Allergies, 911 and Paramedics
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 3:58PM 
I had a ton of fun at BoardGameGeek.con (you can see my photos here) this past week, and I’ll be posting more about my experience later. Jeff and I had a bit of a scare last Thursday, however, when I had a bad reaction to something I ate.
I decided to order in room service since I was pretty tired and knew I had a busy evening planned. I decided to order a dish I remembered enjoying at the same hotel last year: the Grilled Chipotle Tuna sandwich (see above). It came with a salad, and I asked for a balsamic vinegar dressing.
A few minutes after I started eating, I felt a headache coming on. I ate some more but then the headache got bad enough that I decided to lie down on the couch. I also felt a bit weird: lightheaded and I could feel my pulse racing. Weird. It never crossed my mind that I was having an allergic reaction; I’ve never had any serious food allergies.
In the hotel room bathroom, I noticed my eyes were bloodshot. I had just gotten over a case of pinkeye, so was baffled (and hugely disappointed) that the pinkeye had come back so suddenly and severely. I texted Jeff, who was playing a game downstairs. He came up shortly after and noticed that my face was very flushed and I had splotchy white and red all over my arms as well as my belly.
Jeff asked me to try walking across the room, but the dizziness was bad enough that I would have fallen if he didn’t grab me. He helped me back to bed, told me to not move, made sure my cellphone was within reach, and hurried down to the front desk. After a few more minutes, I started feeling a lot worse so I called him. The hotel called 911, and Jeff told me that an ambulance was on its way.
Above: list of ingredients I asked the restaurant to send me.
At this point, I admit I was freaking out a little bit. All kinds of weirdstuff flitted through my head, including a tiny thought that was basically, “Holy crap. What if this is it?” My other thought, I am embarrassed to say, was “Holy crap. Paramedics are coming and I'm not wearing any pants!” And despite Jeff telling me not to move, I stumbled out of bed to grab my track pants, which were a few feet away, and pulled them on.
Yeah, yeah, I know! I told you, I wasn’t thinking straight!
Our friend Marcia came up a minute later to keep me company; she had run into Jeff in the hotel lobby. I’m glad she was there; she helped distract me plus had been through something similar already. She was calm and comforting, reassuring me it was going to be okay.
Minutes later, there were FIVE paramedics crowded around my bed. They took my blood pressure, examined me, asked me all kinds of questions, gave me a shot that immediately started making me feel better as well as woozy. Things got a bit blurry at that point, but Jeff reports that I apparently thanked the paramedics all for coming like I was in hostess-mode. Eek. :-)
It was decided that I didn’t need to take the ambulance to the hospital, but we should keep an eye on my condition and to call if things turned worse again.
Sadly, I had to miss a game of Freeze as well as the rest of the night’s gaming. I slept for 12 hours and felt much better in the morning.
Now, however, I have to figure out what set off my allergic reaction. One of the paramedics suggested that I might have developed a sudden allergy to the antibiotic eye drops I was finishing off (my pinkeye was better, but I was told to keep taking the drops until the end of the seven days no matter what). I -really- hope he's wrong, because having an allergy to antibiotics would suck way more than having a food allergy, I think.
I asked the restaurant to send me a list of ingredients in my meal and I’m also going to be seeing my doctor this afternoon about allergy tests. I posted about my experience on Facebook, and nearly 50 people responded to my question, “Is it possible to SUDDENLY develop a food allergy?” The answer is a resounding YES. A couple of my friends suggested it might be Scombroid Food Poisoning.
I’ll post when I find out.
allergy in Debbienews
Reader Comments (9)
If it is the eyedrops, at least it's way easier to avoid an antibiotic than to quiz waiters about everything you order!
Thanking the paramedics in 'hostess' mode? Don't worry, they'll have heard much worse, and at least you were polite. I suspect they may also have been amused, which is a good thing because a lot of the time a paramedic's experience sucks.
I hope you find out what caused it so you can avoid it happening again. Allergic reactions are not fun...
I'm glad you are okay. I'm sure the paramedics wouldn't have cared about the pants, but I totally understand not wanting to be more vulnerable in an already vulnerable moment. If worst came to worst, you'd have collapsed on the floor and the paramedics were already coming, so no biggie; they'd have put you back to bed.
Glad you felt better so quickly! Sorry you had to miss some great gaming. Feeling subpar physically or mentally at a time when you'd really like to have all your wits about you always rots.
Good luck IDing the allergen.
I'm allergic to several antibiotics. If your reaction proves to have been caused by that, I recommend you buy a bracelet to wear so you aren't given it in an emergency. Other than that, it's fairly easy to manage, so don't be discouraged if that's what it turns out to have been.
Hope you're feeling better soon. I was going to add - by Thanksgiving tomorrow - but then I remembered you're in Canada and it won't T-day there. anyway, get well.
I am so sorry this happened to you and so glad you are ok. My husband (Greg/ Nodecam) and I were at BoardGameGeek.con as well. We were on the flight to Toronto with you guys.
My first thought about the list of ingredients that you got from the hotel is that it's not a list of ingredients at all but a menu. Having a bit of experience with allergies I would suggest you ask the hotel for a real list of ingredients such as rather than wheat bun what are the actual ingredients. For example wheat, yeast, water, sugar, ect.
Most everything on the bottom line of what they gave you most certainly isn't a single ingredient food. It would be good to know every ingredient as you go forward trying to figure out what happened.
Good Luck.
Erin
My vote is for scombroid food poisoning too. I used to think I had a seafood allergy until I observed that I didn't react to fresh seafood. Carry some Benadryl with you whenever you travel and use it at the first sign of a reaction, but don't hesitate to call the paramedics too.
It is entirely possible you have a food allergy. The combination of the antibiotics and the food may have also been the culprit. Seafood is a very common allergy in many forms.