The Great Face Debacles

I forgot to mention the downside of my week...well, I didn't really "forget" to mention it...just left it out of the last post because it didn't really fit the theme of what I was talking about.

Fun stuff, this.

Debacle #1:

Early in the week...I think it might have been Tuesday but it's all a little blurry...we were coming back from breakfast and I started to get pins and needles in my face. They felt just like it feels when your foot goes to sleep...but in my face...scary stuff, this. The only other time I could recall having this sensation was when they damaged my parathyroids during my thyroidectomy and I ended up with low blood calcium levels for a while. On the other hand, high altitude, lots more cardio than I'm accustomed to = not an insignificant amount of fear that I was having a stroke. I spent most of the day sitting in an office with various people coming to poke at me...a couple trainers, an RN, the resident chiropractor (trust me if I thought I'd been having a stroke, I would have been at a hospital...I was nervous, but not stupid)...the Real Life staff doctor finally came...made sure I wasn't in danger of imminent death and sent me for some blood tests. I preempted him that night and took some extra calcium. The tests came back the next day. I was right. My calcium was low.

Moral of the story: I am my own M.D.

Debacle #2:

After dinner yesterday, I was craving something sweet. It was the only time since I'd arrived that I'd craved anything at all (besides sushi)...and it was strange since I'm not usually all that big on sweets. But, I was craving something sweet, so I decided that a nice cup of hot tea would do the trick. I'd been noticing these bottles of "natural" zero calorie sweetener on the table all week and I figured, "what the hell." So, I made my tea, added my sweetener...ended up putting in too much because it had an eye dropper thingy and I didn't read the instructions and used almost a whole dropper full instead of just a few drops. My hot tea was too sweet but I didn't want to waste it so I cut it with a bunch of water and ice.

Long story longer.

The stuff in the bottles was "STEVIA"....it's made from a plant that's related to RAGWEED. People that are extra super duper allergic to ragweed tend to be extra super duper allergic to plants in the same family....such as echinacea (learned that the hard way too)...chamomile...etc...

Long story even longer.

A few hours after I finished my tea and went to bed, I woke up barely able to breathe. My eyes had swollen almost completely shut and I was covered in hives. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), this wasn't the first time in my life I'd had this sort of allergic reaction to something. I always have Benadryl. I opened four of them and took the powder. That was enough to save me a trip to the ER. My face is still swollen I don't know how many Benadryl later, but I can open my eyes now and the hives are gone. The doctor here called in a Prednisone dose pack for me which is helping too.

Moral of this story: If you have severe allergies, don't eat it if you don't know what it is.