I'm going out to dine in the restaurant

[sovay]

Much of today was lost to a kind of slow underwater haze which was much less evocative than it sounds, because much of last night was spent at the ER in Mount Auburn for what I've had to conclude was some kind of anomalous allergic reaction: itching and swelling of the mouth and throat, for which they send you to the emergency room if you call urgent care at two in the morning to ask what the hell. To be fair to urgent care, it was genuinely uncomfortable and more than slightly worrying, because it was not a reaction I had ever experienced before. Zinc lozenges make the roof of my mouth itch, which is why I tried them exactly once for about thirty seconds in high school, but at the point when I called, I was constantly clearing my throat to get out the feeling that something was stuck in it and it wasn't working. I still wondered all the way if I was just wasting everybody's time. The nurse who was doing triage told me very firmly that anything that interferes with the airways is not a waste of time to come in for. So they admitted me. And I did not go into delayed anaphylaxis. The itching sensation did not get much better, but it didn't get worse. I read A Country Doctor's Notebook (1927), which was either the best or the worst grab-off-the-nightstand reading under the circumstances. And after a couple of hours, everybody agreed I wasn't going to die and I went home.

On stunning amounts of Benadryl, which I had never taken before. I had to agree to stay on it for twenty-four hours just to be sure whatever the reaction was wouldn't come back. I slept without dreams from six to noon and spent the afternoon profoundly grateful I don't have a job which requires me to operate heavy machinery.

But tonight I was gaudior's navigator to the NESFA Clubhouse in Magoun Square so that she could pick up a gorgeous piece of art she'd bought this weekend at Boskone and rushthatspeaks took me to Highland Kitchen for Valentine's Day Observed where I had a bowl of curried goat stew and a double chocolate stout float and I really like Bulgakov even when he's not writing in a fantastic mode. We curled up and talked Kipling and coasters and Lovecraft. I have to remember to pack a tape measure when I go out tomorrow. I have hopes for the future.

And, you know, breathing.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Yeah, airways not so much to mess with. Glad you're still breathing.

(Ugh, Benadryl. It does kinda-sorta work for me as a sleep aid in Tylenol PM and suchlike, in that I fall asleep, but then I wake like someone stuck me with a pin exactly four hours later.)

[sovay]

Glad you're still breathing.

Thank you. So am I!

It does kinda-sorta work for me as a sleep aid in Tylenol PM and suchlike, in that I fall asleep, but then I wake like someone stuck me with a pin exactly four hours later.

I had that once with hydromorphone, which I believe is Dilaudid when it comes in a bottle. I took it for pain. Which I suppose it handled in the sense that I was not conscious of pain while blackout unconscious for eight hours, but it was certainly there when I woke up bang with the sensation of my brain having been scooped out with a sledgehammer. I did not take it again.

(My brain does not play well with most medications. When I went through the year of doctors throwing drugs at my brain to see if any of them stuck, I comforted myself with the thought that I was unlikely to acquire a dependency on any of the opiates because almost none of them worked.)

I didn't know Benadryl was used as a sedative until rushthatspeaks mentioned. I don't think it would cause me to fall asleep (unless I took a really staggering dose, which feels like a bad idea for all sorts of reasons), but it definitely slowed down productivity for the day. I do not plan to take it again if I can avoid it. Kind of see above.

[kate_nepveu]

Heh, that was my reaction when I was given morphine when in labor with SteelyKid and all it did was make me want to throw up. (Though, years later, Percocet did work, so apparently it is not all opiates.)

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

ouch. Yes, you did the right thing. Good job. Glad you're okay.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Breathing is good!

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Continuing to breathe is excellent! Were you able to figure out what caused the reaction?

[sovay]

Glad you're okay.

Thank you. I am really hoping this concludes the recent run of What Doesn't Kill You Is Still Not Actually All That Fun to Deal With!

[sovay]

Breathing is good!

I've grown used to it over the years!

[sovay]

Were you able to figure out what caused the reaction?

No! I'd eaten dinner hours ago (and I've never had any food allergies beyond the migraine trigger in caffeine), the last thing I'd taken by mouth was my customary night meds, I hadn't changed my brand of toothpaste or soap or shampoo . . . It doesn't seem to be recurring tonight, so I am guessing it was some kind of immune system freakout, but it had better not come back.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I once spent a night in ER with green_trilobite (can't recall exactly what for, now) and overheard a number of conversations in which 90-year-olds having chest pains and confusion, and people brought in for emergency tracheotomies, insisted they were just fine and asked to go home without everyone making all this fuss. They eventually had to call in a doctor from another department who'd had an emergency trach herself several years earlie,r to show the woman that it had only left a tiny scar which was much better than being dead and that she wasn't going to end up like Andy Garcia in Dead Again.

Which is my roundabout way of saying "glad you're feeling better."

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Dear gods! Yes, of course you take yourself in. Devoutly glad you're still breathing.

Here's to love and hope.

Nine

[gwynnega]

How scary! I'm glad you're okay.

Also, curried goat stew and a double chocolate stout float sound awesome.

[sovay]

Devoutly glad you're still breathing.

It didn't ever get to the stage where I thought I might not, but I didn't want it to get to that stage. It was that combination of stressful and boring that characterizes hospitals and airports mostly. Probably some universities.

Here's to love and hope.

I like that toast.

[sovay]

Also, curried goat stew and a double chocolate stout float sound awesome.

It was not the equal of the curried goat in D.C., among other things lacking the 350,000-Scoville pepper on top, but it was tender and warming and savory and garnished with plantains pan-fried to the point of caramelization, meaning I ate three out of four when I would usually have nibbled the sweetest burnt bits off one. The stout float was made with this stuff. I poured the rest of the bottle in when I was done with the float part, which surprised me even at the time. I guess the moral is it didn't taste like beer.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I like that toast.

