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Tag: allergies

Rough couple of days for the Chonk

Posted on February 13, 2024 By admin

The night from Sunday to Monday was a bit of an adventure for the Chonk, and not in a good way. He had a massive allergic reaction to something – exactly what, we don’t know – and broke out in hives and swelling. We made a 00:30 visit to the emergency vet in Etoy for antihistamines and cortisone shots, and then I spent the next hour cleaning all the floors (again, but with plain water this time) to make sure it wasn’t the floor cleaner I’d used earlier in the day that wasn’t the cause of the problem.

He went down like a rock, and spent most of monday completely wiped out. Seemed to perk up this morning.

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So a funny thing happened to my after breakfast yesterday…

Posted on September 15, 2021 By admin

It didn’t agree with me and a bad allergic reaction sent me to the ER. First time since 2019, but still not long enough for my peace of mind… It can be one of two things: sunflower seed butter (a peanut butter alternative I wanted to try) or French vanilla Nescafe instant coffee (which apparently now contains Chicory, which it didn’t used to before and can cause reactions to people allergic to ragweed, like myself).

So yeah. I was on my way to see my therapist. I felt fine enough, but then things went south rather quickly and happily a friend who lived nearby to the doctor’s office could drive me up to the ER. There, it was the usual rigmarole but things settled down quickly enough – I just had to spend 6h under observation to make sure there wasn’t a rebound flare-up again, even with the drugs.

While I was there, some time in the afternoon, something happened to break up the boredom. Here’s a chat extract between myself, Katy, and the guys at work:

Nurses in a bit of a tizzy, apparently someone did a runner and “escaped” through a window
And now there’s mention of calling the cops
It gets better!
It’s a lady
Who is tearing into cars and pedestrians with her cane
She’s just wearing a hospital gown
While on her rampage
Hospital staff are tailing her but won’t get too close
Doctors are scrounging for fast acting good drugs
Cops are in sight as well but no one wants to get near
There is lots of discussion on best to grab, sedate, restrain and get her back here
     She has a weapon. Maybe a tazer or a trank gun.
Drama! They caught her.
They brought her back to the ER. I can hear her yell that she’s a terrorist… Except she sounds like a disturbed older white lady.
Who is now yelling that she is Satan the devil’s son, she needs her drugs and wants to go to jail
     And you thought the afternoon would be dull.
She’s right outside my cubicle.
     They have her in restraints I’m assuming?
I can hear handcuffs rattling.
Next hour is going to be different…
She says she’s a junkie and wants more drugs. That’s where she was going – to buy some.
     Sounds like she was on a hell of a combo.
Whatever she’s on, it’s not the good shit.
She’s in a different ward and I can still hear her yell her head off
     They need to give her something ending in -pam
     Maybe she just needs a nice hot cup of tea?
She’s not in her happy place
Just yelling herself hoarse screaming I WANT MY DRUGS
I hope the restraints on her bed are solid. That kind of crazy can be dangerous…
     I guess she just need someone to talk with
     you should go and talk to her
I’m still plugged into the matrix
And besides, something tells me she’s not in the mood got chit chat.
     I’ll go talk to her if she’ll share her drugs.
I don’t think you want what she had
These don’t seem the I love you man everything is beautiful sort of drugs
More like the THERE ARE SPIDERS ALL OVER MY BRAIN sort
I’d avoid those.
They don’t taste nice.

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Does your desk have a snack drawer?

Posted on November 21, 2019 By admin

A Portuguese co-worker’s visiting family restocked me with low-sugar high-fiber granola bars with coffee and chocolate (!!!!). They’re available in Switzerland, but at three times the price so I use my network strategically.

In a parallel conversation, another co-worker was asking me why I could eat those granola bars, but not ones he’d just offered me:

Conversation went something like this:

Me – I can’t eat those, they have nuts in them.
Suttipong – Do they? I didn’t see any in the ingredients.
Me – See? Right there! (now keep in mind that the ingredient list is printed in such a way as to take up the whole back side of the packaging)
Suttipong – It’s so small!
Me – It’s written in bold and underlined!

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All that fresh air is bad for me

Posted on May 21, 2014 By admin

Took my bike to work today (yay!). I’ve been sneezing my ass off since I got here. Pollen season, zoop! zoop!

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Food labeling badness!

