Last night started out innocent enough with wine, lots of yummy food and great company!
It took a turn for the worse toward the end of the night…
But we’ll get to that in a minute.
Dinner at Cuvee
I had dinner plans with my friend Amanda at Cuvee, a local wine bar and bistro.
I’ve heard great things about Cuvee ever since we moved to Ocala and since both of our husbands were out of town this weekend, Amanda and I decided to make it a girls’ night! (Ryan left on a bachelor party cruise on Thursday for his friend Terry who is getting married in New Jersey in October. He’ll be home again early this afternoon.)
After we arrived, we were escorted to our table and our waiter explained how wine tasting at the restaurant works. Every guest is given a card and after you swipe the card, you select your portion of wine.
Amanda and I had a great time trying new wines throughout the night and agreed that we must return with the guys. Since we were both driving, we made sure to keep our tastings under control, but it would be quite easy to let loose at Cuvee! I wanted to try everything!
As for our food, we shared a bunch of different options including cheesy focaccia bread, buffalo meat balls, a cheese plate and a roasted hummus sampler plate. I didn’t snap any pictures, but the food was delicious! After our time at Cuvee, Amanda and I weren’t ready to head home yet, so we stopped into a local coffee chop to chat for a few more hours.
While were there, I ate a chocolate chip cookie and sipped on hot tea. It was so great to spend an evening with a friend.
An Allergic Reaction
I arrived home a little before 11 p.m., washed my face, changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed to read with Sadie by my side. About 20 minutes later, my stomach started cramping up and I was hit with some serious nausea. I ran to the bathroom and threw up, but only a teeny bit. I kept thinking I would throw up again, but nothing ever happened and I hung out on the bathroom floor hoping the nausea would dissipate for about 20 minutes. As I waited for the feeling to pass, I noticed that the palms of my hands started itching. Then, the food seemed to want to leave me the other way (TMI, I know – I’m sorry!), and after that, my stomach started to feel better, so I crawled back into bed.
The itching in my palms continued and grew to include my wrists and back of my legs. When I looked at my wrists, I noticed some of the skin looked like elongated mosquito bites and I thought I might be having a reaction to something. I called my mom who is a nurse and she encouraged me to take Benadryl immediately and go to an urgent care clinic or the emergency room if anything got worse.
Since we didn’t have any Benadryl in our cabinet, I drove to the 24-hour Wal-Mart near our house and swallowed two pills while I waited in line to check out. During the 20 minutes it took me to get to WalMart and buy the medicine, my symptoms significantly escalated. My skin was now red all over and I was itching everywhere. My legs itched like crazy, my ears felt hot and I started to get a little nervous.
I decided to drive to the emergency room and when I arrived I was greeted with, “Oh wow! You’re having a reaction to something!” The nurses took my vitals and within 15 minutes I saw a doctor.
(No, my legs are not normally bright red!)
As a little aside, I cannot say enough wonderful things about the care I received at Munroe Regional Medical Center last night. I didn’t wait long at all and the nurses and doctor I met with were so kind. Also, I want to give all of you who work the night shift in health care a big hug. I’m sure it’s an incredibly draining job, but I was so grateful for the expertise of those on staff when I needed the help last night.
Once I was taken back to a bed and asked to change, the doctor came in to see me about 10 minutes later. He looked me over and asked me a bunch of questions about what I ate, whether or not I recently changed detergents, what medications I take, etc. We couldn’t pinpoint what caused the reaction since I didn’t eat anything too out of the ordinary other than the bison meatballs, which the doctor said probably didn’t do it.
After I was treated, the doctor prescribed me some medications to take throughout the week and also prescribed me an EpiPen to use in case of an emergency. He explained that the severity of allergic reactions can increase over time, and told me I should carry an EpiPen in my purse at all times to administer an emergency dose of epinephrine into my outer thigh if a severe allergic reaction occurs in the future.
Within a few hours, I was released from the hospital and drove home more than ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a few hours. It was quite an eventful night and I’m so grateful for the care I received and that the situation was not any worse.
I hope your Saturday night was slightly less chaotic!
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Scary 🙁 Glad you’re okay though!
Oh my gosh, so scary, your legs.. gave me chills.. Hopefully you figure out what you’re allergic to 🙁
Oh my goodness! Glad you are okay, girl. I wouldve been freaking out like crazy.
