To open a tight bottle of soda, water, or champaign, do you struggle for an hour trying method after method? For example:

Run the bottle’s cap under hot water? No. This will not work if, for safety, your water heater doesn’t heat water to a high enough temperature.

Tap or hit the cap with a spoon or other metal object or against a hard surface? No. The bottle might open, but brute force methods break up carbonation. You’ll have a bottle of tasteless, disgusting liquid.

And suppose you get tired of searching for friends who can help you open bottles. Suppose, in general, you don’t like constantly depending on others.

Here’s a cooler method:                            Jump To The Solution

You will use aggressive self-talk or visualize a high-intensity moment to trigger a release of hormones (adrenaline) from the adrenal glands sitting on your kidneys. This will increase your heart rate and the pumping of your lungs. That is, you will breathe in more oxygen and increase the flow of oxygen into your blood. This will prime your muscles to their peak strength. When your brain signals them, they will contract very forcefully.

Then you will establish a fulcrum. You will stand up. Research (Wiley) shows that a standing posture is better for opening jars—it will allow you to create more torque than trying to open the bottle sitting down. You will grip the neck of the bottle tightly with your dominant hand. You will hold it close to your body (near your torso) to engage not just your wrists but your larger shoulder muscles and your even-larger back muscles. You will place your non-dominant hand over the cap that you have enclosed in a grip pad for your safety. (The cap is recommended but not absolutely necessary.)

You will not twist the bottle slowly. You will not “test” the cap by giving a gentle, wimpy twist first. You will override this impulse, chill, and apply 100% of your power immediately with a sudden, explosive counter-rotation.

As your non-dominant hand twists the cap, your dominant hand will not budge. Its crushing grip will keep the bottle immovable against the powerful force of your non-dominant hand on the cap. It won’t take much more than a one-millisecond-long slam of force to break all the plastic bridges of the safety seal at once, and you and your onlookers will hear an instant pop.

Important: Focus on your friends, not the bottle, and when that cap pops you’ll be the coolest person in the room.

If you have any hand injuries or limitations that would make a high-intensity “slam” method risky for you, do NOT use this method. I am not responsible for any lack of judgment on your part—you know your own body.

To Open A Tight Bottle:

• Stand up straight.
• Use your strongest hand to hold the bottle or the bottle’s neck tightly against your body. Use your weaker, more flexible hand to twist the cap off.
• Wrap your grip pad around the bottle cap.
• Engage your imagination and your past experience. Think of someone you are absolutely furious with.
• Wait a moment, to allow your anger to build.
• Slam that cap off that bottle.

You created rage. Then, with a single, controlled burst of power, you used your body and your imagination to channel that rage and open the bottle with no visible effort at all.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post To Open A Tight Bottle Without Looking Stupid appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

The government is hiding facts.

September 18, 2025
The government is hiding facts from us, the people. On March 15, 2025, the U.S. accidentally texted Jeffrey Goldberg its plans, in detail, to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen. Don’t believe me? Believe Jeff Goldberg. The texts zipped to Mr. Goldberg’s computer because the government used Signal, a texting app that does not automatically record what is said. It could have used one of the official methods that are more secure and that the law requires the government to use.

The government has two choices. It can use a “disappearing” message app like Signal to do its business or it can use an official, secure communication method. Why would it use Signal? Because disappearing message apps create an unreachable digital “paper trail.” Group members receive the message, and that’s it. No one, not even the group members themselves, can retrieve the message later. Without a lasting record, no one can tell who sent the message. In a court of law, no one can prove when it was sent. No one even knows for sure that it was sent.

Since the public doesn’t know, say, the details of the Houthi air strikes, whoever ordered them will never have to admit to the public that they ordered them. Worse, they won’t have to explain why they ordered them. No records—no accountability.

