I guess I can start from the beginning, which would be Tuesday morning. I woke up early, dropped my girls to daycare and checked myself into the allergy clinic for what they call a "rush". Basically I was to get 20 allergy shots in one morning, one in each arm every half hour, all morning long. I had come armed with the latest Stephanie Plum novel and almost every electronic device I owned, ready for a long morning. So it began, one shot in each arm, every half hour. The process wasn't so bad at first but after the first two hours I developed two large welts at the injection sites. At 11:00 the nurse asked me how I was feeling and I told her my scalp was starting to itch a bit and she said we would have to stop short of the last 2 sets of shots. They gave me some liquid anti-histamine and monitored me. I didn't appear to be doing any worse so they sent me on my way.
I decided to stop by my house quick before going out to the nursing home in New London to visit my Grandma. I stopped quickly to get a snack and headed out. At my grandmas I sat quietly by her bedside and read and then chatted with my mom when she came. I stayed for about an hour and a half before I started feeling hot and itchy and decided I needed to leave. I was trying not to let on to my mom how uncomfortable I was because she had more pressing matters to deal with, so I tried to hold it together.
I tried really reaaallllly reaaalllllly hard not to freak out. But the instant I saw this, it spread like wildfire across my body and I was wearing a a short sleeve mini dress of hives and my fingernails desperately wanted to dig into the skin. Instead I went to the medicine cabinet popped an allergy poll and a steroid pill and called the allergy clinic. They told me to apply cold compress and try to relax. I settled into a recliner and tried to watch some tv with an ice pack, but the itching feeling was so intense it was hard to concentrate. I tried hard not to scratch but I found myself absentmindedly rubbing my arm against the chair or jiggling or fidgeting for just some kind of relief. After about an hour I started to fe a pinching in my cheeks... I went to the mirror to check it out and was surprised to see my face had swollen. Now, I didn't take any pictures of this because well it was downright scary. My face looked like I had just had a chemical peel and some very badly done Botox. Holy Fright! I decided that since I would have to head into town soon to pick up the girls and bring Lola to dance that I might as well stop by the allergy clinic and see if they thought this warranted more than an ice pack.
I walked into the allergy clinic and said "I sthink my fascthe isth swollen".
They rushed me back and took my vitals and after confirming my blood pressure was high and getting a peek at my hive mini dress ( I've never see anything like that before!!!) they decided to give
me an epi. I was really quite grateful that they were the ones to administer it. I've practiced giving
them to myself but jabbing myself in the thigh is not something I really want to do. If you have never
had an epi before, it's basically adrenaline. So you feel all jittery and hyped up. So I paced around the
waiting room waiting for the swelling to go down and my face to regain it's normal shape. After
about 20 minutes I started to feel somewhat human again
Here is my arms at 8 o'clock that night.
for the next two years. After that's completed there is an 85 percent chance that I won't suffer from
allergy symptoms anymore! Who knows, maybe I won't need botox either!
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