Polls (Retired)

….pure experience, and then tests 😛 My parents found out when I was somewhere around a year old that I was severely allergic. Apparently, I got hungry when we were coming home from grocery shopping so my mom let me nibble (or as much nibbling as I could do at that age) on a shelled peanut. My face started swelling up and they made a fast detour straight to the hospital, and ta-da peanut allergy discovered. Every year since then until around 2015 or so, I had to go to an allergy doctor so we can monitor if my allergy gets worse or better. No changes so I will unfortunately die from a peanut allergy reaction if I don’t receive treatment fast enough 😛

Also, just a word of caution to everyone who might know someone who has an EpiPen (epinephrine auto-injector): epinephrine is essentially an adrenaline shot delivered to help reduce/reverse the effects of an anaphylactic (serious, life-threatening) reaction, which include restricted/closed airways and low blood pressure. Epinephrine causes blood vessels to constrict, which increases the blood pressure, and relaxes muscles in our airways so we can breathe easier. However, epinephrine is not specifically a cure for an anaphylactic reaction, but it is the only very efficient defence (or rather, treatment) for them; it delays it by reversing some of the effects and gives us a larger time frame to recover from the overreaction of our immune system. If you know someone who has an EpiPen or similar epinephrine auto-injectors, please listen to them if they feel like they are experiencing an anaphylactic reaction (some symptoms can be found here), get help from an adult or call the emergency authorities because anaphylactic reactions can be fatal if not treated properly.

If you find yourself unable to get someone who knows what to do in time and you need to use the Epi-Pen, most of them will have very obvious markers to show what needs to be done before the device can properly inject the chemical; for the EpiPen brand, they all have blue caps at the top (once you take them out of their containers, if there is one) which is the safety cap that must be pulled off before the device is ready. Afterwards, you just need to firmly press the orange tip into the person’s thigh and hold it there. A needle will pop out at the bottom of the tip and inject the epinephrine into the person’s thigh. If it’s a little hard to remember, this is their little reminder: blue to the sky, orange to the thigh!