Gurly's Life | Allergic Reaction gave me Kylie Jenner Lips

Saturday September 9, 2017 morning at the emergency room

I have never really had known allergies before. The time that I had my wisdom teeth removed, I was given pain killers from the Penicillin family which resulted in me getting red marks all over my back. The doctors just assumed I was allergic to Penicillin since my dad is allergic to it and it also happens to be a common allergy. I have noticed that cantaloupe makes me quite nauseous and has induced vomiting in me in the past, so I kind of just self diagnosed myself as allergic to cantaloupes and have since avoided the fruit. Not a big deal considering watermelon is far superior. 

Aside from those two minor instances, I have not really experienced a serious allergic reaction that sent both me and my family into a panic. On Saturday morning I woke up with a severely swollen upper lip and philtrum (skin between upper lip and nose - yay for four years of physiology!). My lip was literally three times its normal size and even impaired my ability to properly speak. I just started yelling for my parents from the bathroom because I was frightened. I think my mum freaked me out even more as she just could not stop staring at me wide-eyed. 

Thankfully my throat was not constricted and nor was my tongue swollen, so my breathing was not impaired. This could have been very serious if my airway had been blocked since we do not have an epi-pen at home. After much poking and prodding of my lips by the doctor at the ER, I was given anti-histamines and steroids to reverse the swelling. 

This morning the swelling had gone down by half. I was able to talk much more normally and was able to eat without drooling over myself. I am blogging this Sunday night and the swelling has mostly subsided now and I expect my lips to be completely normal tomorrow morning. My lips are really chapped which I did not expect, but I guess the skin had been really stretched and exposed more to the air. 

In the coming weeks I will be seeing my family doctor in regards to getting allergy testing done. I am very curious to find out what I have an allergy to to elicit such a big reaction. The only thing that I ate out of the ordinary on Friday was a zucchini banana bread from the new paleo restaurant in Vancouver called Feast. The texture of the bread was very chalky and crumbly and definitely contains some weird ingredients as substitute for grains and sugar. So I am curious and have a feeling it most likely was a random ingredient in that paleo zucchini bread. I will probably find out in a few weeks and will keep you posted. 

After the doctors had discharged me from the hospital, my friends finally got the opportunity to make a million Kylie Jenner jokes about my lips. The best one was probably "lay off the lip fillers" bahaha gosh and from the profile I was literally duck lipped. It was pretty comical. I think one thing I have come away from this experience is that I will probably never get lip fillers because I did not find large lips to be appealing on me. Gosh they just looked scary and painful! Plus I felt like everyone kept ogling at me because they were so big and did look like I had some lip injections. I love my little cupids bow and look forward to having it back. I would have been devastated if my lips remained permanently ballooned. 

If you ever wake up and notice something completely off with your body, please immediately go to the hospital. It is better to be safe and not risk worsening your symptoms. 

Thank you to everyone being so loving to me this weekend. I really appreciate it and am truly grateful to be surrounded by such amazing friends and family. 

BYES