Was March 15, 2025, the only time the administration communicated among themselves using a disappearing message app? Sure, and I have a bridge to sell you, cheap. Suppose you decide to do something sneaky. You buy a Christmas gift for your spouse—in August—and now you must hide it until Christmas Day. In the middle of the night, you quietly slip the gift into the perfect hiding place. On Christmas Day, your spouse is surprised. Next year, you buy several early Christmas gifts for your spouse and for your kids. You hide them in the same perfect place. Again, everyone is surprised. You get into the habit of buying gifts early, hiding them, and not being caught, so after a while you become careless and slip up. You are caught.

The government has sent a lot of disappearing messages and hidden many facts from us. And after a while they were caught. You can’t hide secret messages from an intelligent public forever. But don’t believe me, believe Democracy Forward. The Republican leaders know they can get away with ignoring us, and we are seduced by the their distractions. The end result is, we submit to every law they enact and fear every threat they make.

Why would the administration want to hide records of the details of and reasons for what they are doing? They don’t seem to be planning to give us all a surprise gift any time soon. Democrats and Republicans alike, we have a right to know what the administration is up to.

Knowledge is power. Without sufficient knowledge, we become helpless victims, and democracy crumbles around us.

What can you do? Gather knowledge. Become familiar with the common-sense political issues.

The United States is the democratic leader. If we let the government destroy our rights and freedoms, they will destroy the world’s rights and freedoms for decades or even centuries to come.

The government is, indeed, hiding facts from us.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

Home

The post The government is hiding facts from us appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

Can you smell things no one else can smell, taste things no one else can taste? If you can, you may have a wonderful condition called hyperosmia. Hyperosmia is the medical term for an extremely good sense of smell.

Doctors don’t know much about the sense of taste. But they do know that the sense of smell is a large component of it. If you have hyperosmia, you’re going to have an acute sense of taste as well. If you lose your sense of smell, you lose most of your sense of taste. The taste buds on your tongue can only detect salt, and sour, sweet, and bitter tastes. Your sense of smell detects all the other tastes. Your sense of smell also detects flavors.

Old ladies like me, who have many hypersensitivities, often have hyperosmia as well. Do you yourself have many hypersensitivities? Or do you only have normal sensitivities? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Here’s a chart that may help you:

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Sensitivities (usual and expected)[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Hypersensitivities (very rare)[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Allergy pollen makes you sneeze[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Allergy pollen causes a scary rash[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Wool makes you itch on a hot day[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You can’t wear sweaters at all[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You get carsick with bad drivers[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You get carsick with good drivers[/lgc_column]

Here’s a chart that may help you with the difference between hyperosmia and hypersensitivities:

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Hyperosmia[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Hypersensitivities[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You can detect additives in processed food because they taste funny to you.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]After you eat processed food with additives, you often get sick to your stomach.[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Apples that are not fresh taste funny to you.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Apples that are fresh make you sick to your stomach. You have to cook them or get sick.[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You can actually smell watermelon, even from a distance.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Eating watermelon gives you a scratchy feeling in your throat.[/lgc_column]

If you’re not sure if you have hypersensitivities at all, just take the Hypersensitivity Quiz.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post For Women Over 60: How Well Can You Smell? appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

What’s the confusion? I’ll explain. This is (partly) how doctors classify Type 1 Hypersensitivities:

Hypersensitivities (Type I)

/            \

Allergies (Pollen)                    “The Other” Hypersensitivities

Allergies: The immune system’s reactions to tree, weed, or grass pollen, all harmless foreign substances.

“The Other” Hypersensitivities: The immune system’s reactions to any foreign substance, in the body or just touching the body, except pollen.

See what causes the confusion? The over-arching hypersensitivity category and the hypersensitivity subcategory have the same name. As a result, many people say allergies when referring to hypersensitivities. So do I, sometimes. After all, allergies is much easier to say than hypersensitivities.

But when I’m writing for this site, I will always distinguish between allergies and the other hypersensitivities. Sometimes, I will even refer to allergies as pollen allergies, though the phrase is redundant.

Motion sickness is a hypersensitivity.

Lactose intolerance is a hypersensitivity.

A drug side effect is a hypersensitivity.

A local reaction from an allergy shot is a hypersensitivity.

Any reaction not triggered by pollen is a hypersensitivity—a simple hypersensitivity.

