Yesterday was a bad allergy day for me, one of the first bad ones of the year... So I loaded up on allergy medicine for the day and since my sinuses were totally congested I figured I'd take a sinus decongestant, typically I take psuedoephedrine over the counter, but since they banned it's sale OC I got it's legal counterpart called "phenylephrine". The last time I took this stuff I had a pretty bad reaction to it (in dayquil), but I wasn't sure if it was the phenylephrine or something else, and it had been a really long time so I sort of forgot about it as my reaction wasn't life threatening, just had a mild allergy to it... ANYWAY, so I take the damn stuff without thinking anything bad would happen when all the sudden I start feeling that strong allergic feeling that you get right before you have an allergy attack..

My throat started closing up, I started sweating like crazy, itching like a mad man... IMMEDIATELY I took a couple benadryl quick dissolving strips I had in the medicine cabinet to counteract the attack, thankfully I had some otherwise I would have been F'ED! I jumped on the phone and called my mom (who lives down the street and I told her to get me to the hospital ASAP (she could have done it faster than an ambulance since she was so close, and the hospital is like a mile away)... By the time she got there I was almost unconcious... throat was almost all the way closed and I had to focus on breathing and being calm but all my body wanted to do is panic... I laid there in a meditative state before my mom and dad got me into the car... about 10-12 mins had passed since I took the benedryl and I could feel that the swelling of my throat and tunnel vision was starting to subside just enough for me to be able to breathe a little better... by the time we got to the hospital I was feeling much better thanks to the benadryl fully kicking in (empty stomach so it works quickly, thank god)... I never got checked into the ER since I could tell that I was going to be okay at that point thanks to some quick thinking, luck, and being prepared for anything...

Honestly, if I didn't have that benadryl I don't know if I would have made it... That was def the most intense allergic reaction I've ever had in my life! Man, that was probably one of the scariest moments of my life... I didn't care so much about me dying at the moment, all I cared about was how my family was going to have to deal with their dead son/brother/fiancee... I didn't want them to go through something like that... and the thought of not seeing my loved ones ever again was probably the scariest feeling I've ever encountered... I honest to god thought I was going to die last night... F'ing Anaphylactic shock is scary as a mother f'er... Another crazy thing was during the reaction and a little while afterwords, my actual eye ***** were swollen and made my eyes look bigger... it was screwing with my vision and equelibrium.

Anyway, I'm glad to be alive an able to type this... I never knew I was allergic to stupid phenylephrine, but now I know and knowing is half the battle... I'll avoid that crap like the plague from now on... The doctor that saw me briefly in the ER told me that if I every take it again that the allergic reaction will be worse than this time, and he explained that the first time I took it when I had a bad reaction (even though I wasn't sure if phenylephrine was what caused the allergic reaction the first time) is the reason this time was so severe... something about allergic reactions being worse every time.

I still feel like crap from last night, that crap really took a toll on me.


Cliff notes: I had an allergic reaction to phenylephrine and went into anaphylactic shock and would have probably died if I didn't have medicine to counteract it readily available.


PS: The doctor that I spoke to when we got to the ER (even though we didn't get seen officially, just spoke with a doc) said that he's seen a lot of cases where folks were allergic to this crap... and since it's in a lot of medicines now since it replaced psuedoephedrine, people are sort of blind sighted by it, so careful with this stuff if you've never had it... def something I hope none of you ever have to go through. Also, if you're prone to allergies I HIGHLY suggest keeping fast acting benadryl somewhere close by at all times (like in your car and in your medicine cabinet) cuz you never know.

Oh yeah, and I do realize that I should have called 911 and got an ambulence since they could have injected me with something on their arrival but I was panicking... I figured that by the time the ambulance got to my house, my folks could have had me at the hospital already... meh, it was a toss up and I panicked.

 

holy carp dude...


















on side note, can i have your beta drums, if and when....


JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

gotta be careful man. Glad to hear you are ok..........it woulda been cool to get adrenaline in the heart or something tho!

that is a tasty burger

 

Glad to hear you are ok! Did they just recently ban pseudoephedrine? I thought that you just had to show your ID to buy it? I was still able to get it last year.

 

I had a reaction like that. It's scary as hell. Benedryl saved my butt too.

My hands swoll up 2x there normal size... I couldn't even get out of my own bedroom. I had to open the door with my elbows.

 

damn, that's crazy man! glad that you are okay!

 

damn, good thing you're alright!

 

damn bro..

at least ur ok.

 

Yay for Benadryl the histamine blocker

 

Wow!


I'm so glad you are ok!

 

Glad you are ok i as well have gone through some major reactions cus i am allergic to everything under the sun it seems. I had more reactions than i can ever count so i know how you felt. Its a scary feeling that you cant breath and swell up like that. I have been swollen from head to toe at times and its harsh. Last year i was in the hospital for a medication reaction it was hella bad. Took almost 3-4 months to get over completely it hella sucked. So yeah always watch out for whats in meds.

 

Damn meth heads ruin everything!

 

^ha glad ur here with us hitman

 

my gf is allergic to peanuts and i have benadryl all over my car/house/bike.



its some scary **** when an allergic reaction does kick in, seen it happen twice so far. glad to hear ur okay

 

awww glad youre okay brucie! scared to take dayquill now. but its good to hear that you have a right state of mind even when youre dieing!
*hugs*