Lack of oxygen

My breathing became so laboured, I was fighting for air. With each breath in I knew that the supply of oxygen was getting less and may chest became tighter and tighter. I had to get out of there.

I struggled through to my area in the factory and a met a friend, he could see my trouble and told me to go upstairs into the offices.

The stairs were long, my breaths were short- it took some time. When I made it to the top it felt like there was an 18 stone man sitting on my chest.

The people in the offices looked at me as if to say "gods whats up with her, this is going to harm production," to be honest that's all they cared about.

I was told to go have some fresh air and go home, and some body from the factory would check me out in a few weeks- nobody ever did.

I had this terrible feeling all night long. As someone who smoked I didn't want to say anything to my parents as I believed that the cigs had finally caught up with me, I was later to learn that they hadn't.

The next day was lovely, warm and sunny, with a gentle breeze. Perfect for a spot of gardening. My grandma is a keen gardener and I offered my help to her as grandad is unable to help due to his spinal condition. I was still feeling very chesty and tight and had come to the conclusion that it was a chest infection.

Lunchtime came and grandad wanted a kipper so I cooked it for him in the microwave, as I lifted the clingfilm off the top and waft of fish laced steam came up into my face. It was down hill from then.

As I tried to move things in the greenhouse I was unable and spent most of the afternoon on the seat outside the bungalow, shielding what was wrong from gran (who is an ex- casualty sister), I managed but after supper I got washed and went straight to bed as it was getting worse and I didn't want to worry her, still thinking in my mind that it was a chest infection.

9pm came that night and when gran came through I now couldn't talk I was that short of breath. I told her what was wrong at this point and what had been happening and she called my parents and an ambulance.

By the time I got into the local hospital I had waited three hours. This was because it was a Saturday night and all the drunks and people who had been fighting had taken up the ambulances.

I had a chest x-ray there and then when i arrived and it showed that my left lung was full and the right one was half full, full of histamines that my body had produced in an allergic reaction- effectively I was drowning to death.

After three days in intensive care I was allowed home. I was still very weak and it took many days to get better. I didn't get a positive diagnosis of what was wrong for 2 months. I had Anaphylaxsis, caused by occupational asthma that had been untreated, therefore it went to the next level. However it was so severe in my condition that the smell of any type of fish and shellfish was enough to put me into Anaphylactic shock.

I can tell when I am going into shock as my chest becomes extremely tight. I go light- headed and if I don't have my adrenaline pens within minutes of the attack starting then I will go into a coma and die in around 10 minutes of the first symptoms occurring. I also have the usual symptoms of my mouth swelling if I eat anything that contains a fish product (oils and omega 3's), the back of my lips also swell up and burst.

I was naive when I first got Anaphylaxis as I thought that it would be easy to avoid, but potential harmful items are everywhere. I cant go out for meals and socialising in general is quite hard. Ive found that its easy to protect myself but its much harder when I'm in a group or out and about as the people themselves could be a potential threat as I cant in any terms expect everyone to understand my condition as much of the understanding comes after someone has seen me have an attack. I would love to get in touch with others who have Anaphylaxis as I would like to think that my experiences could help somebody else and that I could also be a support to others as it can be very daunting when the condition first occurs.