Yes, I'm Still Alive

Oh no, it's been quite a while since my last blog post. It's been a busy few weeks! I have some cooking projects that I will put in their own post soon, and I've been preparing for my First Year Report, a summary of all the work I've done this summer and an outline for a thesis proposal. In the middle of all of this I got ill.

Very ill.

I do not usually discuss medical issues with the internets, but since most of my colleagues and friends have already been privy to the details, I'll do a little sharing: What happened, simply, was that I had both an allergic (Type I hypersensitivity) and immune complex (type III hypersensitivity) reaction to a medication.

First came the allergy - basically a serious asthma attack. Not anaphalaxis, but serious enough to warrant an albuterol treatment at a clinic. Once I knew what the cause was and stopped the medication, this went away fairly quickly, helped along with an anti-histamine.

The kicker was the immune complex reaction. I began having terrible pain all over my body, felt faint and had violent chills. At the time I didn't really know what was happening - I've never had a medication allergy before, but I decided whatever was going on, it was emergency room time. That's where I found out what was going on: even though the medication was working its way out of my body, my immune system didn't get the message to chill out and continued attacking my body. This is the same thing that happens to people who have autoimmune diseases, like lupus. There was some question as to whether the reaction was to the medication or to a vaccine I had gotten earlier in the week, but now all my doctors agree that it was not the vaccine - although a lot of people who get hysterical about "killer" immunizations probably actually experienced this and it's not life threatening... it's not even an indication that there is anything wrong with the vaccine or medication, it's just how your body reacts to it. It sure isn't any fun though - there's nothing to do but treat the symptoms with painkillers and sometimes corticosteriods in serious cases. I spent a solid week in pain, exhausted and sluggish. In fact, I don't even remember the two days after the ER.

What made this an even more miserable experience was that I wasn't in Seattle near my significant other, who is always there for me in emergencies, my doctor or my other friends. No, I was in Monterey, CA, attending a conference. I had no idea where the nearest hospital even was. Thankfully, my parents live in Berkeley and my mom drove 2 1/2 hours in the middle of the night to meet me at the ER and take me home.


(Taking pictures of the glowing heart rate monitor on my finger in the hospital with my cellphone. This must have fascinated me very much, but I don't remember doing it. Probably due to the pain killers and sedatives.)

So I am feeling all better now, and I have a follow-up appointment with my regular doctor at the end of the week. At least I know what to avoid now...