Growing up with several life-threatening food allergies meant never eating cake at friend’s birthday parties and arguing with my parents when they made me wear a fanny pack (complete with two epi-pens, a plethora of benadryl, and two inhalers) to school. Fortunately for me, my older sister shares the same major allergies. What we lack in resemblance of physical features, we more than make up for in genetic make-up. I think that the phrase, “I’m allergic to peanuts, all tree nuts, and sesame” were the first words I spoke, or at least my most memorable line from childhood. As I grew older, I started to feel embarrassed by this fatal flaw of mine, feeling signaled out and different from other kids, especially my friends. Instead of speaking up when friends got sesame bagels, I stood idly by, chuckling, and making myself the butt of the joke when others around me laughed and made jokes.
When I was nine, I was at the mall eating ice cream with my mom and my sister. As I took another spoonful of the creamy salted caramel delight from the cup (yes, cup, not cone; just another thing that my allergies prevented me from indulging in without the ingredient list present), I bit into a hard chunk. Before I knew what I was doing, I swallowed a small piece of it and spit out the rest into my hand. Instantly, I started breathing faster and internally freaking out. It wasn’t helpful when my mom started reacting the same way. Rushing to the parking lot, my breathing worsened as it felt like my tongue was tripling in size and my face was broken out in hives. My mom quickly sat me down in the car and asked if I wanted to do it. Was she crazy? Did I, the nine-year-old, want to stab myself with a needle while I couldn’t even breathe? At this point, I was crying, so my mom took that as a “no” and got out the epi-pen. Once injected with the epinephrine, I immediately felt better. We then of course had to go to the ER where I proceeded to be monitored for the next six hours before it was safe for me to go home. Later, I asked my mom if she was serious when she asked if I wanted to give myself the epi-pen. She sighed and explained that doctors and allergists suggest that individuals know how to and are able to administer the epi-pen on themselves, in case there isn’t anyone around or anyone who knows how to.
As I became more comfortable with my allergies as I grew into my teen years, I realized the importance of the mass awareness of anaphylactic (definition: “an acute allergic reaction to an antigen to which the body has become hypersensitive”), especially among students and teenagers, whom are likely to be around someone with a severe allergy at some point.
What are food allergies?
Food allergies are the result of the immune system identifying certain proteins as foreign. In order to develop an allergy, you must have had some kind of indirect or direct exposure to that allergen. During that initial exposure, your body begins to make antibodies against the presenting protein. Those are called immunoglobulin E (IgE), which get spread through the cells in your immune system. The next time that allergen enters your body, those proteins bind to the antibody IgEs, causing the release of histamines. These histamines cause physical symptoms, such as hives, swelling, wheezing, and more.
When to administer the epi-pen?
It is necessary to administer the epi-pen at the first sign of anaphylaxis. This can include rashes, hives, swelling, difficulty breathing, nausea, stomach pain, and more. Once administered, it is important to go to the emergency room to be monitored, as some reactions are biphasic (the histamine release starts again on its own, putting you at risk to be in anaphylaxis again).
Administration
Different epi-pens will have individual instructions, but for this one:
Uncap the blue side. Place the orange end of the epi-pen perpendicularly to the thigh. Forcefully push the epi-pen into the thigh. Most epi-pens have retractable needles, meaning that you will never see the needle. It will inject the epinephrine once pushed into the thigh and then retract before the epi-pen is removed. It is important that you hold the epi-pen to the thigh for at least ten seconds, to ensure that all of the epinephrine is entering the bloodstream.
To learn more, visit https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/food-allergy-causes-prevention