What are some differences between allergies and the other hypersensitivities?

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Pollen Allergies [/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]Other Hypersensitivities[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Tend to make you sneeze and/or to stuff up your sinuses[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]Tend to make you itch, bother your stomach, or give you headaches[/lgc_column]
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Tend to decrease with age [/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]Tend to increase with age[/lgc_column]
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]People understand allergies, say “Bless you,” when you sneeze[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]People rarely understand hypersensitivities or believe you have them[/lgc_column]

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post Hypersensitivities vs. Allergies: What’s the Confusion? appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

Continuing from The Big Picture, a hypersensitivity reaction occurs when the immune system perceives something entering your body as foreign matter and attacks it, also hurting your body. An autoimmune disease is a hypersensitivity reaction plus.

Think of an autoimmune disease as having one or more hypersensitivity reactions as a component/components.

Comparison Chart

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Hypersensitivity Reaction[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Autoimmune Disease[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Just one event.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]An ongoing problem.[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You are not sick. Irritated, but not sick.[/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]You are sick. [/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Either easy or impossible to diagnose. [/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Difficult to diagnose.[/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]Clear triggers, e.g., pollen, wool, or other environmental substances [/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]What triggered this immune flare-up? Stress? Smoking? Doctors are unsure. [/lgc_column]

[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]No cure. Sometimes can be systematically desensitized (nipped in the bud) . [/lgc_column][lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]No cure. Cannot be systematically desensitized. [/lgc_column]

Both

Both have the same cause: heredity

That is, you have inherited your immune system, and your immune-system overreaction to foreign substances is at the root of your hypersensitivities.

Neither can be cured.

Both may respond to palliative treatment. Or not.

Both affect women more often than men.

Both affect old people more often than young people.

In the next Hypersensitivities Are Real post, my pot-smoking, map-making, gourmet cook friend, Michelle Lewis, will give you a harrowing and very graphic description of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Michelle and I are both Hypersensitives, but I have Type I allergies and hypersensitivities, and Michelle has RA, a cruel Type III autoimmune hypersensitivity disease.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post Hypersensitivities and Autoimmune Diseases: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

[I am not a doctor. If you would like the medical details about hypersensitivities, you may follow the link at the bottom of this post.]

This is the basic (Coombs and Gell) classification for hypersensitivities:

Type I   Asthma, allergies (to pollen), eczema

Type II  Graves’ Disease, Rheumatic Heart Disease, Guillain Barre Syndrome

Type III Immune Complex Disease, e.g., Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Type IV Multiple Sclerosis, Celiac Disease, Type I Diabetes, Stevens Johnson Syndrome (There seems to be some confusion about where to place Stevens Johnson Syndrome. Some doctors believe that it doesn’t fit in any category.)

Some hypersensitivity reactions act alone, and some operate as part of the autoimmune diseases:

Type I hypersensitivities are all hypersensitivity reactions. The immune system perceives something entering your body as foreign matter and attacks it, hurting your body as well. These are relatively simple mechanisms.

Types II to IV contain the autoimmune diseases. The hypersensitivity reactions mentioned in Types II to IV are the ones that play a role in the autoimmune diseases. The autoimmune diseases are not simple. For some complex reason, your body starts attacking itself, that is, you have a hypersensitivity reaction to something in your own body.

In the next Hypersensitivities Are Real post, my pot-smoking, map-making, gourmet cook friend, Michelle Lewis, will give you a harrowing and very graphic description of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Michelle and I are both Hypersensitives, but I have Type I allergies and hypersensitivities, and Michelle has RA, a cruel Type III autoimmune hypersensitivity disease.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

For specific medical terms and descriptions of hypersensitivities, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypersensitivity.

The post Hypersensitivities: The Big Picture appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

What are hypersensitivity reactions?

First, if you are a Hypersensitive, your immune system reacts to substances to which others’ immune systems don’t react.

These reactions are the body’s normal responses to substances from outside the body. That is, a hypersensitive reaction is the immune system’s response to a substance to which the body is exposed, just as it’s supposed to do. (Trouble is, it’s responding to harmless substances.)

