- JaidenAnimations is an absolute rock star
in YouTube animation world.
We're watching one of the medical videos
that she put up on her channel.
If you want me to watch more, smash that like button
get a hundred thousand likes,
we'll do more of these.
Let's get to it.
- It's Christmas Eve.
You're getting ready for bed and everything is prepared
for the perfect Christmas morning.
Everyone has the standard things on their Christmas list.
Puppies, Nintendo switches.
- I can relate to this so much
except it's not Christmas in Russian culture.
Everything that happens on Christmas happened on New Year's.
Instead of a Christmas tree
we had a New Year's tree. Instead of Santa Claus
we had Grandfather Frost, Ded Moroz
which is basically Santa Claus.
And the gifts that we got was like markers.
People in America get dogs and Nintendo switches.
I got a highlighter and I was hyped.
- But you're suddenly awakened
by a strange sensation. Your body is burning,
flaring up, itching everywhere.
The worst itching you've ever experienced in your life.
- I think it's either chicken pox,
measles if they're not vaccinated.
I mean like a lot of viruses can cause rashes.
A lot of times we don't even diagnose
what exactly caused the rash.
We just call it a viral exanthem.
- I've never had hives
until last December.
- Hives are usually a result of an immune allergic reaction
an overreaction to something.
You know, I actually had an experience with hives
an unknown, also known as idiopathic form of hives.
After I came back from the beach, like I was in
one of the Brooklyn beaches, I went swimming.
Like the water is so gross.
And then I came out, I was fine.
I put sunblock on, next day, woke up, my whole lower body
including my butt was covered in hives.
And they kept coming back and getting worse and worse
like they would just cycle.
So I ended up having to take steroids, oral steroids
in order to get rid of them.
It was really problematic and no doctor, including myself
or my doctor, or my doctor,
or my dad could figure out why it is.
I had these hives. That happens sometimes.
- Around the night of the 21st.
I was relaxing and playing video games on my couch.
Ari was on me because it's snugly and nice
but about an hour or so in, I started feeling itchy
around my neck and shoulders where he'd been sitting.
I didn't think much of it
but when I was getting ready for bed
I realized the area that was itchy was actually kind of red.
- That's actually a reasonable thought process there.
The thing is with animals, they sometimes carry specific
bacterias. Parakeets have a form of chlamydia
that they carry that causes pneumonia.
And you basically have to really know which animal
that you've been exposed to in order to rule out
potential bacterial infections, like there's
a popular one that we use on medical boards
related to rabbits, and it's called tularemia.
- 4:00 am, I'm woken up by more itchy.
I itched it and it got double edgy.
- She mentioned earlier that she has hives.
That can be as a result of an allergic situation
but you could also have itchiness presenting
at an early form of cellulitis, which is a superficial skin
infection, which can be problematic because it could spread.
You'll start seeing an area of redness
that gets worse and worse.
You could even get streaking which is like redness spots
or splotches higher up or in different areas spreading
from that, that can become quite problematic because then
it could seed either into your blood, into your joint
into your bone.
That could become really scary because
at that point you might need IV antibiotics
for an extended course.
- I went to the bathroom to see what was up
and the area that was irritated before was even more red.
- And also getting any kind of cellulitis
on your neck is obviously problematic.
Cause it's a very tight space, small space.
So any swelling in this area can compromise your airway
and spread to a lot of vital blood vessels
that end up going into the brain.
And the last thing you want is an infection in your brain.
But the reason you don't want it is
because if you form an abscess in your brain
which is basically a pocket
of an infection where your body tries to wall
off the infection into a little bubble
almost like a cyst that can become problematic
because if it starts spreading and becoming bigger, inflamed
that can put pressure on some vital
neurological structures there
essentially causing brain death if it's severe enough
and in the wrong area.
- The next morning, after a bad night's sleep,
I got out of bed and whoop it spread to my back.
Yup. This is not good.
Did I do anything about it? Nope.
I was like, well, I sure hope this cures itself somehow.
- Don't think rashes will automatically cure themselves.
If you have something going on
that's spreading, that's worsening.
That's a sign that you should contact a health professional.
In fact, that's what I told Michael Reeves
when we had our little chat about his bladder exploding
That whole interview is linked down below.
- But after like an hour of sweating from discomfort
and getting nothing done, I decided, yeah,
I should probably go to urgent care.
- Have you eaten anything new or that you're allergic to?
- No.
- Have you taken any medication
that's new or you're allergic to?
- No.
- Have you been bitten by any bugs you might be allergic to?
- These are all great questions.
And we have to ask this, remember the most important part
of a medical exam is the history.
Knowing what potentially could have happened
ruling out conditions, ruling in conditions
and then creating a list of differential diagnoses.
What's most likely what's least likely, putting the ones
at the top that are most deadly so that you can
rule them out and they can't cause any true harm right now.
- Hm... It looks like dermatitis.
- I promise doctors don't have a checklist and they're just
like crossing things off that happens mentally.
And by the way, dermatitis is kind of like a catch-all term
that basically means inflammation of the skin.
But you need to know why you're having dermatitis.
- I ran into my room and immediately took the medication
and started hoping I would feel better soon.
