How not to spend your night
is in the hospital emergency room because of a severe allergic reaction. This is the thrd time in 6 years. One year ago, the night before I was to have lunch with Steny Hoyer honoring me (and others) for awards in education, my face blew up. Yesterday I had a mild case of hives, but somehow during the late afternoon and evening one side of my face began to swell up. My wife came home around midnight, took one look at me and insisted that I call in to the on duty nurse for my health care plan. When she found out I was already on benadryl and still had serious swelling around my eye, I was instructed to go to the nearby hospital emergency room.
I got there around 1:30 this morning. I finally got home shortly after 5 - they were very busy last night, and I was not an acute case, so I got bumped down the queue several times. I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep.
The left eye has so much fluid under it that it is difficult to wear my glasses. I am on steroids - thereby being disqualified from the Olympics, he? - benadryl and Pepcid for the next 5 days or so. i can teach, although I look odd, which will perhaps ease the minds of my students who take their AP exam one week from this morning.
Here's the scary part: we do not know what caused this reaction. Six years ago it was the heavy sulfites in red wine. Last year? We never figured it out. Nor do I have a clue as to the cause this time. So I am going to have to be very careful what I eat and monitor for any possible additional reactions. I am now hypersensitive to all kinds of things - breathing the pollen walking home from the hospital was irritating.
I titled this how not to spend your night. But I am lucky, and I know it: