After having what I considered to be a generally good month I rushed to hospital this afternoon with a swelling throat and unbelievable and extremely itchy rashes from head to toe. The culprit? Cashew nuts.
I've only ever had this reaction once previously and yet again it was due to a cashew nut I had eaten on a whim having never tried them before. Although at the time I was travelling with friends in London and being susceptible to quite bad Panic Attacks and anxiety I thought that this reaction was just due to travelling anxiety in a place that was completely foreign to me. That and the claustrophobic feeling of travelling via Tube at rush hour, one word - NIGHTMARE. It started with a tingling feeling in my mouth, then the back feeling quite rough and swollen leading to a struggle swallowing and breathing. I instantly alerted my bestfriend Paige and she gave me an antihistamine to take just to be on the safe side. The reaction slowly wore off and I began to feel faint and nauseous and when I eventually sat down to eat in the train station I threw up. Not the classiest of things I've ever done.. picture a girl vomiting into a Subway bag and having to be rush to the toilet by two of my friends whilst passers by looked on disgustedly. I wanted the ground to swallow me up whole. But once that happened I sat down and happily tucked into my Beef and Cheese Melt - ha!
Today's reaction was a completely different kettle of fish. As you will have gathered from previous posts I'm attempting to eat a cleaner and healthier diet and after eating a berry 'Nakd' bar I experienced the same tingling and swelling as I had in my previous reaction maybe just slightly faster and more severe this time. I assumed it would pass so went home and took an antihistamine although at this point my lips were beginning to swell pretty rapidly and I had to sit in the bathroom with the fear of throwing up which I did eventually do. I took another antihistamine and tried to rest but the swelling wasn't calming and I was started to get pretty bad rashes and extremely panicky so my Mum decided that it was best for me to go to A&E. 5 and a half hours I was there - the first just spent waiting after the triage decided I wasn't that severe a case as I could swallow. The second hour just being a general check up, then having to take 8 steroids and have my bloods taken to assess the situation. I was then put on a drip and assessed for 3 hours incase I had a second bout of an allergic reaction which could be even worse than the one I'd just had although luckily enough this wasn't the case. I've been prescribed to take 8 steroids a day for 3 days and 4 antihistamines for 5 days to be on the safe side - I'm also going to take myself to the GP tomorrow morning to enquire about an Epi-pen so I'm prepared for any possible reactions in the future.
As a natural born worrier I don't think this helped me one bit but I'm truly thankful for the tentative staff at North Manchester General - You never truly appreciate the patience and knowledge that their job takes and often whinge that staff are rude, unreliable and often waste precious time but today couldn't have proved this to be any more different!
I'm sorry for the huge ramble, I don't expect anybody to have the patience to read this ramble but I wanted to share it so that the symptoms for allergies were more known of - it could truly save someone's life if worse come to worse so do please take this into awareness.
Keep safe my lovelies.
All my love,
Chloe xo
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