I’m on the best date I’ve been on in years….he was on time, flowers on the passenger seat of the car when he picked me up (nice touch), fancy restaurant; breathtaking views overlooking the water, good conversation, sitting across the table from a man who is smart, incredibly funny, handsome…and a perfect gentleman, to boot.
EVERYTHING was going “right”. I had no prerequisite or warning of just how “wrong” (kind of) the night would end.
The food was absolutely delicious. The service: impeccable. I had the lobster and shrimp. He ordered salmon. This is a one-in-a million evening encounter with Mr. Right.
We order dessert and continue our comfortable banter. By now, I am clearly flirting…laughing too loud and flipping my hair. Self talk: “take it down a notch Nichole, you don’t want to seem desperate.”
I am looking right into his dreamy eyes when I began to notice how itchy I was feeling. I thought to myself, “hmm, that’s weird…what kind of fabric is this?” I don’t want my thoughts to take my attention away from ‘dreamy eyes’ for too long, so I ignored it. I figured it would pass after a few minutes, but it didn’t. I finally excused myself and went to the bathroom. I wash my hands and refresh my makeup. Just mild itching: no other symptoms. Besides, this date is going so well, I don’t want to leave early. When we are nearly the last table to leave, Mr. Right takes me home and we end our “Best Date Ever”, with a respectable church hug.
Once home, I shower and get into bed…still itching; “mildly.” Mild itching is easy to ignore when you’re on cloud nine. When I woke up the next morning, I notice how much worse the itching is and how it’s now accompanied by a tingling / stinging / burning sensation. Most of the itching was on my back and the back of my neck. I grabbed a handheld mirror and did the reverse look in the mirror and that’s when I saw all the welts! Yikes!
I immediately proceed to the nearest Urgent Care Clinic. Understand that the itching has significantly increased since last night, but apparently because that’s the only symptom I’m having, it is not emergent enough to move me to the front of the line. I wait my turn. Food allergy. Seriously? Given the fact, that I do not eat beef or pork, I’m a regular seafood gal! But apparently, I have now developed a seafood allergy.
I took the shot in my left butt cheek like a man! That’s not true. I hate shots (that are not in a glass). No sticker or lollipop? This is not the same treatment my daughter received the last time we were here. And I think the male nurse was laughing. I admit, it was kind of funny. The shot provided almost immediate relief. Subsequent to the shot, I was given a prescription for Prednisone.
Somewhere along the way, I sent Mr. Right a detailed text of my situation which included a half face/half rash picture. His reply: “that looks gross…I showed it to a couple of people here in my office and they said it looks like hives”. Dude, you showed it around? Oy vey!
Nichole Deal