All I could do was lay on my bed and do nothing
because every time I moved or touched something
it would send shocks of pain and an irritation down my body.
- I also hope that the urgent care physician
mentioned to her that if you have X happen to you
you should come back or you should go to the emergency room.
Because patients need to feel empowered to know what to do
in case something got worse.
And here, it sounds like it's getting worse.
It's getting painful. She can't move.
Those are all signs that this thing is not improving.
- I told my friend I'm in so much pain and discomfort.
I can't think straight.
And I've been sitting on the floor
not being able to move for 30 minutes.
What should I do?
- The ER.
- Go to the hospital?
- You think so?
- Yes. Go to the hospital.
- I don't know.
Maybe if I just wait a bit more-
- Go to the hospital.
- Okay.
- That's a good friend.
- I arrived at the hospital.
I was finally taken to a bed
given a shot along with a mystery pill.
And about 40 minutes later, I felt better.
- It sounds like the medication
that she was given was oral steroids.
And maybe the shot was like Toradol
which is an anti-inflammatory medication
and pain reliever as well.
- The hives had been manageable the whole day
until I was getting ready to go to bed.
And they started flaring up again.
This time worse than ever.
I thought I'd experienced pain before
but the hives were mocking me.
The previous ones were teasers.
This time they were dishing up the main course.
Everything was put into mega gear
served up on the grill of Gordon Ramsey himself.
My dad decided to take me to a local urgent care
because they've got a family friend who works there.
It was more familiar.
The doctor walked in and was like, yep, looks like hives.
And stuck me with an EpiPen.
- In this case, I don't know how the urgent care
doctor decided to use an EpiPen where she
didn't talk about anything of the airway swelling.
Didn't talk about her blood pressure being really low.
But if it was the case that her blood pressure was dropping
the hives were getting worse, potentially yeah,
that could have been an anaphylactic attack
just presenting itself weird.
Also another symptom to look out for in anaphylaxis
that a lot of people don't know is a feeling
of like abdominal pain with nausea, vomiting
cause that can sometimes present itself in that way.
Plus upper airway swelling.
So you have to really be attuned
to listening for those symptoms.
- Anyway, problem solved.
The doctor didn't really say anything else.
He kind of just gave me the EpiPen and sent me on my way.
- Actually I'm not happy with this treatment plan here.
I'll explain why.
If you give someone an EpiPen, you have to monitor them
for an extended period of time, at least four hours
or so to make sure that their vital signs are okay
because you're giving someone artificial adrenaline.
Their heart can sometimes go into an arrhythmia as a result.
So you have to monitor these patients.
Also, another important reason is
20% of the first EpiPens fail after a few moments.
You know you give someone EpiPen, they feel great,
They leave and then like an hour later, two hours later
they have a delayed reaction happening again.
Also, I never prescribe one EpiPen.
I always prescribe two because what happens?
You keep one at home, but you need one on the go.
You need to keep one in your pocket
in your purse, in your backpack, whatever it is because
if you're out and you're allergic to like peanut dust
and someone gives it to you,
great that you have an EpiPen at home,
that doesn't help you.
- I can have a nice Christmas after all
with my family and live on in peace.
8:00 AM, woke up, hives all over.
This time, I wanted to just close my eyes again and perish.
- Surprise, surprise.
- I didn't even know it was possible
to experience this level of itchy
combined with unbearable pain.
The itchiness was so extreme it felt like needles all over.
Every time something just grazed my skin
it felt like, yep, this is, it's time to die.
- You have a lot of nerves on your cutaneous level,
meaning on your skin,
because that's how you interact with the world.
It's the sense of touch.
So anytime those nerves are inflamed, it's really painful.
And you have basically hyperesthesia where like
everything you touch, anything that bumps,
you hurt so much more than usual.
- Arrived at urgent care.
Couldn't move, looked like a boiled diseased shrimp.
First of all, I got another EpiPen. Yay.
And then he prescribed me like four new medications.
None of which I remember the names of,
but one of them was steroids.
- She didn't get steroids before?
What kind help was she getting?
Ridiculous. And interestingly enough
we also give sometimes medications that are
H2 blockers that we normally give for stomach acid.
Those work in like a histamine related way
that also decreases allergic reactions.
- The only thing we could conclude was
it was just caused by huge buildup of stress.
I'd been really busy and burnt out from a bunch
of conventions and traveling up until that point.
So they said, yeah, stress combined with an immune system
glitch is probably what caused it.
- Essentially what we're saying though is idiopathic hives
which is what I mentioned earlier that I had.
Idiopathic means we have no idea.
It almost sounds funny cause
it almost sounds like idiot doctor.
But the reality is that these things happen
because we're exposed to so many little chemicals
and nutrients in our everyday lives.
Whether it's in the food that we eat,
the skincare products we use, stress absolutely
makes it worse and is a factor here,
but it's not the definitive thing.
Because if we were all stressed
we would all just start breaking out in massive hives.
And if it does happen again,
that's how we can start figuring out
why it's happening to see what patterns emerge
from those types of situations.
Michael Reeves recently said his urine went black
and his bladder popped; check out my interview
with him here to figure out what's what.
As always stay happy and healthy.
(lo-fi outro)