Thursday 6th March

Well.... where the hell do I start????
Went to the Dr last Wednesday, she prescribed me antibiotics as I had an upper respiratory tract infection - brilliant!!
Dr: "You're not allergic to anything are you Jo?"
ME: "Ha ha, nope, not me, you know I've got a cast iron stomach!!"
SPOKE TOO BLOODY SOON!!!!
Got home and went to bed, then got up a bit later to have dinner and take my first antibiotic at about 6pm.
By 6.30pm my skin had started to itch, but I didn't really pay too much attention to it.
My scalp started to itch and feel really hot, so I thought I must have touched something odd at some stage, and was having a reaction to that.
I jumped in the shower, thinking that I could wash it away. But by the time I got out of the shower, I was dizzy, my face was grey and half paralysed, and my skin and scalp felt like it was on fire.
I knew then that I had to get to the Dr. I just didn't realise how quickly I needed to get there though!
Jeremy offered to drive me, but since I had put Rhian to bed, I told him to stay at home with her, and that I would be fine.
I jumped in my car and set off for the after hours Dr. I rang mum on the way, asking if she had any clue as to what it could have been.
She was calm and just told me to ring her when I got to the Dr's.... I found out later that she knew EXACTLY what was wrong with me, but didn't want to panic me, so she HAD to remain calm.
By the time I was half way there, I wondered how the hell I was gonna make it the rest of the way. I wanted to tear my skin off my body, and I was literally watching as it turned from normal looking skin, to being covered in little white pin prick marks, then changing into large swollen welts of white. Finally the welts all merged together, and I was a big swollen red mess.
My breathing was getting more laboured and I could feel that my tongue felt absolutely huge!
I liken it to when I got my tongue pierced.... it felt completely foreign in my mouth.
I finally got to the Dr's surgery, and managed to park my car and walk inside.
The receptionist was on the phone, so I remember sitting down in the waiting room to wait for her to hang up.
It felt like an eternity before she did, but finally I was able to approach the counter and managed to say: "Doctor. . . . . . Can't breathe (while grabbing my throat). . . . . . . . Itchy (while lifting my top up). . . . . . HELP!"
And then, I passed out, in all my glory, in the waiting room of the after hours Dr in Lower Hutt in front of about 8 waiting patients!
BLOODY WONDERFUL!!!!
I woke up shortly after to find about 6 people standing around me, who all turned out to be Dr's and nurses, and of course the bewildered receptionist!
I was totally embarrassed, so I tried to stand up and freaked them all out when I actually did, cos I nearly fell over again!!!
They got me in to the exam room, and up on to the bed, and I am pretty sure I passed out again. I did manage to tell them that I had taken antibiotics, and that is when they flew into action.....
It turns out that I was in anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction to penicillin - something that I have taken time and time again for chest infections over the years.
I remember lying on the bed, with a Dr sitting at the end of it with my feet on his shoulders. Another Dr was straddling me, and it turns out she was injecting me with a second lot of adrenaline to get my heart working properly and my blood pumping as my blood pressure had dropped to 40/60 - nearly dead!!
I had a nurse holding my arm, while another nurse struggled to find a vein, to get a line in.
The Dr straddling me kept slapping my face telling me to "Stay with us" because all I wanted to do was close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
The ambulance turned up, I was loaded on to the stretcher and wheeled out throught the crowded waiting room (another wonderful sight I can imagine!!!) in to it and taken to Hospital, where another lot of nurses and Dr's started on me.......
I was more awake by that stage, as the 2 shots of adrenaline had kicked in, and my heart had started working properly again.
It wasn't until the ambulance driver came back in a few hours later with another patient, that I realised how lucky I had been.
She told me that I was probably less than 10 minutes from death, and that if I had got caught in traffic on my way to the Dr, I wouldn't have made it at all. My throat and tongue were swelling so fast that they were restricting my breathing, and any longer, I wouldn't have been able to breathe at all.
She said I was a very very lucky lady, and that the Dr's and Nurses at the After Hours were still talking about me, and how my body was shutting down on them. Apparently my toes and fingers had already turned blue!!!

LESSON LEARNED!!!

NEVER drive yourself to the Dr when having an allergic reaction!! hahahahaha Anyway, I was released from hospital at some ungodly hour of the morning, and sent home to recuperate.
Of course, I had to take a whole host of further drugs to reverse the affects of the antibiotics, and they just about knocked me out for the remainder of the week!
I looked like a junkie because of the bruises all over my arms from them trying to find a vein that hadn't collapsed to get a line in......BUT....... I was DETERMINED to go to the bloody Tom Jones concert!!!!!!
So, on Friday we headed up to the Hawkes Bay, and although I was feeling miserable, I tried not to let it show, and struggled through the weekend.
The fact that I couldn't drink any alcohol because of the drugs didn't worry me, and the fact that I had a terrible terrible cold and chest infection that I couldn't take anything for was only a slight hindrance!! hahahahaha........
I figured that life was worth living and I was there to do just that!!!!!!
We got back on Sunday night, and I was absolutely wasted, so wasted and sick in fact, that I had to have the next 3 days off work, and in hindsight I shouldn't have gone away at all........... but hey, ya can't change these things can ya?????
I nearly died, but I didn't.....I'm here, and I'm happy, and I'm semi-healthy!
Time to just get on with life!!!

We are off to Mum's on Saturday as it is her 60th birthday lunch with the family on Sunday - I can't wait!!! YAY!!!!