Andrea's Adventure

Ever seen the movie "Hitch"? You know the part where Hitch has an allergic reaction to some shellfish? He looked like this:

I thought that was a little overdone, for the movie's sake. I didn't think swelling could actually happen like that. Turns out, it can.

Cami came to town a little bit ago, and one night she, Andrea, Rich, and I decided to make some shrimp pasta for dinner together. Andrea was in charge of shelling the shrimp, and she started to complain that her hands were starting to get really itchy, and then we noticed some hives on them. Yep, that should have been a good warning sign. But Andrea has eaten shrimp before and never had a reaction, so we didn't think it was a big deal.

We ate dinner together and then Andrea went for a run a little bit later. She gets back and pounds on the front door for us to let her in. She starts talking about how her feet are really itchy. We all thought we she was overreacting, and so Cami tells her to get into the shower and see if that helps.

It doesn't! She comes out and Rich and I can clearly see that her face has started to swell. We sent Cami to the store to get some Benadryl, and by the time she was out the door, the swelling had doubled!

We called Dr. Aaron to see what we should do to help her. He called in a prescription for her and told us what we could give her in the meantime. After giving her some medicine and establishing that Andrea could breathe and wasn't in any immediate danger, we got to work taking some pictures while waiting for the prescription to be filled. None of us could stop laughing, including Andrea. It sounds kind of wrong, but it was so hilarious!

This was one of the first shots that I got. She already has small eyes, but the swelling made them even smaller! 

Look at the bumps!

 This was about the worst that it got. The first picture and this one were taken probably 15 minutes apart, and I can definitely see a difference in the swelling! Her lips were so swollen! (It probably didn't help her feel better when Cami asked, "Can lips explode?")

Sorry that this is sideways. I wish I had gotten a better video. But this just gives you a little taste of how funny she sounded!

So, it turns out that Andrea is allergic to shrimp. Probably good to know for the future.

(Thanks, Andrea, for being such a good sport about all of this! Those pictures really are priceless!)