Tuesday night I had a chicken salad sandwich and unfortunately I didn’t know that would contain chunks of apple. I didn’t figure it out until about half way through. I have a number of fruit and nut allergies but before this I had at most had the most minor of reactions to apples and apple products. I stopped eating fresh apples a few years ago and I’ve been staying away from apple everything for the last few months.

After a few hours it reached the point of being quite concerning so I went to the ER. To be honest, I was freaking out, but that’s what having your throat swelling will do to you. After popping a few Benadryl I just about used my Epi-pen and called 911. But I could breath normally for the most part so I skipped the Epi and drove myself to the hospital a few miles away.

The treatment they used was a corticosteroid and Benadryl, both administered intravenously. In more severe cases they will also give epinephrine and oxygen (I’ve had both before). This is followed by several days of Prednisone (a powerful corticosteroid that functions as an immunosuppressant) and oral Benadryl.

Since the problem is the immune system reacting to something that would normally be harmless, the treatment is to reduce the histamine levels and suppress the immune system. It works. Within 20 minutes of the IV being administered I felt noticeably better, but my throat still feels a bit rough, even now (this is normal). Of course the side effects from the Prednisone seem to be a little different each time and are never fun. They range from insomnia and indigestion on the minor side, to anxiety and rage on the other end.

Applying the rules of homeopathy, since what caused the problem was an apple, they would take a drop of pure apple juice and dilute it to the point where it’s just plain water and take a drop of that and put it on a sugar pill. Swallowing wasn’t the most comfortable at that point, so that wouldn’t have been pleasant, but it also would have been completely ineffective. My immune system would have still been going crazy and if the reaction had continued I could have had breathing problems.

I’ve been trying to figure out what the water’s “memory” is supposed to do. In this case would it attract the apple particles? Would it have mimicked the apple particles to attract the immune response? The symptoms were in my throat and by this time the apple had long moved to my stomach, so even something that would mimic what had started the reaction wouldn’t have done a damn thing.

I suppose a homeopathic treatment wouldn’t have all these nasty side effects, of course if it had been a severe reaction they also wouldn’t have done anything to prevent death.

When my health (and money) is involved, I’m definitely sticking with proven, effective, real medicine.