Antibiotics, Allergy, Anaphylaxis
I said, “I feel funny,” but my words sounded watery, far away, and unclear.
The first time I had anaphylaxis I was about nine. It was a year when I had a series of health misfortunes. I developed chicken pox, sprained an ankle, had urinary tract infections, and several bouts of strep throat in a span of about six months. On this particular day, I was napping in my mother’s bed, but I don’t remember why I was in her room and not my own. I just remember waking up hot, sweaty, and stuffy like when you’re trying to breathe in Florida after a rainstorm in August. It was disorienting coming out of my mother’s room into the kitchen as everything was turned around, opposite of my room. My mother looked up from the kitchen table and gasped. She signaled me to her and she felt my face which was itchy. I said, “I feel funny,” but my words sounded watery, far away, and unclear. She got a wet cloth for my neck, gave me some ice water, and a small puff of her inhaler because my breath was making a funny rattling sound.
She called my aunt on the phone who was studying to be a nurse. My mother told her I looked like a lion, like that boy with “lionitis” in that movie with Cher. I patted my hair which was sticking up everywhere from sweat and thrashing around in bed. “All of her skin is red, actually,” she said, lifting my shirt and pulling up a sleeve. My face was distorted; my cheeks, tight. Maybe it's Scarlet Fever, a strain of strep. But there were bumps on my stomach too, like mosquito bites, so my aunt told my mother to take me to the hospital right away. Holden Hospital was closest, but she said go to a bigger one if I was still okay in the car on the way.
The air outside felt delicious. It cooled my flush skin, but all the objects looked weird like they’d been distinctly outlined in dark pencil–a little shimmery and darkly contrasting the sky and surroundings. I felt like I was coming out of a movie theater into the summer sun. We got into the car and drove the half hour to the hospital where the person at the desk took one look at me and brought me right in. She looked in my mouth, then gave me a sweet liquid to drink and then I watched her put the needle in my hand though she told me to look away.
This was the first IV I remember ever getting. I kept wiggling as I was itchy all over and my IV kept kinking, and the alarm went off. After a while my hand was sore, red and bruised, so I didn’t move it as much. Turns out I had a penicillin reaction probably compounded by the amount of cycles I’d been prescribed close together for ear infections, urinary tract infections which were frequent, and strep which was an ailment going around a lot in school that year. Doctors told my mother we were lucky I woke up. I could have died in bed, as has happened before to other people. She cried in earnest at that; she’d buried my brother a few years earlier who’d been hit by a car. The doctor rubbed her shoulder and told her if she didn’t give me penicillin again–and watch out for other antibiotics too–I should be fine.
My throat and head still hurt as did my neck, which was partially from the lingering strep throat and from the swelling during anaphylaxis. The doctor gave me a new antibiotic and assured my mother that another reaction was unlikely since they usually happened after more than one time using it. They asked how far away emergency services were from our apartment; luckily they were located across the street. He jotted something in a folder, and he told her not to drive me herself if there was a next time. EMS were equipped to help right away. He’s glad I didn’t get worse during the ride. After that I was on liquid antihistamines for a few days while the reaction eased out of my system. Shortly after, I returned to my regular life which included school, gymnastics, and weekend sleepovers at my sister’s apartment. The anaphylaxis wouldn’t again be an issue for a long while, but when it happened again it was much more serious.
More to come…
