Glad to hear both husbands are okay. Scary stuff.
I recently read a book (“Bitten,” maybe? I can’t remember, or find it on amazon) about deadly reactions to allergens, poisons, bites, etc. A couple of the survivors survived only because they happened to have on hand a bottle of good ol’ Benadry, which they immediately chugged (if liquid) or popped (if pills) on the way to the ER. So I’ve decided that Benadryl is a must-have for my otherwise woefully-inadequate emergency stash*.
*Which, truth to be told, consists of some leftover Benadryl, a tube of purloined Dermabond, and a half-used tube of ear antibiotic that the vet gave one of the dogs. I think there might be a flashlight in there too, and possibly an old Prince tape. So I’m pretty much prepared, I think.
You’re very welcome. I’m glad to hear you’re doing ok.
Anne Neville, Hubby is very sensitive to anything that causes sleepiness. Benedryl puts him out for a full day. Zyrtec causes sleepiness, so, he’d be walking around on his lips all the time!
And yeah, Benadryl helped my husband when he was stung in the lower lip by a yellowjacket. His lip swelled so much he was sure it was going to split if we didn’t do something besides just ice-ing it.
Being unemployed and without health insurance, getting fresh epi-pens is problematic. Do I spend the money on rent and (safe) food - or do I spend it on a medication I hope I will never need?
Allergies run in my family- I’ve had a severe asthma attack triggered by pollen, my mum had an anaphyactic reaction to Cyprus pollen, my aunt has a rare allergy to milk protein and both my uncle and grandmother have nearly died from their Penicillin allergies.
I had an anaphylactic reaction to Penicillin as a child (wheeze, hives, facial swelling) and then a Steven’s Johnson reaction (blistering and peeling of the mucous membranes) to Erythromycin, which is the antibiotic you usually give to people who are allergic to penicillin.
If I get sick and need ABx I have two choices
Try some old fashioned and possibly ineffective drugs…mmm sulfa…
Come to hospital for some IVs.
So far, I’ve gone with option 1.
As doctors here often have to give first dose IV Abx, you can sometimes find me wearing a mask, two pairs of gloes and an apron while giving a patient an injection, while a nurse hovers behind me looking nervous and holding some adrenaline.
Usually there is another colleague who can do it for me, but sometimes there isn’t.
So far, I’ve been OK.
I also have a severe allergy to Clindamycin. Several years ago, I was mixing it. I put too much air in the vial and it squirted a tiny drop onto my neck. The nurse standing next to me said it looked like a rose blooming on my neck. By the time I walked the 100 yards to the ER, I was wheezing and bright red from head to toe.
Ah, OK. My mom and I are freaks, so most of the antihistamines that are supposed to cause sleepiness don’t for us. Benadryl doesn’t even work reliably for causing sleepiness for us.
Old Prince tapes only get more potent with age, but you may want to check the expiration dates on your other staples there.
Glad everyone is doing better, and/or educating themselves against potentially life-threatening ignorance. I’m allergic to nickel (contact only, but good luck finding jeans [buttons] or eyeglass frames) and chlorine.
I’ve been suffering in last few years from chronic sinusitis and for 20+ years from eczema. This thread inspired me to go out and look for ways to filter chlorine from my shower (can always Brita the kitchen tap).
Anybody able to reccomend any? I actually do feel sick at times breathing the steam in my own shower (I swear I can smell 1 ppm chlorine), and I do so love a long, hot shower. And it’s not like a specific food I can avoid, I have to bathe.
Anybody? (reccomendations for filter, not an invite to bathe with me lol)
I should clarify, I think. The survivors in the book I read (I still can’t find it online; maybe it was called “Stung”) were people who had never had a reaction before to whatever set them off…which is how it works, apparently–it takes exposure to sensitize you, so you never know you’re sensitized until you have the reaction.
There was a little boy here who nearly died this past year, after he was stung on the playground. The school knew he was allergic, and luckily one of the local pediatricians had provided every local school with epipens. (How cool is that!?)
How much are epipens? Are they prescription-only? I wonder where one could find them cheap/free…I can certainly understand not having the cash to have them on hand, but I’m worried about people who need them not having them available.
Hmmm. This requires some research, I think.
There are whole house carbon filters similar in action to the Brita ones that you can install that treat all the water coming into your house. Can’t help you with a brand, but they’re widely available at big box home stores. Or your friendly local plumber can likely put one in for you.
I WISH they were available over the counter! My son is literally deathly allergic to bee stings and being 17, he doesn’t see the necessity of carrying his Epi pen on him. It scares me to death. I truly don’t understand why they have to be prescription only. It’s not like someone is going to abuse them.
I can go you one better on the “prescription only” - when we got the first ones for Dweezil, before he started school, the health insurance wouldn’t even PAY for them. We were supposed to get a letter from a doctor, documenting why they were medically necessary. We never bothered , just paid out of pocket (and subsequent replacement prescriptions were never a problem).
Uh huh, I’m sure doctors are writing LOTS of medically-unnecessary scrips for Epi-pens. Way bigger problem than narcotics, you betcha.
That said, maybe there is a market for abuse of epi-pens though my last experience with anything in that class (an oral asthma med, which I think included epinephrine) leads me to believe there’s nothing abusable about it: I simply got shaky and wretched-feeling.
We’ve kept them around for 10+ years now and only recently had a chance to use one. I found some expired ones in the cabinet (we’d already replaced them), saw some past-their-prime bananas on the kitchen counter, and figured this was an opportunity to see how the things actually worked when you do the “jam it into the leg” step. The thing fired off nicely, and the banana had no complaints
Epi-pens are outragously over priced. epinephrine is one of the cheapest drugs around. When I used to carry epi in a vial it cost less than a dollar. The epi-pen has IIRC, 10 ccs, but the dose it delivers is 0.3 ccs. There is no way to access a second dose without compromising sterility.
My grandmother had been immune to poison ivy all her life. Then, in her late 70s, a little contact put her in the hospital.
The inhalation therapist who taught me how to live with asthma said lots of people develop cat allergies. They’ll say, “Oh, I can’t be allergic to my cat. I’ve had him for 6 years.” That’s about how long it takes to develop the allergy.
And it’s not like a specific food I can avoid, I have to bathe.