#waterburn

Radio: yeah she's nothing but trouble

Me: HA! Funny

Radio: baby tell me why, why you do me wrong...

Me: ha

Radio: you got me chains

Hi!

I am also so glad/sad to hear of someone else with exercise induced urticaria! We should totally be buddies!

I used to somewhat ignore it.  I would stop exercising, take an antihistamine and move on. There was only a couple times where it got bad enough so that I went to my schools health center and got a Benadryl and steroid shot. Still, I didn’t think it was anything life threatening.

This last summer, I went into anaphylactic shock.  I was on a morning jog and started to break out in hives. Only this time my I didn’t notice the hives so much as I did my swollen hands and a weird itch/taste in my throat. I was ALMOST home from my jog. Just another 3 blocks, so I decided to finish it up. It happened really quickly. I was about a block and a half away when I decided to walk the rest of the way and call my boyfriend to see if he could meet me with my antihistamines. While I was on the phone with him, I started getting dizzy. Then I started to loose my sight. I knew I was about to pass out so I sat down. My boyfriend started to come towards walk my direction from the house. He said he saw me slump over as he approached me. Right before I passed out I remember seeing a truck pull up next to me. Apparently someone driving by saw me and thought I looked like I needed help. The helpful stranger and my boyfriend called 911 and sent for an ambulance. The next thing I remember is the ambulance pull up. They checked my blood pressure - 65 over 40. My whole body was swollen. They thought they were going to have to cut my rings off. They gave me a shot of epinephrine and started an IV with Benadryl. My swelling didn’t go completely down for over 24 hours.

I finally went to an allergist who told me I most likely had exercise educed anaphylaxis.

So now, after a life threatening incident, I take my episodes more seriously. I have an epi pen that I always take with me to the gym. My allergist also prescribed me Cimetidine that I take in the morning with 2 zyrtec and I also take Hydrozyzine (drowsy) with another Cimetidine at night. I never go on jogs alone. I pretty much just stick to the gym. I try to do less intense cardio workouts, and try not to get my heart rate up TOO high. I focus on longer less intense workouts. If I am going to do cardio, my allergist suggested I try doing it in the morning before eating anything (although I haven’t found a food that seems to trigger the episodes). Weight lifting has helped a lot, it has provided me with a way to stay in shape my gaining muscle and increasing my metabolism.

 Hope this helps!!! Please feel free to message me with more questions!

Rule 2: Answer the questions and ask 11 new ones

Rule 3: Tag 11 people and link them to the post

Rule 4: Actually tell them you tagged them

How was your day? It was actually super awesome! First I taught a lesson on nocturnal animals to a group of the cutest damn 2nd and 3rd graders ever, which included playing fun games and dissecting owl pellets. The owl pellet thing got me this adorable quote: "OH MY GOD. Oh my Gross God! This is the grossest thing I've ever done. It's GROSSOME. That means it's a mix between gross and AWESOME!"   Then I went to my friend's house and they took in a cat who has four kittens and I played with kittens and a fuzzy gray kitten fell asleep on my lap and I almost died of cute. 

Favourite school subject? I always did pretty well in the humanities and enjoyed those courses a lot, but as a conservation biologist I have to go with science. Even though the microbiology things don't interest me nearly as much as the ecology things. 

Currently reading? Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin...which I took a break on last week and haven't gotten back to, even though I was enjoying it a lot. Better get back to it! 

Last movie you saw in the cinema?  Fairly sure it was my second viewing of the Hobbit. 

What are you looking forward too? Finally getting a chance to visit my family in Ireland. I haven't gone in ages and I really want to go soon (and take a trip to Scotland with my friend Mora while I'm at it) but I just got a part time job with nyc parks and need to see if it will pan out into something full time before I can book anything! 

Favourite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)?

What 6 fictional characters or famous/historical figures would you invite to a dinner party? This is so hard! I am inevitably going to leave out people I care about a lot but I'm just gonna go ahead and come up with six without overthinking it: Malcolm Reynolds, Kara Thrace, Ron Weasley, Merry and Pippin and Tallahasee from Zomblieland. I think they'd leave me sufficiently entertained!! 

Last concert you went to? Damn, I can barely recall the last one, which is a problem I hope to remedy soon!! I don't want to think about this too hard because it will make me realize how sparse my concert experiences have been lately.  I'm determined to go see some live bluegrass this month though. 

Peanut butter or nutella? Nutella

Last show you binge watched? FRINGE. I watched four seasons in roughly 2-3 weeks!!! I'm finally on a mini-break because I went at it too hard but that thing is gloriously addictive! Before that, I consumed the entirety of Orange is the New Black in a weekend! 

Hogwarts or Game of Thrones house (or both, depending on what you’re in to)  Hogwarts= Hufflepuff GoT= Mormont! Here We Stand! 

My Questions: 

Your two favorite fictional characters meet. What happens? 

Where would you hop on a plane to tomorrow if money was no object? 

What show boxed-set would you take with you if you were gonna be stuck on a desert island (with a magical dvd player) for a year? 

What new movie or show of 2014 are you most excited for? 

What would be your favorite class at Hogwarts? 

Choose 5 people, real or fictional, to be on your zombie survival team. 

What is your favorite quote from your favorite book? 

Describe your dream home. 

What's the coolest animal you've seen in the wild? 

Who is your biggest celebrity crush right now?