Category Archives: Anaphylaxis

More ER Woes

I don’t get the point of EpiPens. If you use one and it breaks your symptoms, when you get to the ER they call it a minor allergic reaction. It doesn’t matter that my tongue felt like it was swelling and my chest getting tight right before I used the pen. I started becoming out of it and lost my speech again in the ER, and they simultaneously told me a third dose of epinephrine wasn’t indicated, but that I should also have three epipens at home so I can treat it myself there. That wasn’t the only time they contradicted themselves. They tried to get me an ambulance to take me home because I could barely move, but told me I would have to pay as it wasn’t medically necessary. This is how ERs and the American industrial medical establishment is killing us young women with rare chronic illnesses like ehlers danlos and mast cell activation syndrome. At least I’m home now. I’m never going to Denver Health again.

ER with MCAS

In the ER again. I’m going to have to educate them about anaphylaxis. They thought three doses of epinephrine 20 minutes apart would give me a heart attack. It takes that many to break the cycle (and epi is out of your system in about 15 minutes). Mast cell activation syndrome can give you weird allergy symptoms (especially with dysautonomia) that don’t respond normally. Many doctors don’t know about it because it’s a relatively new diagnosis. It didn’t even exist when I was in med school a decade ago.