Posted on May 13, 2014May 13, 2014 By admin
20140513_080430 20140512_075149

As I mentioned previously, I bought pate at Aligro last weekend, and it turns out that it had a nasty surprise: unlisted pistachios. I brought it to work to give it to a coworker, and he confirmed our suspicions. I’ve phoned and emailed Aligro, and they said that they’d look into the matter. I’ll give them a few days before I go all scorched-earth on them.

Update: I got this reply:

On behalf of our supplier, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. The ingredient list is actually not accurate enough. However, after having contacted our supplier, he assures us that there are no nuts in the composition of the product and you can consume it without fear for your health. There are however some pistachios in the composition of this very traditional recipe, appreciated by the customers. Following your message, this label will be corrected as soon as possible.

So, pistachios aren’t nuts. Except that they are. Idiots.

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Feeling human again, finally!

Posted on April 9, 2014 By admin

Coffee_Crack_Drip1-195x300I’ve been completely useless for the past 3 days. Between a cold and my seasonal allergies, I was a wreck. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t sleep, my nose was the Niagara Falls of snot. I’d wake up several times a night, wheezing and whistling (turns out, that’s asthma!) I went to the docs yesterday and got doped up to the gills with nose washes, nose sprays, cough syrup, asthma inhaler, but damn, everything works for now :)

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Allergy season is upon us

Posted on April 3, 2014 By admin

allergyDreamstimecom

huzzah! huzzah!

One more thing to be stupendipulously happy about.

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I hate summer

Posted on June 7, 2011June 7, 2011 By admin


Original image from Two Lumps

Ahh, summer. Time for bugs and hay fever.

How I hate it.

What’s really not helping my mood these days is that one of the side-effects of the tablets I’m taking at the moment is increased sweating. They ain’t kidding. Added to that is that somebody at works keeps turning off the AC so the office is basically a sauna, without the ambiance.

Roll on, winter!

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Once more unto the breach.

Posted on January 17, 2007 By admin 2 Comments on Once more unto the breach.

I had my first allergic reaction serious enough to scare me yesterday in close to two years. I'm really not happy about it. In fact, angry, frustrated and scared would be better words.

I don't know how it happened, or why. They say that, statistically, a person with food allergies will react once every two years, no matter how paranoid you are. Something will slip through and bite you in the ass. Well, yesterday, I got bitten.

Sometime during the afternoon, about an hour after lunch, my right eye started to itch and swell up. When I went to the bathroom, I found that my face was red and blotchy. I think I scared my coworkers. I took some benadryl and started to wait it out. In the end, my nerves got the better of me and I asked for a coworker to drive me to Addenbrookes. In my heart of hearts though, I knew it was a waste of time because by that time, the benadryl was kicking in and the blotchiness was gone. I no longer itched and the swelling wasn't getting any worse. As I pretty much predicted, by the time I was seen by the triage nurse and told that “somebody would see me shortly”, I felt ok. I then proceeded to spend the next hour cooling my heels in the waiting room until Katy arrived to join me and we decided to just go home. By that time, most of the swelling in my eye was gone and there wasn't anything they would have done anyway.

What really frustrates me though is that I don't know what caused my reaction. What we had for lunch was leftovers from the previous night's dinner and that was perfectly fine. I was finally at a point in my life where I could happily (well, most of the time) live with my allergies. I was comfortable. Now, that's gone. I'm paranoid again about every thing I eat. I know I need to just jump back into the saddle and try and get over this as soon as I can, but it's easier said than done. Is it just something that I know I'm already allergic that slipped in somehow? Maybe it was something on the cup that I got from the cafeteria and later used to drink my tea. Maybe it was something that fell into the dish from the communal microwave. Maybe…. maybe… maybe.

Maybe my body decided to hate me some more and become allergic to something new, which will mean I'll need to overhaul my diet again and make it even more restrictive. Maybe… maybe… maybe.

*sigh*

I'll just have to work through the list of ingredients that I had for lunch and see if something comes up again. Hopefully, it won't. That'll mean it was just “one of those things” and I'll be able to leave it behind me and go back to living, instead of being afraid.

The good news though is that I know I'm surrounded by people who care and will look after me if bad things happen. This helps a lot.

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My sinuses hate me

Posted on June 18, 2006 By admin

My seasonal allergies have not been this bad for ages. Now granted, it's hot as hell and muggy to boot, and the pollen count is through the roof, but it's been years since I've had to take benadryl and a steroid-based nasal spray to complement a once-a-day antihistamine and still feel like shit and go through half a box of tissues. Not a happy bunny am I.

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