People often say that if we listen closely to our bodies, they will tell us exactly what we need, and more importantly, what we don’t need.
This past February, my body decided to turn against me while I was out on a run and I suffered an anaphylaxis allergic reaction. It was the absolute worst thing that has ever happened to me and as I was waiting for the ambulance to arrive to pick me up, I didn’t know if I would make it.
It was around 9 pm on the Monday when I met my friend Mark for an evening run. Our plan was to do a 5K progression run from 7 minutes/km up to 6 minutes/km. We took off down the Danforth and I was feeling good. My legs felt strong, my energy was high, and we were chatting comfortably, talking about how we were really excited for the spring race season to begin. About 15 minutes into the run my eyes started to feel funny. They were burning as if I had rubbed them after cutting hot peppers. I thought back to what I had ate that night and realized I hadn’t cut anything hot. I tried to ignore this feeling in my eyes and kept on running.
5 minutes later I knew everything was not going to be ok. I slowed down, told Mark that I was going to have a panic attack, and held onto his arm as we walked to a nearby bar to get a glass of water. My upper lip was starting to swell and when we got to the bar I bolted to the washroom and was horrified by what I saw in the mirror. My face was swollen to three times it’s size, I almost couldn’t see my eyes, and my legs and feet were incredibly itchy. I went outside and told Mark that I had no idea what was happening to me and that maybe we should call an ambulance. I believe there was someone above looking out for me that night because a very kind man sitting at the bar got on his phone right away and called 911.
The hives were spreading fast, up my body to my arms and hands. My wrists were so swollen that I couldn’t move them and my legs were on fire. I just held onto Mark and prayed that the ambulance would get there soon. Luckily the Toronto East General Hospital was just around the corner and the ambulance arrived in less than 3 minutes. The paramedics took me into the ambulance, asked me what was going on and gave me a shot of epinephrine. At this point I was shaking uncontrollably and having a panic attack on top of my allergic reaction. The paramedics were incredible – they kept me calm and helped me control my breathing because I was worried that my throat was going to start to swell. My mouth was parched which made it tough to swallow, but I wasn’t allowed to have any water.
Once we got to the Emergency Room, they took me in right away and hooked me up to some drugs. Mark stayed with me until my boyfriend and my parents arrived and tried to make me laugh by telling me that I looked like Shrek. We were in the hospital until 3am that night because I had to be under observation for 4 hours in case the reaction returned. We were home by 4am and I slept until 10am the next morning. My eyes were puffy and my joints were swollen for two days after that, but by Thursday I was looking and feeling normal again.
I still have no idea what happened to me. The Dr. said it could have been a result of exercising in the extreme cold, but I have been running outside all winter for two years and this has never happened before. Another theory is that it could have been a reaction to the fish I had for dinner prior to running. I was a vegetarian for 3 years and just started adding fish back into my diet. I have eaten shrimp, salmon, arctic char and calamari over the past few months without any negative reaction. There is something called exercise induced anaphylaxis occurs during physical activity that takes place after an allergen is consumed. So it may be that I am allergic to fish, but that the allergy only comes out during exercise.
My allergy tests are scheduled so I hope to have some answers then. Until that time, I have been instructed by my doctor to stay away from running and focus on lower intensity, lower impact activities like yoga. Staying away from running has been tough, but I know it is what’s best for me right now. I am grateful that I am able to write this blog post and grateful that I can still do fun things like yoga and light strength training. My running friends have been fantastic too, always there to offer encouragement and support when I need it.
For the next few weeks I am going to try to keep things fun and exciting through yoga and strength training and will post some of the challenges and workouts that I am doing.If anyone has had a similar experience to this, please let me know. And if anyone has some suggestions for how not to go crazy on a break from running, I’d appreciate those too.
Jenna Pettinato is running to be best she can be. Her first love is writing, and her second is running, so she combines them here by blogging.
