A scary encounter with allergies

Shrimp Kerala style

For a few minutes there I wondered if I was going to make it.

Funny, the kind of thoughts that cross your mind when you see your own mortality staring you in the face. A couple of TV police dramas I had recently watched flashed through my mind. They always started with people meeting untimely ends.

I briefly considered calling my wife who was at a customer meeting. I didnโ€™t see the point.

I wondered if I should call 911, then decided against it. What if it wasnโ€™t anything serious?

Later that day, when I told my wife what had happened, she rolled her eyes. I could hear her unspoken words, โ€œOverreacting again!โ€

It had started out as a normal day.

I had decided to work from home since I had been scheduled for a colonoscopy test that morning. Medical tests and procedures seem to follow your age more than your ailments โ€“ this test at forty, that test at fifty, and so on. The instructions for the tests were clear, I had to be fasting from the previous evening, drink a concoction of prep solutions, and stop drinking any kind of liquids from early morning on the day of the procedure.

I was more concerned about work. I had a jam-packed afternoon with back-to-back meetings. I wanted to make sure that I got back home on time and got a bite of food before picking up from where I left off.

The tests went like clockwork. They roll you in, do their tests, and get you out the door.

Relieved that I had made it back home on time, I quickly grabbed the first thing that I could find in the fridge and absent-mindedly started eating it as I parsed my work emails for anything important.

Something didnโ€™t feel right.

I ignored it. I figured that it may have something to do with my gulping down food after having starved for nearly a day.

My face felt funny. I touched it and realized that it had swollen up. I couldnโ€™t explain it.

I looked at my plate. It couldnโ€™t be the shrimps, I told myself. I had eaten shrimp all my life. After all, I come from a coastal town in India. Fish is what I grew up with. As I tentatively took another bite, the swelling seemed to get worse and extend to my neck. I was beginning to have trouble breathing.

Panic started to set in.

I left the food and contemplated my options. If I was really having an allergic reaction to the shrimp, I had to get help.

I called my doctorโ€™s office and tried to explain to the matter-of-fact receptionist that I had to see the doctor, in a hurry. She calmly told me that I could get an appointment in two weeks. My doctor was on vacation. Trying to keep my calm, I persisted. She finally relented and offered to get the backup doctor to take a look at me.

About twenty minutes had elapsed, and my swelling appeared to have stabilized since I stopped eating.

I quickly made my way over to the doctorโ€™s office, a five-minute walk from my apartment.

โ€œSo, this is not normal?โ€ The sub-in doctor asked as she pressed my face to determine if the swelling was painful.

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I wasnโ€™t sure of what she was implying.

I wanted to tell her that I had a normal face like everyone else, but resorted to a simple โ€œNo.โ€

As she went through my medical history, the swelling seemed to subside. She prescribed me some allergy pills and suggested that I come back if the symptoms persisted, or go to the โ€œEmergencyโ€ if it got any worse.

As I was leaving, a thought seem to cross her mind.

โ€œTry drinking a lot of water, it may be due to dehydration,โ€ she advised as she moved on to her next patient.

Once home, I went straight to the Web to look up โ€œface-swelling related to food.โ€ I quickly realized that my experience was not unique. Many others had encountered similar symptoms โ€“ all triggered by the simple act of eating food.

A message board chat string titled โ€œJaw Swells Up When Eatingโ€ seemed to explain it best. The issue was attributed to a blocked salivary gland โ€“ often caused due to dehydration. The remedy was simple โ€“ drink a lot of water, suck on sour candy, or eat spicy food. Reassured that I may have found out the root cause of my problem I decided to try the hydration option before resorting to the allergy medication.

A few hours later, I felt as good as new!

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Though not medically confirmed, I can only attribute my plight to the severe dehydration induced by the purging.

Until that day, I had not paid any serious attention to allergies or the plight of the people who live with them all their lives.

Sure, I have family members who are allergic to nuts, seafood, eggs, the list goes on. But, until I lived it I, had no appreciation for what it can entail. The everyday discipline that is required to ensure that you donโ€™t accidentally consume or touch something that you shouldnโ€™t, must be daunting. The anxiety that comes with a child susceptible to allergies must be even worse.

How do you trust foods that you have no control over? It could literally mean life or death!

Surprisingly, I had not come across anyone with allergies in India until I was well into my late twenties. Perhaps people had a higher tolerance for food groups, or there was less awareness or both. A friendโ€™s daughter was identified as โ€œlactose intolerant.โ€ The suggested alternative to milk was Prosobee, a soy-based infant formula not available in India at that time. My friend had the means to get it, but what if she hadnโ€™t?

Then there was the situation with another friend whose wife was identified as allergic to her husband during her pregnancy. I didnโ€™t quite believe that it was a real thing until I read this article on BBC titled โ€œIโ€™m allergic to my husband.โ€

Apparently, it is a medical condition!

As I meet more and more people who live with allergies, I canโ€™t help but wonder if our obsession with clean and sanitized environments is partly to blame for our predicament.

Irrespective of the reasons, I now have a newfound appreciation for allergies.

But for now, I am thankful that I can eat shrimp again!

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Dax Nair

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