Topic: COMMUNITY INTEREST
REACTION IN THE SKY
When a food is cross-contaminated by peanuts, it means that traces of peanuts have ended up in your food, even though peanuts are not a main ingredient. Often this happens because a food has been processed in the same factory as a food containing peanuts or because food has touched a surface with peanut residue on it. If you have a peanut allergy, you must be aware that any amount of peanut that you eat or breathe in may cause an allergic response. This is why it's a good idea to be prepared for an allergic reaction at any time.
During a recent trip to Africa, I was extremely diligent with the planning of the trip to address my nut allergy. The cooks at the places we ate at, stayed at, and where we were hiking had to be on board with the caution of my nut allergy. Everything went well during the entire trip.
However, on my Turkish Air flight on my return after eating the dinner they provided, I immediately had a reaction. I began itching on my scalp, got the chills, GI upset and was overcome with nausea. This is what always happens during my reactions. I did not eat anything that had nuts in it on appearance. However, nuts were served on the plane and in some of the options available. I started to try and reverse the reaction by taking 150mg of Benadryl by mouth. This did not work, my throat started closing off. I was too embarrassed to ask to help (the flight attendant catering our row was so nasty I doubt she would have helped anyway). My face began swelling up to the point I looked like a twin of Shrek. I had administer my Epipen. (the every ones that Mylan pharmaceuticals now charged $610 a piece) It was not enough, my symptoms got worse. I was miserable in my seat and decided to use a second epipen. That seemed to do the trick but the swelling to my face was so massive by the time I landed in JFK people were staring at me as though I was a freak. I came home and took an additional 150mg Benadyrl, some swelling went away. This seemed to help.
I then went to bed. When I woke up in the morning I felt like my entire head was swollen. I looked in the mirror and was stunned by my appearance. The worse I have ever seen it. My breathing became very labored, and my throat was closing off. So I took more Benadyrl and used another Epipen. This seemed to help, however, it was time to call the doctor. The on call doctor called me back right away. I told him what was happening. He ordered 20mg of Prednisone for me (3 tablets a day for the next 3 days).
There needs to be strong initiatives in the entire airline industry to ensure things like this do not happen in the sky. I was very fortunate to have my Epipens with me. Without them I would not have been able to write this article. Turkish Airlines prides themselves with their "chef on the plane" campaign. Yet, their Chef and flight staff created a cross contamination atmosphere which caused this reaction. On top of it, the food was suboptimal and lacked tastefullness.
The recent news in the press where the CEO of Mylan gave herself an $18 million dollar raise and raised prices of the Epipen from $60 to $613 created a challenge for the average person to afford the Epipens. I myself prior to my trip went to buy new Epipen's and at CVS they were $614 with insurance. The normal person cannot afford this increase. Why is the pharmaceutical industry allowed to do this? If the CEO of Mylan reads this she will probably look at this as an opportunity and her Father will help lobby to get Epipens on every plane in the world. They will do this and raise the price even higher because their concern is not that the drug saves lives, but how much money is in their bank accounts.
Below is a link to another story we wrote on the Epipen.
http://www.tammyduffy.com/ARTFASHION/index.blog?entry_id=2360047