{clink}

Thanks heavens you had a good book with you! I once got stuck in an ER all night with nothing to read. Not so much a prescription pad. Sheer hell.

Nine

[sovay]

it had only left a tiny scar which was much better than being dead and that she wasn't going to end up like Andy Garcia in Dead Again.

I don't think you want to end up like any of the characters in Dead Again. I watched that film with a friend in high school knowing nothing except Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, and Derek Jacobi, and it was enough to put a person off cutting paper hearts for years.

Which is my roundabout way of saying "glad you're feeling better."

Thanks. I have spent entire nights in ERs before. It is really not something I need to do for fun.

What is your icon, by the way? I don't think I've ever asked before and I don't recognize the image, even if I feel I should. It's not from Wise Blood (1979), is it?

[sovay]

I once got stuck in an ER all night with nothing to read. Not so much a prescription pad. Sheer hell.

I got lucky the time that happened to me: the night nurse was a Terry Pratchett fan and lent me Guards! Guards!

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Eeegh, that sounds horrible, but I'm glad it at least turned out okay. I remember one time within the last ten years when I ended up being taken to hospital in the middle of the night because I had a needle-like pain in my abdomen that I don't think was ever really identified...it just sort of stopped at a certain point, leaving me to get home on my own from what turned out to be frickin' North York (an insane place to take somebody who calls for an ambulance from downtown Toronto). At least you had the presence of mind to bring reading material, of any kind.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I've known some pretty awesome night nurses. This was clearly a tutelary spirit in scrubs.

Nine

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ack! Yes, anything that interferes with breathing seems worth getting yourself under the eyes of people who can stick you with quick-acting anti-allergic meds and all that.

And after a couple of hours, everybody agreed I wasn't going to die

--somehow it sounds almost like a tribunal verdict rather than a medical assessment. I'm glad they were clement!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Dear gods! First that near-car accident, now this! sovay, I need you to stay alive at least until Readercon, and preferably for a considerable time afterwards. In out - repeat.

(Glad you're okay!)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear of your reason for going to the ER, but I'm glad you went, and very glad that you're okay.

I have hopes for the future.

I'm happy to hear this.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout is a lovely thing. I've had it on draught, but never as a float. I'm glad you enjoyed it that way.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Glad you're still breathing! Please to keep breathing...

[cafenowhere.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I'm glad you're okay, if still baffled by what might have caused the reaction.

[sovay]

that I don't think was ever really identified...it just sort of stopped at a certain point

Basically: I woke up yesterday morning and my throat was slightly sore as if I'd been coughing a lot, but other than the Benadryl haze I was fine. Today I'm just very tired.

leaving me to get home on my own from what turned out to be frickin' North York (an insane place to take somebody who calls for an ambulance from downtown Toronto).

Gah. Glad you were all right, too!

[sovay]

--somehow it sounds almost like a tribunal verdict rather than a medical assessment. I'm glad they were clement!

Heh. I didn't intend for it to sound like the courts of Cocteau's underworld, but there is something in the image . . .

[sovay]

sovay, I need you to stay alive at least until Readercon, and preferably for a considerable time afterwards.

I'm planning on it! My calendar for February did not include a week of near-miss weirdness!

(I think this was much less of a close call than the car, honestly, but I could still have skipped it.)

[sovay]

I've had it on draught, but never as a float. I'm glad you enjoyed it that way.

I'd previously enjoyed a float made with perry, so I thought what the hell. It rewarded curiosity.

[sovay]

Please to keep breathing...

I intend to!

(I like your icon.)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Local graffiti is often very entertaining.

[sovay]

I'm glad you're okay, if still baffled by what might have caused the reaction.

Thanks. I really have no idea. I'd just prefer it never happens again.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Mysterious symptoms for the...well, not "win", exactly. But it's always nice to have shared interests.;)

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Oy. I'm so glad you're okay.

More goat and stout and less ER for you!

[gwynnega]

I'm not a beer fan either, but I'm going to have to try that chocolate stout...

[rosefox]

I still wondered all the way if I was just wasting everybody's time. The nurse who was doing triage told me very firmly that anything that interferes with the airways is not a waste of time to come in for.

Correct! Their job is not to only treat people whose conditions are serious; their job is to diagnose your condition and treat it appropriately. Bringing them a bona fide condition to diagnose: not wasting their time.

I'm very glad it was basically nothing.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

It is! It amuses me to take captions from the "Fry Narrows His Eyes in Thought" meme and stick them on Hazel Motes. (http://mooncustafer.tumblr.com/post/40375432205)

[three-magpies.livejournal.com]

Glad you're okay!

[sovay]

Glad you're okay!

Thanks! Me too.

[sovay]

More goat and stout and less ER for you!

Amen!

[sovay]

I'm very glad it was basically nothing.

Thanks.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

I am glad that it is not recurring! Hopefully it will just be one of those THINGS, like the time when I took myself to Yale Urgent Care for something that... I don't even remember. It wasn't whatever I was worried about, and didn't recur, and I was profoundly grateful for both.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

An acquaintance who was an army medic told me once they used Benadryl as an emergency sleep aid because it was non-addictive, had few dangerous side effects, and was guaranteed to make even the most adrenaline-ridden trooper groggy enough to give in and sleep.

I suspect this was an off-label use.

I hope the rest of this month behaves its sorry self.

[beowabbit]

Very glad you’re OK!

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Unless of course you take a liking to the TV show.

[sovay]

Very glad you’re OK!

Thank you! Today I am just ordinarily sick!

[sovay]

I hope the rest of this month behaves its sorry self.

Thank you. I believe the rest of this month is going to involve a lot of packing.