Ivy Donegal and the Curse of the Butt Rash

Chapter II

Ech.

So…three days and four medical professionals staring at my butt later, a dermatologist has declared that I, Ivy Donegal, am NOT going to die of a killer butt rash. Or at least not any time soon.

Hoorah!

Now, you may be wondering…how does one die of a killer butt rash? Well, dear fictitious audience, I will tell you how.

Certain medications have been known to trigger an autoimmune or allergic response within the body, which leads to the body’s own immune system attacking a protein within the skin. This leads to one of two potential syndromes: Steven Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermis Necrolysis. (The name is based on how much of the body is affected, with Steven Johnson Syndrome being the less severe of the two.) Both are extremely rare, affecting about one in a million people every year worldwide.

As a result of this immune attack and protein breakdown, your skin then begins to blister, and rash, and then peel off. En masse. YOUR SKIN PEELS OFF. All over your body.

The outer layer of your skin separates from the inner layer (epidermis from the dermis), and this can even happen inside of certain organs, leading to breathing failure, the inability to swallow, or intestinal obstruction. Your exposed, blistered skin is extremely vulnerable to infection, and patients are best treated in a burn unit. Oh, and if the rash attacks your eyes, which it does in 15-35% of cases, you go blind.

In the most severe form, Toxic Epidermic Necrolysis, between 30 and 40% of patients die. The death rate is lower for Steven Johnson Syndrome, but still disturbingly high at 5-15%. And those that don’t die are often left blind, disabled, or horribly disfigured.

And that is what two different doctors thought I had. On my butt. Because of stupid medication I was taking for a week which didn’t help anything anyways. Gawd.

…The Horror.