Back in early December, I was in a rush late one night and grabbed a box of heat and serve tacos from a local grocery store, I know - anything but healthy - a real artery clogger guaranteed to shorten my life by thirty minutes for each one I consume! I had partaken in these tacos many times over the years w/o incident. As I got finished eating these tacos, I noticed my eyes rapidly swelling shut and my lips swelling like a bloated fish. Egg Allergy? But I hadn't ate anything but the tacos? The tacos couldn't contain eggs - I'd had them before - many times! I rushed downstairs and grabbed the box out of the garbage and lo and behold - EGG WHITES had been added to the concoction. OH MY GOSH, HARD LEFT, CLOSE ALL WATER TIGHT DOORS, SOUND BOTH STATIONS, AND GET OUT A MAYDAY! YES, I SAID MAYDAY!
You see, since I first emerged on the planet earth as person 3,245,333,001 (population in the year of our Lord 1963 was around four billion souls), I have been deathly allergic to eggs - all forms of eggs - irregardless of how they are prepared. I figure when I get married soon, if the wife ever wants to knock me off, this will be the method of choice - slipping me some eggs in a meal while out camping in the wilds far far away from civilization. :) I can hold eggs in the shell in my hands for a brief time and my hands turn red and itch. At Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the esteemed allergist told me that he had never seen someone so allergic - he had given me a allergy skin test and the egg portion caused major problems - you know, just a pin prick of egg on the back. I figure it's because of the revenge of the chickens as my father was so fond of eggs - any type and any form - that and lard sandwiches (you'd have to be back in WWII England to understand).
So, the night in question, a dark and stormy night mind you, I rapidly gave myself an auto-injection of epinephrine through my Twinject www.twinject.com, took 150mg of over the counter Benedryl, and rushed to the ER.
Funny thing at the ER, as this has happened before, when you say anaphylactic reaction and that you have already self administered a shot, they don't mess around and get you right back to triage. No horsing around - go straight to the head of the line - cutting in front of everyone else. They swing into action, get your clothes off, start an IV drip, draw blood, get you hooked up to an EKG monitor and a blood pressure monitor, get O2 standing by, get the wrist band on, another shot of epinephrine, a shot of Benedryl, not your over the counter Benedryl either and then, play the waiting game. As in past instances, the swelling subsided and they gave me a huge shot of a steroid to prevent a "rebound" reaction and sent me non my way to have a rough night in a Benedryl haze with the after effects of epinephrine.
I've had some close calls in the past. Trust me, I know virtually everything that has or might have egg - all the usual culprits. I stick to the basics, especially when traveling - and especially when out camping/backpacking. I even mandate that any cooking at camp must be done in a virgin pan - a pan that has never cooked eggs in it. Pizza got me one time up in Colorado - you know, one of them swank places that make homemade pizza - I had told my ski buddies that we really should go to a chain, but they brushed me aside. Really messed up my ski trip for the first two days - this happened on the night of arrival. We had the pizza delivered and when I called them up once I started having symptoms, they refused to tell me if they used eggs in their ingredients - until a lawyer that was traveling with us got on the phone! Another time, a national chain Mexican restaurant put eggs, raw eggs, into the frozen margarita mix. That one was a very close call. I was red and having breathing problems in the 5 minutes it took to get to the ER. Moral of that story, never ever drink margarittas outside of the house! Moral II - I always read ingredients and question servers and even cooks when eating out. However, over time one lets the guard down. So, I'm in the mode now of reading every ingredient on everything - from peppermints, to hot coco, etc. No chances - bordering on paranoia - self destroya... Even last night, a waitress tried to get me to order the chili relenos, even though I kept declining, she is very cute and good at what she does, but I had to decline. She just couldn't understand that chili relenos are battered and fried and I've never ever had one on my life - they contain eggs in the batter. She finally "got it". I've never had Angle Food Cake, juevos rancheros, scrambled eggs, eggs sunny side up or sunny side down for that matter, potato salad or cole slaw. Fine, very fine, wine, is often filtered through egg whites as is ceiling shelf Tequila.
Well meaning friends have tried to "cook" for me in the past, and that has also ended up in disaster. Marshmallows don't have eggs in them. Marshmallow creme does.
One co-worker insisted and insisted I try her cooking - promising me it was egg free - all except forgetting that mayonnaise has eggs in it.
So, $1.99 box of heat and serve tacos has ended up costing me $601.25 out of pocket, haven't met my deductible yet. This does not even include the cost of the Twinject autoinjector replacement at about $200, ER physician fees that are billed separately, plus the next day visit to my primary care physician at $35.00 my part for another steroid shot and steroid pills. All told, these $1.99 or so tacos will have cost me out of pocket at least $1,000.00 for a one hour visit to the ER.
Now, yes, mind you - they in effect "saved my life" - although I could have probably ridden it out by taking massive doses of Benedryl and another shot and monitored it... But, come on, we are talking real money here that puts a serious crimp on my budget.
Of course, on the other hand, you might not be reading this BLOG as my cremated remains might be greeting guests for all eternity from the side of the road at the entrance to Big Bend National Park! Good thing it didn't happen out backpacking or camping in the wilds of the West Texas Trans Pecos Big Bend Region - where medical care might be 4-5 hours away at best w/o ushering in a helicopter for a dust off.
Fortunately, with the Synchro32 software - affordable for all sizes of metalcasters with the industry leading no-up-front-cost or huge investment pricing plan that requires a capx. Nope, nada, none of that. All of the Synchro32 prices are publised in plain view on our website at http://www.synchro32.com/pricing.htm
With the Synchro32 software, it's a lot cheaper than a single visit to the ER and it is hands down the best and most respected metal casting specific ERP/MRP software - used around the world by hundreds of metalcasters!
See you on down the road, a bit poorer on my part...
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