Family, friends, and even strangers,
Last night I was taken to a hospital for Anaphylaxis, a severe food allergy.
It started at a Christmas Eve party at one of my brother’s home. After eating, I started to develop severe rash in which the whole body is swollen and itch. I promptly took a double dose of children Benadryl, the only option at the time.
On the drive back home, my eyes blacken out, I cannot even see my wife who is driving next to me. Once home, I took some rest, felt nauseated and went to the bathroom to throw up. I fell and hit my chin on the counter and became unconscious. My wife promptly called 911 and the medics came within a couple of minutes. According to my wife, it only took them a couple of minutes to arrive due to their distant from our home.
At this point, the medics administered Additional Benadryl and thought I was stabilized. All of a sudden, my systolic pressured dropped from 115 to 85. I heard the medics jumped into action, they administered some medication that caused my heart to pump rapidly and saved my life. A medic named Matt told my wife that if she called 2-3 minutes later, I would be dead. He also said that calling 911 was what saved my life. If she drove me to the hospital, I would not make it. At the hospital, things went well and the doctor released me a few hours later.
I am alive and blog today thanks to my wife, Tracy, for being able to act under pressure; my kids who prayed for me, my brothers and sisters who went to me either physically or in their thoughts.
From this incident, I learned a couple of lessons
- When my sister Brittany told me to go to emergency room, I did not listen, thinking I would be fine. I should have listened to her.
- Calling 911 immediately was the key to save my life. I have my wife Tracy to thank for that.
2010-12-27 Update
I went to see my doctor for a follow up. My heartbeats are still irregular, but not too serious. I feel tired.
2010-12-29 Update
I went to see two allergy specialists who built a profile of which food I am allergic to. They performed skin test today and blood test to follow on the next day. The skin test did not point to any of the food I ate that night, so the cause is still a mystery. I hope that that blood test will tell me more.
Hai's DevBits 