September 11, 2015

"Are You Allergic to Your Allergy Shots?"

September 11, 2015

Interesting clouds as I was going to pick up Mom for supper. 

 It was the leading edge of our first cool front of the fall season.

I had been off the allergy shots for a week due to a problem at the doctor's office.  The allergy clinic has pulled out of the doctor's office and will only continue to serve existing patients.  Since they closed one site, they cut back on staff and the allergist I had been seeing is no longer with them.  It took a week to get an appointment set up with the new allergist (old company). 

Ron had gotten me an appointment with the new allergist at the same location where I had been going but all equipment will be moved up the valley to Donna or McAllen, next month, so future appointments may be in a different location.  The staff at the doctor's office may continue the treatments for me - that is not clear yet.  The last shot had been on Friday the 4th and now I had an appointment on Friday the 11th with the new allergist.  I like her.  She is a very nice, friendly lady who is expecting a baby about the time of my next appointment.  We will have to see what happens. 

This was the reaction to my shot 5 hours after the shot.  It got worse.

We started on the next strength of serum and she administered the shots this time.  I am glad she did.  I had a large hive in just a few minutes and so I was glad she was the one who had administered the shot.  She had me stay a while as she monitored the reaction.  She cleaned the shot site and then put Cortizone cream on it.  When I returned to the office with the two vials for the next two months, I showed Ron the growing hive.  "Are you allergic to your allergy shots?" my husband asked.

The edge of this cloud fascinated me.  Our first cool front of the year.

 

Good question.  Yes, is the answer.  The shots are made from extract from things I am allergic to so, yes, I am allergic to them.  This is the worst reaction I have had.  As the day and evening wore on, the area spread until it went from my arm pit to my elbow.  It burned more than itched.  We had gone to supper with Mom and I grew more and more uncomfortable as we ate.  After we had finished, except for Ron who was almost finished, I said I needed to go home.  I had developed an upset stomach to add to the discomfort.  The arm was very hot to the touch.  There was only a small reaction on the other arm. (One shot in each arm.)

When we eat at Jason's Deli, Ron usually gets my ice cream for me.  

He does an excellent, artistic job of it.

Ron offered to take Mom to her house so I could go right home and take some more Benadryl.  I gladly accepted and by 10:00 I was curled up in the recliner where I spent the night hardly moving, sleeping soundly.  That is why the blog is late.

Mom delights in how Ron fixes hers with chocolate syrup

 in the center of the column of ice cream.

The rest of my day was fairly normal.  I worked on paper work in my office, helped with customers, and gathered trash.  Exciting?  Not really.  But, it was a good day.  There were a lot of customers and that makes for a good day.

It was September 11.  It had been 14 years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon, with a 4th airplane crashing into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit of the plane after it had been taken over by terrorists.  I said that these were attacks on buildings, but they were attacks on America.  America is forever changed because of those attacks.

September 11 holds memories for everyone who was old enough in 2001 to understand what was happening.  I recall that morning, I was going to the office late and sat at my sewing machine watching Fox & Friends on television as the story unfolded.  It was so hard to believe what was happening.  Many phone calls were made that day.  One I got was from our son who was in the Corps at Texas A&M University.  Many of the friends in the Corps had dads who were serving in the military and many of them were getting calls from their dads saying not to worry if they didn't hear from them for a while since they were sure they were going to fighting a battle.  They wanted their sons to know they loved them.  It was a tough time for everyone.

I recall that it became hard to find a flag to buy in the next few days and weeks.  Companies that made flags were working around the clock as everyone wanted to show that they were proud Americans.  The newspaper printed one that could be put in the window.  Everyone was patriotic for a time.  A week or two later I had written an email to an author who was living in Hawaii, to compliment her on a story she had written.  She wrote back and thanked me for my letter and talked about her feelings about Sept. 11.  She said it was impossible to find enough flags there for all who wanted them and people had taken to gathering red, white and blue plastic shopping bags and stuffing them in their chain link fences to resemble an American flag.

Memories.  We all have them of that time in our history.  How have we come so far from the strong patriotic feelings of those days?  I am praying for America.  I hope you are, too.