Thanks, Meredith

subtitle: The Benefits of IM

I took Jake and his friend out for Chinese food yesterday, a local restaurant with a decent buffet. About half-way through, I started to feel a little funky. The restaurant has a smoking section (I live in Virginia, after all) and smoke from one distant cigarette was really bothering me. I started coughing and feeling like breathing wasn't coming quite as easily as it should.

So I paid the bill and hustled on home, thinking that perhaps something I'd eaten contained a trace of shellfish, to which I am allergic. This wasn't like my usual itchy throat reaction to shellfish, though, so it had me a little concerned.

Once home, I took some benadryl against the chance that I had ingested seafood, and parked myself in front of my computer. I immediately started instant whining - I mean messaging - to my friend Meredith. She and I both work from home and instant messenger means that, despite 550 miles between us, I have a virtual office mate. Most days, it's just nice to have someone say 'hi' mid-day, but yesterday was one of those days where it meant much more.

She knew, based on what I was describing, that this was not an okay situation, and thanks to her I didn't talk myself out of going to the urgent care center down the road to be checked out. Sure enough, I was having some sort of bronchial spasms, essentially an asthma attack brought on most likely by an allergic reaction to something I ate. The benadryl helped the allergic reaction, but I needed help opening up the old airways again. A shot of steroids and a nebulizer treatment later, I was feeling much better.

I'm calling an allergist today to see what's going on with my wacky self. And I'm keeping that IM channel open! Ah, technology.