Fun Evening

Last night, I had a very close call. I'm deathly allergic to nuts, which we've known since I was about four. And the doctor told me the reaction would get worse every time. I've been extremely careful with all of that, to say the least.

But the nuts crept up on me last night in form of an oatmeal raisin cookie (which was quite good until I realized it had nuts in it!) I had eaten half of the cookie before I realized it had walnuts in it, and I've never actually eaten a nut before. I've always realized that there's a nut in my mouth before I digest it. But not last night.

So Sam and I rushed to my house after I searched and found no benadryl in my purse. Can you say 50 on Grand Central? Yeah, Sam loves me that much. Anyway.. I ran in the house, in the process breaking my flip flop, and yelled to my mom while they were having small groups, opened up the medicine cabinet and threw an empty benadryl container. (Sorry if I hit someone.) I finally got some benadryl, and by the time it was all over I had 75 milligrams of it. (I'm still a bit drowsy :]) We sat around talking and such for awhile as I drank lots of water, but then for the first time ever I started getting hot, and itching uncontrollably and I thought my eardrums were going to burst. It was scary to say the least, I cried and told mom we had to go to the hospital. So Katie stabbed me with my epipen (which was the first time I had to use that, too) and we went on our way.

We sat in the waiting room for about half an hour and some amazing people showed up to sit with me and wait. While I was waiting, I went to the bathroom and picked up my shirt, and my body was pretty much one big hive. It would've been cool if they didn't itch so bad. Anyway, they started looking at me and moved me to a bed. Then I got an IV with some steroids to help the swelling go down since I was swelling like everywhere. After being in there for about an hour, they finally started kicking in and making the swelling go down. And now I'm finally back home.

I woke up this morning and I'm not one big hive anymore. The doctor said I might have the rash for a few days, but it's all gone, too. :) I have to take benadryl for the next few days and some more steroids, too. Woo!

So, today I'm thankful for Katie being there and stabbing me with the epipen. I'm thankful for everyone who called to see how I was doing. I'm thankful for the prayer warriors asking everyone to pray for me. I'm thankful for my parents dealing with this whole nut thing so well. I'm thankful for Sam speeding down Grand Central to help save my life :) I'm thankful for Sam, Rachel, Donna, Heather and Katie coming and seeing me at the ER. And most importantly, I'm thankful for being alive more than usual today.

God's not finished with me yet. :)