The week I turned into a zombie
When I was almost 19, I had an epileptic seizure. I went to hospital, they took blood, X-rayed my chest (a common procedure on anything apparently) and took pictures inside my head. Nothing doing, so they sent me home with some tablets. Phenytoin.

My body didn't like Phenytoin. It made this dislike known to me by causing my skin to go manky. I came out in an all-over rash and the glands in my neck swelled up. I had a mild fever, ached a lot and generally felt very run down. I looked and felt like I had a mild case of mumps and measles at the same time but this was highly unlikely, because I had had both of those as a child. But the skin went funny on my hands, my feet and on my back and it began peeling. Not peeling as in sunburn, it resembled the peeling bandages of a mummified pharaoh. My skin was falling off. I put this down to the effect the rash was having on my skin.

The doctor was called and said it was a side-effect of the Phenytoin, and put me onto Carbamazepine instead. The side-effects cleared up and everything was well.

About 16 years later, I clicked my way onto the Phenytoin article on Wikipedia. As I read the side effects, my blood ran cold. It appears it had induced a life threatening condition called toxic epidermal necrolysis. Essentially, the cells between the my dermis and epidermis were dying and so the outer layers were falling off as if I was shedding my skin like a snake.

Luckily it was caught early and after 5 days or so, I felt well enough to venture out although my hands still looked a bit zombie-like which was a real conversation stopper in the pub.

Here's some graphic pictures. And I mean graphic. The last picture of the hand is pretty much how mine were, and my back was going the same way too.

www.documentingreality.com/forum/f149/toxic-epidermal-necrolysis-57089/
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 16 Sep 2010, 14:45, 3 replies)

I am vomiting at you on the internet

(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Thu 16 Sep 2010, 15:23, closed)

Yowsah
I used to work in a hospital pharmacy and dispensed that and other potentially lethal crap many a time. As is said, the only difference between a medicine and a poison is the dosage. (I wasn't brave enough to look at the photos, btw.)
(barbedwiretumbleweed Fast 'n' Bulbous!, Thu 16 Sep 2010, 15:58, closed)

why do i have a sudden urge for pork scratchings?

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Thu 16 Sep 2010, 21:51, closed)