What are hypersensitivity triggers?

A  hypersensitivity trigger is any harmless substance that a Hypersensitive’s immune system responds to. If you are a Hypersensitive, certain substances trigger reactions in your body, yet most other people’s bodies don’t react at all to those substances.

For example:

Wearing or touching wool makes you itchy and/or gives you hives.
Trigger: contact with wool
Hypersensitivity Reaction: itching and/or hives

When you drink milk, you get an upset stomach.
Trigger: milk
Hypersensitivity Reaction: stomach upset

When your friends wear too much perfume or aftershave, it gives you a headache.
Trigger: scents
Hypersensitivity Reaction: headache

I once had a friend who persisted in wearing perfume with me in the car, even though I kept telling her it made me sick. She simply didn’t  believe me.

The people who disbelieve Hypersensitives will get a surprise some day. As our air is packed with more and more smog, our reservoirs are loaded with more and more of the chemicals people flush into the sewers, and our food is made with more and more additives (all potential hypersensitivity triggers), human beings are becoming more and more hypersensitive.

Some articles that back me up:
National Institute of Health
The Clinical Advisor
Science Direct

The tags on the back of your shirts drive you crazy.
Trigger: contact with small pieces of material
Hypersensitivity Reaction: itching so bad it drives you crazy

Exhaust fumes make you carsick.
Trigger: exhaust fumes
Hypersensitivity Reaction: nausea, headache, and more

When you drink coffee, you get sharp, scary pains in your stomach.
Trigger: caffeine
Hypersensitivity Reaction: damaged stomach lining

Have you even met anyone who can’t drink coffee? I haven’t, though I can’t drink it myself. That goes to show how rare a hypersensitivity can be.

The immune system detects bacteria and viruses that enter your body, but I don’t consider bacteria and viruses to be hypersensitivity triggers. The immune system is just doing its job: trying to prevent disease. It’s when the immune system reacts to substances that aren’t dangerous at all—soap, coffee, milk, etc.—that hypersensitivities are involved. Soap, coffee, milk, etc., are hypersensitivity triggers to which the immune system might react. Bacteria and viruses are not.

Each writer describes hypersensitivities a different way:

• extreme physical sensitivity
• exaggerated immune response
• undesirable or inappropriate immune response
• an over-reaction of the immune system

The bottom line: the immune system reacts to harmful substances (hypersensitivity triggers) as if they were dangerous and tries to destroy them, creating itching, pain, stomach upset, and harm to the body in the process.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post Hypersensitivity Triggers and Reactions: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

What are hypersensitivities?

Hypersensitivities are very rare, damaging, discomfort-producing, and sometimes fatal reactions produced by the human immune system. Touching wool may make you itch. Drinking milk may make you sick to your stomach. Breathing cigarette smoke may precipitate an asthma attack. It may do serious damage to your (as opposed to others’) lungs. Why? Because you are a Hypersensitive, and your immune system reacts to substances to which others’ immune systems don’t react.

Dictionary Definitions for Hypersensitivity

1. Extreme physical sensitivity to particular substances or conditions — Google

A little sparse. I want more.

2. A state of altered reactivity in which the body reacts with an exaggerated immune response to a foreign agent —freedictionary.com

As in “altered states”? I like that.

3.The exaggerated or inappropriate immune response occurring in response to a substance either foreign or perceived as foreign and resulting in local or general tissue damage
—freedictionary.com

Redundant, I think.

4. A set of undesirable reactions produced by the normal immune system, including allergies and autoimmunity. They are usually referred to as an over-reaction of the immune system and these reactions may be damaging, uncomfortable, or occasionally fatal.— Wikipedia

Notice that Wikipedia mentioned allergies and autoimmunity but passed over those of us who have non-allergic hypersensitivities. This is understandable, because our condition has not been intensively studied.

My own answer to What Are Hypersensitivities?
(about how Hypersensitives actually act and feel)

Hypersensitivities: certain substances trigger immune reactions in your body. Yet most other people’s bodies don’t react at all to those substances. Then other people accuse you of “over-reacting” to the substance.

