at least I'm going home and I already called my doctor and he called in a prescription for prednisone and Vicodin (I finally used up my 15 pills he prescribed 2 years ago). I'm already contemplating taking Monday off.

Oh yeah, and my skin was hurting so bad (uber-sensitive) yesterday afternoon and the sheets in the hotel were KILLING me, so I went out and bought a blanket. I bought a NAP blanket - this is seriously the softest thing I've ever felt and it's guaranteed against pilling and that it will keep its softness. It was a life saver last night.