Freak Allergic Reaction

Yesterday morning, I woke up and suddenly thought "Hmmmm, my eye feels weird". I look in the mirror and realize that my right eyelid is swelling rapidly and I look scary. Really scary actually. My roommates take one look at me and they looked pretty freaked out. I call my boss and tell her I have to go to the doctor.

Bad news... I don't have insurance yet. Ironically, I have just become eligible for insurance - I have insurance paperwork, but no insurance. Crap.

I call clinics and friends who went through "no insurance" periods in their life in New York City. All the while my eye is swelling more and more. I look scarier.

Finally, I just decide to go to the clinic that I have a confirmed address for and seems the nicest on the phone. I walk about 2 miles because the subway and bus doesn't help me get from Point A to Point B.

I arrive at the clinic in extreme discomfort - I can only see out of one eye and I have a throbbing headache from the pressure being put on my eye. The clinic doctors take one look at me and tell me to go to the emergency room. I start to get very concerned about my health. Various people start telling me how to get to the hospital which is disorienting and no single set of directons makes sense. Finally one nice man (who doesn't even work for the clinic) takes me outside to the bus stop and explains how to get to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Hospital in Queens.

The bus comes immediately, thank goodness, and I get on the bus and stand next to the bus driver. I call my friend Evan who is one of the most comforting people I know in New York. We giggle nervously on the phone. The bus driver and I chat about the hospital. The bus driver looks at me, gets freaked out, and says "Yeah, you look really bad." AWESOME - even the bus driver is scared of my face.

I wait, I make some calls for work, I try and read with my one good eye in the waiting room. I see the doctor and she tells me I had an allergic reaction, but she doesn't know what it was, and she can't really do anything for me. She gives me some tips to reduce the swelling and I leave.

I go home, sit for 5 hours with frozen cucumbers on my eye, keep taking antihistamines, nap periodically sitting up (I was told NOT to lie down). I drag my sorry butt into Manhattan for the last of four focus groups for work.

I'm waiting to see how bad my bill is - if I have to pay 1200 bucks for some antihistamines and a light being shone in my eye, I'm going to apply for assistance and see if I can retroactively have my insurance cover this incident.

Anyways, all is back to normal... life was a little scary for a while. It was nice that people offered to come to the hospital with me, or meet me there, but I was pretty proud that I handled things ok. I did get a bit teary on the phone with the mom, but only her. I gave myself one minute to compose myself and then took care of some deadlines for my job. I think I might use my new insurance to go to the allergist and figure out which substances I need to avoid.