“Relax,” they say. “Don’t let it bother you.”

“If you’d stop complaining and do your job,” they say, “the itching/pain would stop.”

“I don’t have any hypersensitivities,” they say. “I don’t have time to be sick.”

“It’s all in your head,” they say. “Stop whining about nothing.”

Hypersensitive: a person who has hypersensitivities

We don’t know much about hypersensitivities, but we do know that they are a function of the body, specifically the immune system. They are not a function of the mind.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post Exactly What Are Hypersensitivities? appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

To read the first part of the story, see

Dr. Sherman examined the Stevens Johnson rash on Allie’s face. It had gotten redder, but he didn’t tell Allie that. She was already frightened enough.

“What medications do you take?” he asked.

“None,” Allie said.

“Not even vitamins?” Dr. Sherman said.

“Vitamins aren’t medicine,” Allie said.

“That’s true,” Dr. Sherman said. He left. Allie could hear him talking to the other doctors. Soon, a young doctor entered Allie’s cubicle. He sat near Allie and smiled at her. He asked her what her favorite hobbies were. They happened to be his favorite hobbies too. They chatted and joked.

Then the doctor (resident) asked her what medications she was taking. “It doesn’t have to be a pill,” he said. “It could be a liquid, like cough syrup.”

Allie said, “I haven’t taken cough syrup in a long time, since the last time I had a cold. I don’t take medicine.”

“Are you sure—”

Allie’s mother arrives

“Yes, she’s sure,” Allie’s mother, who had just entered Allie’s cubicle, said. “She doesn’t take medicine unless it’s directly prescribed by the doctor. Why are you badgering her about medicine?”

“You’re her mother?” the resident said. Allie’s mother nodded.

Dr. Sherman interrupted and asked the resident to leave. Then he turned to Allie’s mother.

“Allie has Stevens Johnson Syndrome,” he said. “A Stevens Johnson rash is caused by drugs. So your daughter must be taking some drug.”

“Are you accusing my daughter of taking street drugs?” Allie’s mother demanded.

“No,” Dr. Sherman and Allie said at the same time.

“Where would  I get street drugs?” Allie said. “I wouldn’t even know what to ask for.”

“Forget the drugs,” Allie’s mother said. “What’s the treatment for a rash like this?”

“Discontinue the drugs,” Dr. Sherman said.

“What else?” Allie’s mother said.

“Nothing else. We discontinue the drugs. We observe her until the rash disappears, then we discharge her. That’s all we can do.”

Will the Rash Kill Allie?

After Allie’s mother left, Dr. Sherman noticed that Allie’s rash had gotten even worse. Pus had started oozing out from under the reddened skin on her face. He didn’t tell Allie, but he didn’t  have to. She already knew what he knew, that the pus eventually pushes the skin off the Hypersensitive’s face. It leaves a scar just as if he or she had been burned, a scar that never heals.

Since Allie’s condition was getting serious, Dr. Sherman had a dermatologist come in. He used a strange-looking ruler called a caliper to measure Allie’s rash.

“Why is he measuring my rash?” Allie asked Dr. Sherman.

“To determine if it has spread enough to qualify as high-level Stevens Johnson Syndrome,” the dermatologist said. “Please hold your head still.”

Afterward, to keep from crying, Allie tried to turn her attention to a silly show on the TV.

“I could be dying,” she thought, “and I feel like a lab specimen too.”

Eventually, she fell asleep. In the morning, she awoke. Right then, Dr. Sherman and the dermatologist came in.

“We need to make arrangements to move Abby to a burn unit,” the dermatologist was saying. Then he saw Abby, and he stopped cold. Dr. Sherman broke into a smile.

The rash had disappeared.

“It looks as if the reaction is over,” he said. “We’ll keep you here a little longer, just in case, but I think your hypersensitive immune system is finished attacking you now.”

“But what caused the rash in the first place?” Allie asked.

“We don’t know,” Dr. Sherman said. “We just don’t know very much about hypersensitivities.”

