Side effects?

Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that Ed had an angioplasty and two stents in the Spring of 2007. As a result of this, he is on a couple of medications and gets regular blood work done to ensure that there are no nasty side effects of the drugs. You know like liver or kidney failure - little things like that.

About mid-way during our trip to Tucson last week, Ed noticed that he had hit his hand and had a nice little bruise on it. He does bruise more easily now because of the Plavix. Then, later that day, he noticed that his shins looked all bruised. And these bruises went down a lot of the length of the shin. It had that yellowy look of bruises after they leave the black-and-blue stage and the green stage.

Now I was a bit concerned. Of course, I hit the Internet and entered both of his primary meds to see what the side effects could be. Bruising was one of them. And sudden or significant bruising could mean something serious. We have online access to our physicians and I suggested that Ed send his doctor a note asking about this and maybe setting something up for when we returned. He was going to, but then decided that if the doctor said something like "Come in right now", he couldn't so he decided to wait until we got home and then call the doctor first thing Monday morning.

The bruising was still there the next day and then it started to lighten up. As we were on our way home, we noticed that it was completely gone! Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head.

Me: "Hey, do you think that was just streaks from the fake suntan spray that you sprayed on your legs just before we left?!?"

Ed: Looking surprised at first, then a bit sheepish. "Oh crap, I bet that's what it was! I'm SO glad I didn't write to the doctor."

Me: [Actually, I didn't say anything - laughing too hard.]

Just another day in Ed-land. No more "bruising" since that. Suntan spray is now in the trash.