Hi there.
Sometime two years ago I had an anaphylaxis attack, causing my throat to swell up and me barely being able to breathe. It started off with a weird tingly feeling all across my body, some weird movement in my stomach then a runny nose, an itchy eye and then the swelling of my airways. Half of my face swelled up as well. My mum brought me to emergency and I waited FOUR HOURS. FOUR. Nearly five. In the end the symptoms started to go away, and back then I didn't know about a second reaction being a possibility, so I just asked mum if we could leave. Biggest regret ever.
I wish I waited longer because to this day, I still have absolutely no clue what caused it. I ate fish and garlic bread that day for dinner and then went for a shower about 3 hours after eating dinner, and after that it took about another hour for me to start having symptoms. The food we ate wasn't out of the blue, we had eaten it before. But even so, I convinced myself I was allergic to garlic, as it seemed like the only thing that explained it. But then again, I have't eaten any fish to this day other than small little bites or samples. But I was and still am so confused to this day.
And with all that confusion, I've developed a massive fear of anaphylaxis, since I don't even know exactly what I'm allergic to. I've had moments where after eating, my throat feels extremely unusual so I convince myself "Oh no, I'm having a reaction." The symptoms aren't a reaction, but it's similar because I was having an anxiety attack. It happened just tonight.
With all that's going on in the world currently, my dad won't let me go out and risk me getting sick, so I can't get tested for my allergy currently. But after tonight my fear has jumped and I'm DEEPLY afraid of it happening again. It was the worst feeling ever, I believed I was going to die on the spot. I haven't had another anaphylaxis reaction since that two years back, but I'm still so confused as to what it was. A strange coincidence as well, that day my little sister had an allergic reaction so we went to the doctors. Hers wasn't as severe as mine but she said if she started not being able to breathe to bring her back, and what do you know? That very same night I had anaphylaxis and I couldn't breathe.
How do I stop being so scared of this happening again? And does anybody have an idea of what the reaction could've been to? I hate that this is starting to control me again.
Thank you ❤️
-Isabelle
