Monday night
and I decided to order in, and so we had a local Indian restaurant bring us some delicious food. About 30 minutes after we finished eating, she said she was getting itchy all over, and some bumps started to rise on her arm. I jumped into action and went out to CVS to get some Benadryl and other treatments. The car was parked pretty far away, and when I got there, there was a nice thick layer of ice which needed tending… I drove over to CVS, and it took me awhile to identify the most appropriate treatments.. I returned home….
I had ran out of the house in a sweatshirt, and managed to forget my house keys, so I started buzzing the intercom, but there was no answer. I called Corinna, and noticed I had missed a call from her.. She was walking herself to the ER (right down the road from us), and so I set out for the hospital myself. When I got to the hospital she had already been admitted and so I waited in the waiting room until they’d let me in. I proved useful when one of the admitting ladies needed a bunch of Corinna’s info.. I was probably more knowledgeable than the average boyfriend, A) because we’ve been together for 4 years now, and 2) because I consume trivia like others consume food.
It turns out that soon after I left, Corinna’s reaction kicked into overdrive and she (appropriately) freaked out. When I missed her call I was already at CVS, so even if I had gotten her call it would have been faster for her to walk to the ER, anyway. Anyway, when she got there, they saw her immediately and gave her a Benadryl IV which apparently started helping almost immediately. When I was finally let into her room, she appeared a little red still, but apparently she was one big welt before the IV kicked in. The doctor and nurse were just telling her that she’d need to take Benadryl for a few days, and I got to look like a rock star when I pulled some out of the CVS bag of holding. We were in the hospital for about 3 hours total, finally walking home around 12:45a. When we got home, Corinna’s legs still had some hives (which were concealed under her pants at the hospital), but her upper body was pretty much cleared up.
The whole situation was freaky; she’s had Indian several times, but never from this restaurant and never this dish… We don’t know if this is a new allergy or if she was exposed to a new ingredient. Needless to say, we probably won’t be eating the leftovers in the fridge any time soon (or, at least, she won’t :P)..