October 09, 2003

that was not fun

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Yesterday I finally went to the doc for allergy testing. It confirmed what I knew empirically, that various grasses, trees, dust mites and cats are my nemeses. I also knew I had a sensitivity to bee venoms, so I was tested for those as well. It turns out through some poorly understood mechanism, the tiny amount of venom (~1mcg) in the test sample triggered a vaso-vagal reaction, and 10 seconds later I was out cold, pulse 40, BP 60/40. This caused a bit of excitement for the clinic staff. I got shot with adrenaline and epinephrine. They did an EKG. The picture shows my IV. Although I'm apparently OK, it was a very weird scene and not at all how I planned to spend my day.

(If you are going to have a spontaneous medical meltdown, I recommend you do so at the Menlo Medical Clinic, they are really good docs & nurses over there.)

Posted by Gene at October 9, 2003 10:28 AM | TrackBack
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