A little back story from about 1967. I had 2 Yellow Jacket stings on my ankle, when riding my horse over an underground nest. I quickly went into severe anaphylaxis. I was 14 at the time, and had no previous experiences and certainly did not know what was happening. Summertime, and I was home alone. I called my mom and told her that I had been stung.
I think that it was about 2 hours before I received medical care. My sister came home and saw my condition. She made the calls to get me care quickly.
This event was life threatening, I may have died in another hour or two.
My memories are complete, and very vivid. I knew exactly what I had going on.
OK, Sharon, let's save my life!! I...can do this.
1. Get ice on it. Then the palms of my hands started itching terribly. &*^%$ very bad sign.
2. Found an allergy medicine in my stockpile. I finally found an old bottle of Children's Benadryl. Very outdated, I drank the whole bottle.
3. Hives have covered my body, and severe swelling had begun. OK, I need medical care! Fast!
4. Fortunately, my next door neighbor is a Physicians Assistant. It seemed to take me forever to find his phone number. Thankfully, the phone number worked! So relieved, he was home.
5. He came right over, and said I was having a severe systemic reaction. He had the right shots to give me to stop the reaction. My Blood Pressure had dropped down, dangerously. He stayed with me until my swelling started to subside. I was improving.
Today, over 50 years later...I relived that situation again.
Right now, I feel very blessed to be still alive. This incident could have killed me.
