Food Allergy

Today was a very interesting day. I started out feeling great and ready to take on the day. I was so excited to get to work (weird huh) and see my co-workers (I really love them). One of my coworkers brought in some fruit to share. I was so excited because I LOVE fruit.  She had a mixture of cut up cantaloupe and mango.  I had never had mango before so I decided to try it. Let me tell you it was soooo ripe and delicious.

I was sitting there for about 30 seconds thinking that I'd been missing out all these years and that I would definitely have to get me some mango from the store. That was until my throat started to close.  I tried not to panic as it started to become hard to breath and told my co-workers as calmly as possible that I thought I was having an allergic reaction to the mango. They were all so wonderful. One person ran to get me some benedryl while another got some water so I could take the medicine. They all dropped what they were doing to help me out.

After taking the benedryl it seemed like it didn't get any harder to breath, but it wasn't easier either. At work they insisted that I take it easy and tell them if I was feeling any worse. The assistant manager of the office found out what was going on and wanted me to go to the emergency room. I really didn't think it was that big of a deal so I at least agreed to call an advice nurse. I was thinking she would tell me that I just needed to wait for the benedryl to kick in.  Not so, she told me that I needed to go to the emergency room as soon as I got off the phone with her and suggested I have a co-worker take me. I told this to my supervisor and he said I would have to call someone to take me (what a jerk).  Luckily it is my hubby's day off so I was able to call him.  He got there so quickly that I'm sure he broke several laws ;).

Once at the emergency room I figured that they would have me waiting forever since I wasn't actively dying.  By this point I was having a really hard time swallowing though so I guess they took me seriously. I was only waiting about 10-15 minutes before they took me back.

They put an IV in and started to pumped benedryl into me along with some type of steroid.  That made me feel so light headed that I had to lay down.  The whole room was spinning and so I just tried to focus on breathing.  The medicine made me so high that Soren started to make fun of me. I'm not sure what I even said during that time, but hopefully it wasn't too ridiculous.  At one point I sat there for what seemed like forever thinking that maybe I needed to go to the bathroom. I was so tired, but felt so weird that I couldn't go to sleep. I finally asked Soren if he would find out if it was okay for me to get up and go to the bathroom. I slowly got over to the bathroom and had Soren come in with me because I wasn't sure that I wouldn't pass out.  Let me say it was very hard to go to the bathroom when I'm right handed and they put the IV in my right arm.  I couldn't use my right hand to pull down my pants, get toilet paper, or even wipe.  It was interesting to try to use my left hand because I refused to let Soren help me wipe.

After my potty trip I was finally able to get some sleep.  They decided to keep me there for a few hours of observation so I told Soren he could go out and do a few things while I slept.  After I think about 2 hours they said my vitals looked good and that I could leave.  After a quick trip to the pharmacy to pick up some medication that I have to take over the next few days we went home where I went straight to bed.

My 30 seconds of enjoying mango cost me about $120 for the emergency room and prescriptions.  I now know to avoid mango and have my first food allergy. Hopefully it will be my only food allergy.