I made the mistake of recently telling a friend that my long-term health care plan was to stay healthy because I didn’t like going to the doctor. Since I uttered those perilous, knock-on-wood words, I’ve been to the emergency room twice. Three weeks ago, I landed in the ER after I tripped while running at Boyce Mayview Park, fell and skid across a dry tree root that ripped open my leg, requiring 32 stitches, that were just removed a week ago.
This morning was the first time I attempted to run again at Boyce Mayview Park since my last accident. I ran slowly and with extra caution, watching every inch of the trail so I wouldn’t trip and fall again. It figures that I had almost finished my 3-mile run when the venomous monster pictured, otherwise known as a yellow wasp, stung the top of my head.
I think I’ve been stung by every stinging insect there is and never had a reaction like today. Within a minute, I felt dizzy and nauseous. Driving home, I could feel my entire body breaking out into hives and by the time I got home, my eyes, lips and tongue were swollen and my throat was constricting. I called my doctor’s office and the nurse told me to go to the hospital, but thinking I could ward off most of these nasty symptoms myself, I popped a few Benadryl and opted to go to MedExpress instead.
They took one look at me, rushed me into a room, immediately poked an Epipen into my thigh, gave me prednisone, took my vitals, and called an ambulance. They said I was having a severe anaphylactic reaction. My blood pressure had dropped to 80/37.
“I have a rash,” I nonsensically told the nurse.
“We know,” she said.
When the paramedics arrived, my whole body shook and shivered as if the 68 degree room temperature was going to give me frostbite. Two friendly, delightful paramedics named Jim and Rick from Tri-Community South EMS, loaded me onto a gurney they just wheeled into the room.
“Good thing you’re so light,” Jim said as he hefted the top portion of me over to the gurney.
“You’re so light, I hardly felt it,” said Rick, who lugged my bottom half.
God bless those kind and wonderful fibbers.
By the time Jim and Rick loaded me into the back of the ambulance, I was already starting to feel better, but they said hospital staff would want to watch me as the medicine wore off to make sure I didn’t start having anaphylaxis symptoms again.
I’m home now, feeling drugged up and completely wiped out. I’m going to take a nap.
But I’m not going to try to run again anytime soon at Boyce Mayview Park. After my recent unpleasant encounters with a sharp tree root and a vengeful insect, I’m convinced that nature is out to get me.
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16 Comments
Believe me i know how you feel. Here’s hoping you break this run of bum luck!
Thanks Billie! Bum luck be gone for you, too!
Believe me i know how you feel. Here’s hoping you break this run of bum luck!
Thanks Billie! Bum luck be gone for you, too!
Oh, Ann, although the way you wrote about this latest trip to the ER made me want to laugh, I just couldn’t, remembering my own ordeal of kneeling on a wasp nest. I learned if you swat one, they send out chemical call for others to attack! Omg. Thank goodness I wasn’t as allergic as you were. And thank goodness you got treated! What next for the Do-Gooder Gone Bad? Maybe an indoor treadmill with can of Raid nearby?
Nancy, you’re so funny! I’m picturing myself running on a treadmill with a can of Raid. What an image. Thanks for the laugh!
Oh, Ann, although the way you wrote about this latest trip to the ER made me want to laugh, I just couldn’t, remembering my own ordeal of kneeling on a wasp nest. I learned if you swat one, they send out chemical call for others to attack! Omg. Thank goodness I wasn’t as allergic as you were. And thank goodness you got treated! What next for the Do-Gooder Gone Bad? Maybe an indoor treadmill with can of Raid nearby?
Nancy, you’re so funny! I’m picturing myself running on a treadmill with a can of Raid. What an image. Thanks for the laugh!
Mike told me you weren’t allergic to bees, but maybe it was the medication you were taking for your leg that may have set you off as well, or it could’ve been a rabid hornet or something like that. Maybe, an Epipen isn’t so bad to take along with you. Having one in handy for you or someone else would be pretty nifty. Even though my dad’s not allergic to anything, he keeps one in his car when he walks, and it helped someone else when a stranger collapsed on a track. He got the Epipen and called the ambulance, and in return saved his life.
Wow! Your dad was an angel in the right place at the right time. I will definitely keep an Epipen handy from now on. Thanks Alicia.
Mike told me you weren’t allergic to bees, but maybe it was the medication you were taking for your leg that may have set you off as well, or it could’ve been a rabid hornet or something like that. Maybe, an Epipen isn’t so bad to take along with you. Having one in handy for you or someone else would be pretty nifty. Even though my dad’s not allergic to anything, he keeps one in his car when he walks, and it helped someone else when a stranger collapsed on a track. He got the Epipen and called the ambulance, and in return saved his life.
Wow! Your dad was an angel in the right place at the right time. I will definitely keep an Epipen handy from now on. Thanks Alicia.
Holy moly, not again. This reminds me of the bee or wasp that stung you in the neck as we walked up the road to the moshav in the Galilee. You survived with out emergency personal but I don’t remember how.
Oh my gosh! I hadn’t thought of that in years! You’re right, I have international bee sting experience! I never had a severe allergic reaction before, so that wasp that stung me last week must have had it out for me.
Holy moly, not again. This reminds me of the bee or wasp that stung you in the neck as we walked up the road to the moshav in the Galilee. You survived with out emergency personal but I don’t remember how.
Oh my gosh! I hadn’t thought of that in years! You’re right, I have international bee sting experience! I never had a severe allergic reaction before, so that wasp that stung me last week must have had it out for me.