Monday, February 22, 2010

Scary

I had a huge scare last night. I had an allergic reaction to something. A big allergic reaction. The having trouble breathing kind of allergic reaction. It started with breaking out in a rash in the inside of my mouth. The inside of my cheeks felt like sandpaper, covered with little bumps. Then it progressed to tightness in my chest and I started coughing a lot. I quickly took some antihistamines and dug out my old inhaler that I haven't used in a long time- only to discover that is is long expired. It did get to the point where I considered a trip to the emergency room through the snow- but luckily it didn't progress to that point.
I ended up staying home from work today, I'm feeling better but still just a bit off. The rash in my mouth finally went away by about lunchtime today.
Unfortunately, I have absolutely NO idea what triggered this. I wasn't around anything unusual and didn't eat anything that I haven't had in the past. One suspect: wasabi peas that I picked up at the store. I love those things but don't get them often. But they don't have any unusual ingredients in them that would cause me any concern. Another suspect would be that we had game hens for dinner rather than the usual chicken. But I can't imagine that this would be it. My final suspect is the broccoli that I picked up for dinner. The local store had huge heads of broccoli for $.99 that I just couldn't pass up. However, it was not organic and even though I washed it, I'm concerned that there was some pesticide residue on it. The only other times I have ever had respiratory symptoms from exposures has been with herbicides/pesticides. When we lived in the suburbs in Virginia, I used to wheeze every time the neighbors would weed and feed their yard or that the county would spray the local swamp for mosquitos. Every time I walk down the garden chemical aisle in the garden stores, I feel my chest tighten. But, all that said, I've never had trouble with non-organic produce before.
Now I'm feeling a bit paranoid, wondering what will happen next. Worried about what I'm putting in my body. I always thought I was doing a pretty good job but now I'm rethinking. If only I knew for sure what was the culprit....

11 comments:

  1. Goodness that must have been very scary..Glad to hear you are on the amends.. We just don't know what is put on our veggies and fruit..I think that is why everyone is growing their own foods..Just hearing what you went through just confirms growing your own foods is utmost important...You take care and rest...

    Where in Virginia did you live?..We lived in Northern Virginia for 7 years...We lived in Prince William County. Dale City, Virginia and then moved down to Stafford, Va..Beautiful State to live in...I do love Iowa tho..

    Feel better..Lisa

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  2. I know exactly what you mean. I am allergic to Sulfa drugs, Niacin, and Batadine and it doesn't take long to get into trouble. I brake out into a welty rash and after about 15 min find it hard to breath. I keep benedryl on hand at all times. It is very scary for sure. I'm sorry you had this happen. Too bad you don't know what it is...that is scary in itself! ...debbie

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  3. Lisa- we lived in Richmond for a while in the late 80's and early 90's. We moved from there to Iowa in late '94. It is a beautiful state but the crime was terrible. I still have a sister that lives in suburban DC and we still have friends out there.
    I think you've got a good point- I'm definitely more motivated to grow my own food now.
    Debbie- I'm glad we had some antihistamines around although we were out of Benedryl. It's funny, On Saturday, I was just thinking that I needed to make sure we have some on hand before the weather warms up and the bees and hornets wake up since we have to work in an area where there was a hornet nest last year. I agree that the not knowing the cause is just as scary as the event- if I knew what it was, I could just avoid it. Now I'm just paranoid.
    Judy

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  4. You know you can develop new allergies so something that you weren't allergic to in the past you now could be having a reaction to. It sounds scary and you should probably make sure you have an epi pen with you at all times.

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  5. Sparkless- yeah, I know you can develop new allergies- and grow out of old ones .... I'm hoping that isn't the case since I REALLY like broccoli. Game hens I could live with out but they're so close to chicken that I can't imagine that is the problem- we had chicken tonight and no problems. If it happens to be wasabi...I could live without it. In a few days I'm planning to do a controlled experiment with the wasabi peas (I'll have antihistamines on hand!!!) I've got some more of that broccoli on hand but I'm almost scared to use it.
    Judy

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  6. Nurse here: Please keep LIQUID benadryl on hand. It works much much faster. Just remember, it's for kids, so you have to double the dosage. Benadryl is very safe, anyway - you can take very large doses if necessary and the worst thing that will happen is you fall asleep. But anyone who has had an anaphylactic reaction (which is what you had) to ANYTHING should keep an epi-pen in the house. That's epinephrin, in a pre-loaded syringe. It doesn't matter if you don't know what you reacted to - tell your doc you were having trouble breathing and you want an epi-pen to keep in the medicine cabinet. He/she will give you one. Good luck! Lots of times the culprit is never discovered.

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  7. I am so sorry that this happened to you! Very Scary!! I agree with Aimee about getting an Epi-pen to keep on hand. Those sneaky anaphylactic reactions can get worse each time you are exposed!

    Someone has a quote on their blog that says something like,"If you thing organic food is expensive, trying pricing out the cost of cancer." I always thought that was a good one!

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  8. Get that epi-pen Judy! Especially since the trigger is unknown. I hope it never happens again, scary thought! My cousin had a reaction last week to shellfish (he's 35), and we were teasing him on Facebook on how he could have gone so long without eating shrimp, but turned out he had eaten it all along, hadn't had it in about 8 months, and wham - now he's allergic to it!

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  9. How terrifying! I'm glad you are okay. I am lucky enough to have never had an allergic reaction to anything...

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  10. Hi Judy - that is pretty frightening. Glad you are OK.

    Best to stay away from conventionally grown produce - I suspect that is it. Even if it isn't, think of the chemical residue. That being said, of course we slip and eat it too.

    And to Lisa that commented - that tag line was said by Joel Salatin and is on the Matron of Husbandry's blog, which is a great blog! http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/

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