Oh What a Night!

Me on the gurney

It has been a little crazy around here. We had a great visit down south for the most part, a little drama but all is well. Here is the down low on last Sat night.
Jenny, Amber, Donna and I went to Nick's restaurant in Laguna Beach for a mom's night out. Everything was great until we got our dinner. I told them about my gluten allergy and they accommodated me nicely. I had a couple bites of veggies and then took a bite of chicken and it started. What I thought was the beginning of an allergic reaction. I excused myself from the table and went outside because the restroom was full. I have had these reactions before and I am usually home, and it goes away in about 15-20 minutes max. What happens is my throat closes up a little and I have a hard time swallowing, talking etc. I seem to accumulate a lot of mucus and have to throw it up and it eventually goes away. However this time it did not go away. I came back to the table and the girls were of course wondering were I went and what was going on. It continued for about a half hour. The girls were done with dinner by this time and I just went back outside because I needed to keep calm and have space.

Amber got her car but as she was going to get it I knew I needed immediate assistance. Jenny called 911 and the Fire truck came within a minute and started me on benadryl and oxygen. They then transported me to South Coast Medical to the E.R for further observation. I felt better but it was not going away completely. The doctor gave me an adrenalin shot, prednisone and something else. Needless to say I was looped. But it was not getting better. I explained what was going on with the mucus and such. She came back and said that she did not think it was an allergic reaction because it would have gone away by now with all the medicine.

She then told me she thought it was an esophageal spasm. What happens is if you eat something too hot, too cold, too acidic, too fast, not chewed enough a reaction occurs. Your esophagus starts to contract and it feels like your throat is closing up. It can take up to thirty minutes for it to relax but past that you need to see a doctor. So if I think back to all of my "Allergic Reactions" this is what has happened. Because there was nothing in the chicken that I was allergic too, to my knowledge. This has happened since 1994. So for the past fifteen years what I thought were reactions were actually spasms, but this was by far the worse one.

The doctor finally gave me a sedative to relax my esophagus and it finally went away. Needless to say I am a little gun shy with eating, I mean too hot, too cold... really?!? I just have to think about the foods that have triggered it in the past and I am trying to stay away from them. I am eating slower and smaller bites, thoroughly chewing each bite and taking my time eating. It is amazing how fast I am getting full, haha. I have to find a doctor up here and then get an referral to a gastrointologist and see how I keep this under control. So I am okay, had a little craziness and I am thankful that I now know what is going on :)