ANAPHYLAXIS SHOCK - February 17, 2011

On February 16th, we stayed at the worst RV park ever, Creekside RV Resort just north of Willits, CA  (no pictures too disgusting)  We would have left as soon as we saw but it had an electric gate and the trailer was barely off the road.  The young woman running the place just started the day before.  She was practically in tears with embarrassment.  Anyhow we were just staying overnight so we paid $22.50 with the Passport America discount!! (that's pretty high considering that's half price)

The park is 90% permanent residents, the majority of which are hippies.  I have nothing against hippies in fact I think I was one back in the 70's.  One guy walking by actually asked Doug if he had any "smoke".  Guess he saw we were from British Columbia.   We had to go right to the end of the park to get in the site better.  At the top of the park there are about 50 derelict RV's.  Horrible grave site.  I think that townspeople come out pick the best of the dead rigs and drag it to their site.  Most of them were completely covered in tarps.  Most of them were missing windows and doors.  (see that's why no pictures).

I took a shower in the morning and noticed a few itchy bumps along my waist.  Thought nothing much of it.  By the end of the day, I had hundreds of them, scalp, under my breasts, at the top of my thighs, even on my forehead.  Some were the size of 50 cent pieces.  Then....my hands and lips started to swell.  By 3:00 a.m. I couldn't stand it.  Doug went into town (actually got stopped by the cops because he was lost and the cop translated that as "swerving" and he had to do a sobriety test).  He brought me Benadryl.  It had no effect so at 7:00 a.m we went to Emergency.

Damn good thing we did.  They quickly diagnosed it as a severe allergic reaction.  I have NEVER had any kind of allergy.  They gave me an Epi-Pen shot and immediately my blood pressure sunk to 52/34 and my heart rate was only 32.  I noticed that I was going to pass out.  They gave me oxygen and I felt better.

They kept me 5 hours and sent me away with 4 prescriptions.  I called my own doctor in Vancouver and luckily he called me just before the prescriptions were filled.  Yes, he said, they had done the right thing.  So now I have Benadryl, Cimetidine, Prednisone and of course an Epi-Pen.  I have to carry one with me at all times for the rest of my life.

Allergic to what you say?  We will probably never know for sure but I think it must have been the water.  I felt it my moral obligation to tell the nice lady at the park without placing blame.  She said they had already done a water check by the local official but said she would do it again.  Seems a strange coincidence that both our filters on our taps were full of silt.

Anyhow, the meds work well and today I only have a little swelling in my hands.

The total cost of the Emergency visit, we don't know yet but the room costs $800.00 !!! We paid half and they will send us a final bill.  Yeah, we do have health insurance but the deductible is $1000.  Thank goodness for that, I guess.