['lizbeth]

Laurieanne,

I had a terrible reaction to Benadryl. I had taken it before without a problem. When I ended up in the hospital in May I was on three IV antibiotics and one of them made me feel itchy. So the nurse gave me Benadryl. The next night I couldn't sleep so the nurse checked my approved meds list. There wasn't anything for insomnia - so she recommended, you guessed it, Benadryl. I didn't realize that it was the Benadryl that was giving me insomnia so when I came home from the hospital and couldn't sleep I took more Benadryl. My blood pressure went up to 150/100, my heart was racing. I felt like I was plugged into an electrical socket. People would talk - I could see the lips moving and I could only get a few words of the sentence. I was confused, irrational.

Needless to say I finally made the connection and stopped taking it. 10 days later it was out of my system and I was back to normal.

I learned my lesson with pharmaceuticals - less is more.