“If I don’t know what caused it, how do I  keep it from coming back?” she said. No one could answer her.

There are only two things Allie can do: if she starts getting symptoms in the future, watch them carefully. If they get worse, get to a doctor–fast.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post The scariest hypersensitivity: Stevens Johnson Syndrome appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.

The hypersensitivity rash hit Allie’s face fast. She never saw it coming.

Allie had just turned sixteen. She had never had a facial rash in her life. She had had a case or two of hives, but neither she, her mother, nor Dr. Sherman had been worried about them.

She had just begun treatment for a kidney problem. Dr. Sherman had prescribed two whole Hydrochlorothiazide pills a day. Three days later, Allie was finishing up her schoolwork, looking forward to texting her friend, Alma once Alma’s classes ended. She went into the bathroom and took her second pill of the day, following the doctor’s instructions. While she was there, she happened to glance into the mirror. And there she saw it.

A red, swollen rash covered her nose and chin.

She touched it. It hurt, so she didn’t touch it again. She ran to her mother and showed her the rash. Her mother called the doctor.

“I’ll call an ambulance,” the doctor said. An hour later, Allie was in an emergency room.

A Threatening Rash

Doctor after doctor came in and looked at the rash on Allie’s face. When the doctors saw the rash, their faces turned pale, and they fell silent. She was glad when she heard Dr. Sherman’s voice in the hallway. He pulled back the curtain, entered Allie’s cubicle, and saw Allie’s rash. Immediately, he turned his head away. Allie knew why. He was hiding his fear. The doctors’ fear is what frightened her most.

“You’re having a hypersensitivity reaction,” Dr. Sherman, the doctor she trusted the most, said.

“Am I going to die?” Allie asked.

“No, no, of course not,” Dr. Sherman said. “It’s just a case of Stevens Johnson Syndrome.”

Allie remembered her mother saying, “If they repeat themselves twice, watch out.”

Speaking of her mother, the tall, powerful woman visited Allie not long afterward. She brought Allie her laptop, which gave Allie something to do after her mother left. Allie googled Stevens Johnson Syndrome.

Allie’s Research

If you had a Stevens Johnson rash, the web doctors said, you had about a 30% chance of dying from it. Can a rash kill you? Yes.

Allie kept searching and found other potentially fatal hypersensitivities:

• The drug allopurinol, used to treat gout, kidney stones, and some cancer problems, can cause fatal hypersensitive reactions.
• Anticonvulsants like phenytoin and neurontin can cause fatal hypersensitive rashes.
• Antibiotics such as penicillin can cause fatal hypersensitive rashes or even cancer. See Are Hypersensitives sick?
• Ibuprofen such as Advil or Motrin can cause fatal reactions.

Allie couldn’t handle any more of this. She leaned back against the pillow and covered her face with her hands. Someone entered the room. Allie looked up and saw Dr. Sherman.

“What’s wrong?” Dr. Sherman said.

“This hypersensitivity could kill me, couldn’t it?” Allie said.  looked at her computer screen.

“Oh, Allie,” Dr. Sherman said, “it won’t.” He took a look at her computer screen. “Don’t worry about what those doctors are saying.”

“They’re wrong?” Allie asked.

“They’re not wrong,” Dr. Sherman said, “but they’re not telling you everything either. There’s only one chance in a million or so that you’ll get a hypersensitive reaction. And if you get a reaction, the doctors will immediately stop the medicine that triggered it—we stopped your Hydrochorothiazide, didn’t we? —so you’ll be OK. As long as I’m here,” he added, “you won’t die.”

“But hypersensitivities do have to be taken more seriously,” the doctor said. “People tend to laugh at them, and so they don’t get treated. Once people accept that hypersensitivities can be fatal, they’ll stop pooh-poohing people’s hypersensitive reactions. They’ll watch them carefully and get them to emergency rooms faster.”

This story is continued in The Scariest Hypersensitivity: Stevens Johnson Syndrome.

Dr. Jean M. Bradt
cassjmb10@att.net

The post Can your hypersensitivities kill you? appeared first on Hypersensitivities Are Real.