Tuesday, January 09, 2007

SHRIMP!

Or hello food that I've eaten forever, but will now never, ever eat again.

I got to go to the emergency room last night courtesy of these delectable little shellfish.

I made some wonderful shrimp in garlic butter sauce for dinner last night. It was delicious and everyone was happy. Right after I put the girls to bed around 8pm, I noticed the palms of my hands were itchy. And come to think of it, my feet were itchy too.

Soon the itchiness got worse and I was standing in cold water in the bathtub asking Wayne what he thought was going. He has had a run-in with shrimp in the past and said I was probably just having a reaction and that I shouldn't worry about it.

That's when I noticed the hives. Hives spreading up my arms and legs, arms and legs that were also starting to itch. And I was UNCOMFORTABLE.

I took some Benadryl.

O wait, then that's when my feet and hands started swelling and I started to lose feeling in my fingers and toes. Now I was uncomfortable and nearing crazed.

Wayne was finally convinced that I need to go to the hospital so we took off and my Mom watched the girls for us. On the way out to the truck I swallowed and realized that my tongue was swelling and threatening to block my breathing! Yikes! This caused Wayne to take the situation a bit more seriously and drive a lot faster.

I signed myself in and we went to sit down. Now I was dizzy and weak and itchy and a little sick to my stomach. The triage nurse called me in quickly (they thought I was an emergency too) and started asking me questions.

I had my eyes closed and when I opened them everything was violet! Like an Andy Warhol picture where everything was purple with a slight bit of black contrast. I told the nurse and that got me 'fast tracked' to a room.

There was a lot of laying down and drifting off to sleep in the room. But they gave me an IV and a bunch of drugs to stop the reaction. We watched Mythbusters even though everyone else was watching the Ohio State/Florida game. Go Gators! We're not big football people but when it came time to discharge me it was also the end of the game and the process took a while do to the celebrating.

We walked into the door, I mumbled thanks to my Mom and fell fast asleep. I feel a lot better today, but they have me taking the 'cocktail' of medication for a few more days just to be cautious.

My great friend Lisa took Ali for a day of fun with her kids (a lifesaver since I had to tell Ali first thing this morning I had to tell her we couldn't go to Sea World 'cause I wasn't up to it). Emily's a sleepy-potomas 'cause she got her 6 month shots this morning.

I'm going to go take a nap. I'm hoping to make it to knitting tonight. :)

6 comments:

Ann-Marie MacKay said...

wow, crazy!
i had something similar last New Years, although never did find out what went wrong.
My hands, feet, neck, face, mouth, eyes and even under my hair were puffy, swollen and full of hives.
I had to drive myself to the Dr's and then hospital for a Benedryl shot (wow, now that made me dizzy)
then my 3 y/old had the same thing a couple of weeks later.
Glad that you know what it was and I hope you never go through that again!!

limedragon :-: Harriet said...

Yikes! How scary. Glad you're OK now. :)

magKNITficent said...

Wow, I hope you feel better!

magKNITficent said...

Wow, I hope you feel better.

Jessica said...

I had no idea. I hope you are much much better now!!

Unknown said...

OMG, and I sent you shrimp yarn!
I am so sorry, do you think you can knit with it?