You have to be careful...

I have to try and post a bit more often here. Fortunately things have been fairly quiet on the allergy front, though I still live with the fear of accidentally ingesting pine nuts (I wish I had come to know what they were like prior to developing the allergy).

Something odd happened last night at work. I was clowning around when a co-worker was flipping through some fashion magazine. She started playing with some kind of face cream "sample" and was trying to crack it open. After a few minutes I took it and managed to get to the cream inside and immediately put it on my right cheek. It was some sort of moisturizer that claims to give people "perfect skin".

Within about twenty minutes I got the old familiar feeling (itchiness and general irritation) on the back of my neck and back. Someone commented at some point that my neck looked awfully red and asked if I was OK. I said yes and went back to work.

Things gradually got worse, and it was at that point I asked someone if they had any Benadryl. Of course I had a TwinJect with me, but that's for pine nuts... and the reaction was irritating, not life threatening. Fortunately someone offered to go out and get some for me (I'll now carry Benadryl along with my TwinJect) and things calmed down and symptoms subsided.

Forty-five minutes later the sedative effect of the Benadryl started to kick in and as a result I could no longer do my job without possibly affecting people's safety so I went home sick, missing the last hour and a half or so of work I had left in my shift.

What happened?

I intend on investigating what this seemingly innocent facial cream might have in it that could have caused this to happen. I had not eaten since leaving home, so it wasn't anything I had ingested - it had to be the cream.

My lesson learned last night? Be careful... very careful with things you don't know. Something as innocent as a facial cream can apparently set me off. What will it be next?!