So glad you’re OK, sorry you had to deal with that, especially without your hubby! I am deathly allergic to penicillin, which I found out after I started going into anaphylactic shock. (Fun!) I carry my epi-pen with me all of the time now, and it’s really no big deal. If it doesn’t fit in my clutch, I just make my husband put it in his pocket! Hope today is much more relaxing for you!
My doctor told me to always have one in my purse and in the glove compartment of my car (though that can get overheated and effect the efficacy of it…) I hope you never have to use yours, Jocelyn!
Omg! That is so scary! I’m so glad youre okay! I would probably not visit the places you visited that day again just to be safe!
Julie, are you allergic to Penicillin? This same thing happened to me 2 years ago because I ate bleu cheese (some are made with Penicillin mold, as well as some Gorgonzola cheeses too). It took a little while to figure out, and a trip to the ER for some IV steroids, but now I steer clear of moldy cheeses! Hope you feel better soon!
Wow, that’s good to know, thank you so much for commenting about this. I am allergic to penicillin and had NO idea it could be in cheese, guess it’s good that I hate blue cheese and Gorgonzola!
Wow! That is so scary! That has happened to me before and they couldn’t pinpoint mine either. Hope you start feeling better! 🙂
Oh my goodness such a scary thing to go through all alone! I would have been freaking out without my hubby there. So glad you are okay and hopefully it wasn’t a reaction to the wine 😉
What a scary night! I’m glad you’re doing a lot better!
Wow, that’s scary! I hope you feel better and eventually learn what caused your reaction. Allergic reactions can be so scary especially when and if you can’t breath and you throat closes up. Believe it or not I once had a severe allergic reaction and had to be taken to the hospital after I received my allergy shots! Ironic I know. The dose I was given was too high for that point in my treatment and my body totally began to shut down!
Oh that doesn’t sound like a good end to a fun girls night. I wonder what it was? I’m allergic to bees and after an emergency trip now always keep my pen in my purse.
All to familiar experience for me and I know exactly how you felt and I am so thankful you had the foresight to seek medical attention and that they equipped for future possible allergic reactions and it reminds me to get my epi pen updated. Hugs
It’s a shame you couldn’t pinpoint exactly what caused your reaction! It’s scary not knowing what would cause your body to get so itchy! Maybe it was one of the wines? Maybe a certain grape used to make it?!
That is so scary. Especially that they couldn’t find out what exactly caused such a terrible reaction. I hope that you will know what food makes you feel this bad and can simply avoid it. Take a good rest and feel better soon!
So scary! I have a few friends with allergies to really random things and they had to learn how to avoid them. You should get an allergy test to see if anything pops up.
Go see an allergist! I went into anaphylactic shock 4 years ago on a run and an allergist intensely interviewed me and investigated until we found out I had an exercise induced allergy to stone fruits! I’ve always loved apples but they hurt my stomach so I don’t eat them on an empty stomach, but used to work out on an empty stomach. That morning I began my run by taking the last bite of my apple.
I have an exercise induced allergy to all food too close to when I run. It’s really annoying because I basically can’t eat any real food for three hours before I run–no grabbing a piece of toast before I go for a run!
I’m glad everything turned out all right! My freshman year roommate in college had a similar problem: before she’d come to school she’d had a few random, severe allergic reactions and they had no idea what caused it. She also had to keep epipens with her, luckily she didn’t have a problem all year! Haha I was so afraid I’d have to stab her…
I am so glad you are doing ok. .. and how extra scary because Ryan was gone!! Hope you got some extra Sadie snuggles this morning and that the rash and itching is getting better.
Allergic reactions are scary! Even the mild ones. I have bad allergies.I carry a zyrtec with me at all times. Might have been a spice they used in one of the foods that you ate. I discovered I was allergic to ginger.. My eye swells up. I get extremely bad itching in the palms of my hands and bottom of my feet from cinnamon, stevia, and xylitol. So I always make sure I ask what spices are in foods at restaurants.
Wow! Your legs are crazy red!! I wonder what it was that caused the reaction! Glad you are doing better 🙂
That’s so scary! Same thing happened to me years ago after my nephews birthday party at a pizza place. The doctor told me I had an allergic reaction to the food but I didn’t have anything new or unusual. After the party I came home and showered and when I was drying off I noticed my legs looked like yours.
