Thursday night was supposed to be just a typical night out riding mountain bikes with my husband. Just us, our single speed bikes, and the some beautiful summer weather. But that's not how it all played out.
We went to Murphy Hanrehan Mtn Bike trail to take on the fun and technical single track for our evening ride. The trail was less dusty thanks to some recent rain and we quickly found out rhythm and flow on our bikes.
They say bad things come in threes...
First, the battery on my AXS dropper post died, luckily leaving my saddle in the dropped position so at least I could take any position I wanted on each decent. But, that called for even more standing than my single speed already asked of me, so Jay dropped his saddle for a bit to sympathy-climb with me.
Next, I made a decision to take a tight turn for an obstacle too late, washing out my front wheel and stopping my momentum by hugging a tree with my shoulder and neck. With my head to one side of the tree and my right arm on the other, I rested roughly against the tender flesh of my neck. I was more disappointed in myself for failing the turn and missing the obstacle than I was for coming to a stop on a tree.
Back on my bike, I took the next few turns a little easier, but got my confidence back with a few miles left of the trail. We entered the Bird Sanctuary at full gas and I goaled myself to stay on Jay's wheel as tight as possible through the sector. We were flying!
That is, until something flew into my glasses, lodging itself between the poly lens and the lids of my left eye. It immediately began stinging me as I screamed and clawed at it with my left hand. I tried to stop myself with my right as I removed the violation from my face, but I wasn't stopping fast enough (we were going 15 mph when it happened), so I returned my left hand to the grips and grabbed both brakes with full force.
I stopped my bike too fast and went over the bars, luckily landing in soft soil and low growing shade plants. I was finally able to rip my glasses from my face and stop the stinging. Jay quickly returned as I gasped what was happening and he checked me over for injuries. I showed him where I was stung and my husband, quite possibly the sweetest man ever made, tried to suck the 'venom' out of my face on the side of the trail. Swoon!
I took a deep breath and a couple seconds to self-asses for injuries, then decided we needed to get back on our bikes. We had about a mile and a half left on our ride and my previous two wasp stings this year were pretty rough on me with days long reactions and lots of pain and swelling. I wanted to just get done.
We got back on our bikes and returned to about 80% of the pace we were holding, me being a little more hesitant about pushing the limits any further that night. Within a few minutes, thought, things started to change.
It started with my butt crack. I was riding behind Jay and noticed that my ass was starting to itch. What the??? Then it was my vulva. A few more minutes went by and my arms joined in on the burning itch, followed by my legs.
I started to realize that this was an allergic reaction. One like I've never known before. I was so glad when we pulled up to the van so I could jump off my bike and give it to Jay to load up as I scratch at my body vigorously. We jumped in the car, headed to drop a wheel off at a friends house, then head home for dinner.
The itch grew worse and I clawed at my hair as if I had lice. My ears felt thick and joined in the tingling battle raging on the surface of my body. I started to cough as I looked in the mirror at my swelling eye. Each minute, a new symptom, so I begged Jay to stop at a pharmacy so I could grab and ice pack and some Benadryl.
I walked through the store, grabbing supplies in a panic as my eyes and nose began to run and my breathing became laborious. I must have been quite a sight! Soiled knees, bloody knuckles from my crash, swollen face, runny nose and wheezing... oi! I checked out and jumped back in the car, tearing open the Benadryl like an animal and took them as quickly as I could as Jay drove us to Shad's to drop off a wheel.
"My skin is on fire", I gasped out to Jay in the car. But I tried to be tough and scratch away in silence from there. Until we got to Shad's driveway. I looked down at the arms I had been mindlessly clawing at to see bubbles forming across them. I zoomed my vision out, and saw the same oddities spread across my legs. I interrupted Jay as he exited the car and held out my arms to him, "Jay, we need to go to a doctor."
We took off right away after a brief apology and got to the Urgent Care in Edina within minutes as Jay pushed the pedal to the metal and ran any light that we approached alone. They were so backed up, they had turned off the lobby lights so they looked closed. Which was good.. because that forced us to go to the hospital next door.
The lobby of the hospital was also packed, a few hour wait lie ahead, so I calmly tried to take as deep of breaths as I could as I waited in line. When it was my turn with the intake nurse, I shared how I'd been stung and was breaking out in hives. The nurse who stood behind her interrupted and asked me "are you having trouble breathing?". "Yes," I gasped in response, taking another forced breath immediately after. "I think I'm okay, but my chest is tight".
They rushed me in right away and got me onto the hospital bed. In a flurry, a nurse was assigned to each arm as a kind doctor reassured me on what was happening. "You are in anaphylactic shock. We're going to give you a shot of epinephrine and [some meds] to help stop the reaction." The nurse on my left inserted a line as the one on the right stuck with with a shot of epi which I could have sworn was administered with a straw the needle felt so big!
Jay helped answer some questions from one of the nurses as I balanced on the edge of shock, but the swift attentiveness of my medical team put me at ease. As the fear faded from my body, the jitters of the epinephrine flooded in, the muscles in my arms and legs twitching uncontrollably as I shivered.
After a few minutes, my breathing became easier and my hives began to fade. They kept me there for a couple hours of observation to make sure I didn't have a poor response to the rapid cocktail I'd been given. The doctor returned to check on me, calm and nurturing a sincere part of her being. She made eye contact with me and said, "I'm going to call in a prescription for an Epi pen for you. Actually, two." She said the next time could be worse, that these reactions build rather than one becoming tolerant. I nodded my understanding and tried to let it sink in.
After a long, dramatic night, Jay and I returned home at midnight and ate some food as we tried to come down so we could sleep. The mix of downers and epinephrine didn't disturb me too much, and I drifted off quickly but slept fitfully through the night.
The next morning, I walked out to the kitchen and stopped at the kitchen table taking in the site of my new prescriptions laid out for me. Steroids, Benadryl, and a pair of Epi pens (+ a trainer pen). It was a weird new reality to wake up to... "You need to carry the Epi pen with you at all times," I replayed the doctors words in my head as I turned the pen over in my hands.
Two days later, I still am in shock. It still hasn't sunk in. I don't even take my phone with me everywhere, but now life-saving medicine? I've been very fortunate to be a pretty healthy person. But this one landed different on my heart. It'll hit me. I'll be fine. I'm just not there yet.
Most of all, I am just grateful for my amazingly caring, understanding, and law-bending husband who took me at my word and got me to medical help. I am so grateful for the nurse that saw me gasping for air and rushed me in, and the amazing medical team who took care of me with such grace, my fear was left at the door. And last, I'm so grateful for my medical insurance, which made my new Epi-sidekick an easily affordable purchase.
Hug your people and trust your instincts. They are the things that help keep you alive.
Swollen but healing,
Kristy Kreme
