Lying on the bed in the emergency room yesterday, with the IV going into me and the monitors beeping I wasn't thinking about much, and certainly not about blogging. I should probably start the story earlier than that. But first: I'm much better now, thanks.
Mid-morning I went outside and sat down at my patio table to drink a can of cold coffee and read the Sunday NYT. I went inside to attend to something for what I thought would be a few minutes but turned out to be more like an hour.
I returned, sat down, and took a swig from my already-opened can. There were strange lumps in that mouthful and before I could wonder what they were, I felt a sting under my tongue. There are a lot of yellowjackets around my place...
Phylis was picking figs from one of our trees on the other end of the yard, and I went to tell her in a somewhat agitated way that I had been stung by yellowjackets in my mouth. If my tongue and throat swelled it might interfere with my breathing and require a trip to the hospital. Then I got some ice to put in my mouth and went to lay in bed feeling very weak and nervous. I had only been stung once before, in my toe early in August. That had hurt for a week and I was imagining that it would be even more unpleasant in the tongue.
I think I blacked-out but came to almost immediately. My hands were numb and my feet were itching. I called Phylis (still outside) and then got to the bedroom patio door and called her again. Well, more like croaked than called. And I think I may have been on my hands and knees. She came inside and -- well, it gets confusing after that.
It took her a few minutes to realize that I was half-delirious. I was fading in-and-out and feebly arguing with her while she was on 911 about driving me to the emergency room rather than having an ambulance. Apparently, I won, because I got to the car with much help from both of her and my nephew. By the time I was in the car I had tunnel vision to the point of no vision at all. I was sweating profusely, itching, numb and trembling. I had chest and stomach pain along with cramps in my legs and back. It took a lot of effort to speak above a croak.
I couldn't see much but I remember grunting out my symptoms to Phylis as she was doing her best Steve-McQueen-as-his-own-stunt car-driver impression. Got to El Camino Hospital's emergency room and the guy who came out to the car said anaphalactic shock even as they got me into a wheelchair. I was wisked to the back room