The non week between Christmas and New Year is nearly over and I've done the grand total of....
Sleep.
Slept the week away pretty much, I mean, I know I've had a cold lately, and an attack of anaphylaxis on Christmas Eve but I didn't expect to need this much sleep to get over it. It would appear my body disagrees because regardless of how much I've slept already it keeps wanting more sleep. If I lay my head down right now I would soon drift off and I really have to go do a food shop, there's no food at the inn.
What is anaphylaxis, I can almost hear the question.. Unless you have it of course then you know exactly what it is..
Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that is rapid in onset and may cause death. It typically causes more than one of the following: an itchy rash, throat or tongue swelling, shortness of breath, vomiting, lightheadedness, and low blood pressure. These symptoms typically come on over minutes to hours.
It's new to me, I grew up in a household where my brother was the one allergic to everything, I've had very mild reactions to things in the past, a medication turned me pink, No 7 from Boots and Clinique burns my skin etc but this is something else entirely. If not for my brother calling an ambulance and them getting to me as fast as they did I'd be dead right now, my tongue had swollen up and my throat had closed, I was on the very edge of passing out when they stabbed me with adrenaline and bought me back round.
I've had three anaphylaxis attacks now, one leading into anaphylactic shock, the one I described above, the other two included all the same things except the obstruction of my airways. And the best thing about it all...
I have no idea at all what is triggering these attacks, they only started in the last six months, I've had three so far, two at home and one at my in-laws, one was serious enough to land me in hospital and now I have to carry epi pens with me everywhere.
That kind of thing stays with you, after a week everything thinks you're fine again, but I came close to shuffling off this mortal coil and it's like no one wants to talk about it. Maybe they think less said soonest mended, but mostly I feel like they don't think it was a big enough deal to bother with.
Now every itch I feel, every hot patch, every tickle has me panicking in case it's another attack,it always starts with an itch, usually in my hands, not like any normal itch, this one is painful, like you've plunged your hands into boiling oil, I couldn't hold anything because the itch was so painful.
It spread all over, turning my skin scarlet and raising blister like welts, the contrast was interesting, between my (as yet) unaffected skin which was its usual blinding white and the areas affected, which were bright scarlet and radiating heat like a furnace.
My face began to swell, my chin, my nose, my eyes, my forehead, my ears, all turning red and all burning and the pain from it is indescribable.
I learnt later that I still should have had my epi pen for this even though it didn't affect my breathing (this time) but it was gone 1 am Christmas morning and if you have the epi pen you must go to hospital and they keep you there six hours to ensure you're okay, (plus stick many needles in you and I'm terrified of needles) and I thought that as my breathing was okay it would pass.
It did pass eventually, but left me the usual way, feeling like I'd been run over by a steam roller,and it took all the next day for my eyes to stop being swollen and droopy. I was worried I'd end up with sagging eyelids after all that. What a thing to worry about when I'm having life threatening allergic reactions to goodness knows what.
As for what the hospitals are doing about it, well I had a letter to say I was on a list for allergy testing, not that I had an appointment but that I was on the list. Originally I was going to pay up and go private, but with the whole job issue I mentioned before, I can't really afford to do that anymore.
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