Oh my gosh Julie, that is scary! Hopefully you find out what it is/was you had a reaction to. Nothing is worse than being scared to eat for fear of that happening again. Hope you feel better today!
Yikes, I’m so glad you’re OK! How scary!! 🙁
Scary! I wonder what set it off?! So crazy! Glad everything is OK!
Wow, that’s scary!! Are you allergic to anything?! That seems crazy to experience this now because you’d think your body would be used to foods by now eh?!?! (I mean that in the sense that we’ve had plenty of time to sample many different foods!). I hope it’s clearing up quickly!! Good thing for awesome nurses and doctors!
That’s crazy!! I’m glad you’re okay, but so weird you have no idea what it was!
I have a friend that has the strangest allergy – she has exercise-induced avocado allergic reactions…so she can eat avocados, but if her heart rate gets above a certain level within a certain time frame after, she actually goes into anaphylactic shock and has to use an epi pen. Isn’t that so odd? It took her FOREVER to figure out what was causing her reactions.
Whoa! I can’t believe they were able to figure that one out!
I have this same reaction, but mine is from crab! I can usually eat it and be fine, but if I have it at dinner and then run the next morning, I have a severe reaction. Allergies like that are so weird!!
I know that a bite from the Lone Star Tick can induce an allergy to red meat. You may not even realize you had the tick bite, but it’s usually a delayed onset to the allergic reaction (by a few to several hours) and it can range from hives to anaphylactic shock. From what I’ve read, you can grow out of the allergy over the next few months if you aren’t exposed to another tick bite. Just something to keep in mind!
That is so scary! Hopefully it never happens again, or you are able to figure out what the reaction was to. Good thing your mom is a nurse and told you to get going!
Oh no- maybe it was the wine… One time I had an allergic reaction after drinking some wine (which is not out of the ordinary for me at all). You never know what sparks it… so crazy! I’m glad you are ok!
Oh my goodness…how scary! I’m glad all is okay and I hope you’re feeling better today!
Oh my goodness! So glad you’re okay!
Glad everything was taken care of and that you had great people that took care of you! What a scary thing to happen when home alone…hope you are feeling better today!
Oh no! That’s so scary. I hope that you’ll recover quickly, and that you’ll be able to figure out what caused that so that you can avoid it!
My mom had a severe reaction (but with different symptoms) like yours to Tylenol, a medicine she had been taking her whole life! Allergies can seriously come out of nowhere. So glad that you are alright!
oh wow, so glad you are OK now!
Wow sorry that happened to you! Crazy how you didn’t eat anything out of the usual and yet you had a reaction like that!
That pic of your legs gave me the creeps! That looked awful
Hope you feeling better!!
Wow! That’s scary! Hope you figure out what it was that you’re allergic too. Get allergy testing done. I know my allergies have definitely gotten worse as I’ve got older. But I’ve never had a reaction like that.
My goodness that was quite the reaction. I am glad you got good care at the hospital.
Oh gosh! I am glad you’re okay. I hope that you figure out what gave you such a bad reaction. Hugs.
Did you eat seafood? I was at a wedding once and got a bad reaction to the shrimp (which I’m not allergic too). I was told by a doctor later that if you eat poorly stored or bad seafood it manifests itself the same way an allergic reaction would?!
Nope! No seafood!
I’m so sorry that happened!! How scary. Good for you for being so poised and under-control to take yourself in for medical care!
oh no!!! so sorry to hear about your allergic reaction, that is sooo scary. Hopefully you can find some answers soon of what might have caused it! Sending hugs.
How scary! So glad you’re feeling better!
Sending positive vibes your way! I hope you’re feeling better today.
Holy crap balls, the hair was standing up on my arms and I got chills up my spine when I read about your reaction. 🙁 So glad you’re okay – hope you feel better today Julie!!
I wonder if it was the sulfites in the wine. Some people break out into hives. Just seems like thr variety of wines may have been the only “out offa the ordinary” thing. Feel better.
Oh, wow. That sounds like a not-so-fun experience! :/ I am glad that you are okay, though!!
Glad it isn’t a peanut butter allergy.
Hope you are doing better.
Yikes! I wonder what did it. I’m glad you are ok!
Glad you’re okay Julie!!!!