Well, since there were no serious complications I guess I can take a more bemused attitude rather than alarmed, but I had a fairly strong allergic reaction to something last night. That's pretty startling to me because I haven't had an allergic reaction to anything since a mysterious case of hives when I was five years old or so. I mean nothing. I can't think of any food or drink I'm even intolerant of, let alone truly allergic.
Here's what happened. Last night I didn't feel like cooking so I walked down to the local pub and brought home the lasagna dinner, which consisted of a good sized square of lasagna, two pieces of garlic bread, and a regular dinner salad with creamy Italian dressing. All stuff I've had before, though it's been awhile since I've had the lasagna. Maybe even a couple of years.
It was all fine. I got home and chowed down and nothing gave me any sort of gastric distress. Not last night or today. It all tasted great too. But I got a look at my face in the mirror about twenty minutes later and holy cow. I looked like I had a severe sunburn, which was more puzzling than anything else. I didn't spend much time outside yesterday and it didn't hurt like a sunburn that red should have. Then I saw it kept going down my chest and took off my shirt. Holy cow again. There were huge blotches of red all across my upper body and a couple of small blemishes and bug bites were absolutely screaming red. I had no idea what set it off, but my immune system was seriously pissed.
As I stared in horror and watched the red blotches grow before my eyes, I thought about going to the ER. I didn't though, because my breathing was fine, I wasn't feeling dizzy nor had a racing heartbeat, and it didn't even itch. Besides, I have to pay 20% of any ER visit until I hit my annual max. out of pocket and that's still a ways off. I'd go to the ER, wait four hours for a doc to see me, and end up leaving with a $200 bottle of Benadryl...if I was lucky.
But I was fine. I woke up this morning and it was all gone like it never happened. Very strange. I suspect the lasagna, and the owner of the local pub, who was absolutely mortified when I told him what happened, is tracking down the list of ingredients so I can start playing detective. I'm 100% certain that the food wasn't bad. If it was a matter of spoilage or some sort of bacteria I would have had some kind of digestive upset and he swears no one else has complained. I believe him. I've known him long enough. Hell, I probably single-handedly paid for his kids' dental work. No, this was all immune system reaction to some ingredient. I haven't heard back from my doctor yet, but my message said it could wait until next week.
It's not a huge deal...I think. It bugs me to not know what set it off though. And I hate not being able to say "nothing" for now when a doctor or nurse asks if I'm allergic to anything. That was one "nothing" that made things really easy.
Heheh...my evil twin Skippy just had a nasty thought. Maybe I need to start smoking again. ;)
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