Sarcasm with a side of optimism.

Peanuts.

A week ago, I had a couple of Mary Janes at work to fight a hunger pang at 2:30pm. I had a pretty normal day after that; played soccer, dyed Kara's hair, had dinner, went to bed then woke up at 4am because I was tearing away at myself. I was itchy all over and digging into my neck and shoulders, knees, stomach, pretty much everywhere. I thought that maybe it was the new laundry detergent and tried to go back to sleep. At 7:30am, I got up for work, popped two Benadryls and noticed that I was covered in giant red splotches. It looked like sunburn, and the spots were warm to the touch, and itchy as hell. When I saw this, I knew it was the peanuts since this had happened once before in college after eating two small bags of trail mix over a week, but the rash went away after 2 hours. I went to work after tossing some extra Benadryl in my bag.

Two Benadryls is the equivalent to OTC sleeping pills, so I was pretty useless at work. The itching subsided, but I was still splotchy. I wasn't feeling good so left at lunch and when I got home, I popped two more Benadryls, took a puff of my inhaler, and went to bed exhausted. I woke up 3 hours later, and the rash was still there. I got up and waited for another hour so I could take more, but it was becoming more and more apparent that things weren't getting better. The itching was unbearable. I called my HMO to speak with an advice nurse and she suggested I go into their after hours clinic ASAP.

To make a long story short, I am very allergic to peanuts. When I got to the clinic, they took me into the back and started working on me immediately. Epi shots, an IV, oxygen, the works. I was having a very bad reaction, and they were constantly monitoring my vital signs. It was very scary. You figure, a Mary Jane has maybe a total of three crushed peanuts in it? After an hour and a half of being hooked up with everything being pushed through my veins, the reaction subsided and I was back to my normal self. I left with steroid pills, but the reaction kept coming back in intervals for the next four days. I think it's finally out of my system. The doctor made a point of stressing no nuts, and also pointed out that had I stayed home, I could've possibly stopped breathing. Apparently, now that I'm sensitized to peanuts, each subsequent reaction will be worse. I'm not sure what the extent of it is at the moment, for example, can I eat Thai stir fry if it was cooked in a wok that pad thai was just cooked in? I have allergy testing scheduled for late next month.

I hate these "new" allergies.

posted by v @ 5:37 PM