Hives with a Sprinkle of Anaphylaxis

I am currently on three shots for my allergies, once a week. I drive the half hour to the doctors office to get stuck with three needles, two in one arm, one in the other, to then wait another half hour to make sure I don't have a deadly reaction, and you know... DIE.

So four weeks ago, I went in and they had upped my dose. It went fine. No big reaction other than I had itchy arms like usual.

I went in for my shots again the next week.

I was sitting, waiting for the half hour to be up and my ears were itching. For those of you unaware, I have four piercing in each ear, (two holes in each lobe, a industrial in my left ear, my cartilage and tragus in my right ear). I didn't think much of this situation. Itchy ears? No big deal! Right?

WRONG.

So my ears were itching, and a little hot, but I still felt like I was okay.

The half hour mark rolled over, and I had to go to work anyways, so I went up to the counter, showed them my arms which were literally having NO reaction whatsoever, and went about my day.

I was about twenty minutes away from the allergy office when I started having an itchy neck. And then I was having shortness of breath. And I looked at myself in my mirror and saw that I was red. Really red.

And then I watched as hives slowly started popping out of my face like huge demon zits on my neck and over my chin.

I should mention that bumps of any kind totally freak me out. Like scar bumps, pimples, zits, cysts... every single bump thing I have seen pretty much can put me on the track to vomiting up anything that might be sitting in my stomach. So watching these bumps little crawl up my neck like egyptian scarabs in The Mummy made me want to puke all over myself.

I knew at this point I either needed to go back to my allergy office or find and Urgent Care center.

I was fifteen minutes away from the Urgent Care and twenty from the allergy office so I picked the Urgent Care.

I drove there in a state of panic, parked my car, and ran over to the Urgent Care.

"Uh, hi," I wheezed out, "I wasn't sure if I should go here, or to like, the emergency room, but its cheaper to come here for my insurance..."

"Uh." The receptionist was great with words.

"I got my allergy shots and now I am like breaking out... I just need like benadryl?" I thought I was going to pass out from using all of my meager oxygen.

"Right, here." She handed me some forms as the doctor, a tiny little asian lady saw me.

"Oh my goodness! What's happening? What did you eat?"

I again explain how I got my allergy shot, stayed at the office the required thirty minutes and started breaking out after I had left. And all the while I am having to call my dad and get the insurance number from him.

And my dad, whom I love, decides he needs to have a twenty minute conversation with me.

"Dad, look, I have to go. I am like breaking out in hives, so I need to go see the doctor."

"Right, right. I'll be up in a little bit."

When I finally do hang up, I am ushered back to a room where I am asked all of these questions, the whole while my face so swollen up, its gone numb. My lips had swollen up to almost the size of three twizzlers wrapped together. And I was pretty sure that no one could tell the difference between my face and my neck.

Finally my dad arrived just as the little asian doctor came in with a triple dose of benadryl and a quintuple dose of prednisone. They were in liquid form, but I took them like a shot, washed it back with some water, and waited for the magic to happen.

"You're puffy," is literally the first thing my dad says to me.

"Yeah, I can't really feel my face." It's possible that my skin is just going to straight up burst and all of my blood and muscles are going to spill out onto the floor.

After about twenty minutes, I can feel my blood pressure lower. The throbbing heat in my ears had finally started to abate. And my breathing, which was more like tiny gasps into lungs that felt filled with seawater, had cleared up. With a little sigh, I was able to sit back.

When the doctor finally released me, I was sent home with a prescription for an epipen and more prednisone. What I intended to do was to go home and sleep off the benadryl, but instead I had a million things to do and ended up being awake to well past midnight.

In the end, I went back for my allergy shots the next week, but it was a slightly decreased dose. And I am required to take allergy meds an hour before each appointment. But at least I survived hives and a decreased ability to breath. I would say that is pretty good.