You must be thinking what the hell no she isn’t she is just lazy. Well yes I can be lazy like everyone can be I am in fact allergic to working out.
It all started in 2011. I would walk to sixth form and as soon as I walked through the big automatic doors I would be covered in red spots, a mixture between chicken pox and hives. Not attractive for a 16 year old.
I went for tests for months and months until doctors could figure what an earth was wrong with me and I was diagnosed with urticaria pigmentosa. I was given mountains of tablets to try and get my condition under control, it steadied for a few months and I was okay. But in the summer time of 2012 I was working out at the gym when I felt an attack coming along, general symptoms being tightening of the eyes and hives all over my body. As I was driving home I couldn’t breathe and my throat was closing. In a panic my dad rushed me to hospital where they tried giving me some tablets. Unfortunately when your throat is closing up you cannot swallow anything, the doctors should have known that! So I was given an IV and pumped with antihistamines and adrenaline. I was realised from hospital a few hours later. The doctors put this reaction down to the weather, getting too warm.
This happened another time a few weeks later but not as severe.
Fast forward to 2015, I was learning a new dance at cheerleading and I start to feel my throat closing up and my lips looked like I had a botched lip job from all of the hives. I rushed to hospital thinking it would go down after a few minutes. I was wrong. The doctor who first took care of me said he had never seen anything like this before. I was given the same medicine but it wasn’t going down. So I was kept overnight until they doctors thought it was I was better to go home. I was diagnosed with Exercised induced Anaphylaxis.
Staying in hospital is not fun at all. Getting woken up every few hours for observations was horrid, and trying to get comfy with an IV in was even worse. But I have so much respect for the nurses, they would sit with you and talk. There was an elderly woman opposite me who kept pressing the help button and the nurses wouldn’t get annoyed with her but stayed until she calmed down. I couldn’t do that at all.
I was release in the afternoon the next day. The doctors told me to hold off on anything physical. Cancelling my gym membership was hard as I loved working out. I refused to give up cheerleading as I loved it so much!!
So after not exercising since October I finally did a little workout this week and it felt great getting back into it. I will never be able to run for hours on end or do a gruelling HIIT workout with weights. But doing little moves is okay. I still break out and need to take breaks but it’s better than doing nothing at all.
It annoys me when people ask me why I don’t work out and I tell them and they just call me lazy. I could do a hard workout but you would be taking me to hospital after it. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing more I would love to do. But it’s not just something that I can do.
I hope this post opens your eyes about my condition. It isn’t intended as a sob story, but to show people no matter how hard something is and when people tell you cannot do something, that you can do it!!
It all started in 2011. I would walk to sixth form and as soon as I walked through the big automatic doors I would be covered in red spots, a mixture between chicken pox and hives. Not attractive for a 16 year old.
I went for tests for months and months until doctors could figure what an earth was wrong with me and I was diagnosed with urticaria pigmentosa. I was given mountains of tablets to try and get my condition under control, it steadied for a few months and I was okay. But in the summer time of 2012 I was working out at the gym when I felt an attack coming along, general symptoms being tightening of the eyes and hives all over my body. As I was driving home I couldn’t breathe and my throat was closing. In a panic my dad rushed me to hospital where they tried giving me some tablets. Unfortunately when your throat is closing up you cannot swallow anything, the doctors should have known that! So I was given an IV and pumped with antihistamines and adrenaline. I was realised from hospital a few hours later. The doctors put this reaction down to the weather, getting too warm.
This happened another time a few weeks later but not as severe.
Fast forward to 2015, I was learning a new dance at cheerleading and I start to feel my throat closing up and my lips looked like I had a botched lip job from all of the hives. I rushed to hospital thinking it would go down after a few minutes. I was wrong. The doctor who first took care of me said he had never seen anything like this before. I was given the same medicine but it wasn’t going down. So I was kept overnight until they doctors thought it was I was better to go home. I was diagnosed with Exercised induced Anaphylaxis.
Staying in hospital is not fun at all. Getting woken up every few hours for observations was horrid, and trying to get comfy with an IV in was even worse. But I have so much respect for the nurses, they would sit with you and talk. There was an elderly woman opposite me who kept pressing the help button and the nurses wouldn’t get annoyed with her but stayed until she calmed down. I couldn’t do that at all.
I was release in the afternoon the next day. The doctors told me to hold off on anything physical. Cancelling my gym membership was hard as I loved working out. I refused to give up cheerleading as I loved it so much!!
So after not exercising since October I finally did a little workout this week and it felt great getting back into it. I will never be able to run for hours on end or do a gruelling HIIT workout with weights. But doing little moves is okay. I still break out and need to take breaks but it’s better than doing nothing at all.
It annoys me when people ask me why I don’t work out and I tell them and they just call me lazy. I could do a hard workout but you would be taking me to hospital after it. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing more I would love to do. But it’s not just something that I can do.
I hope this post opens your eyes about my condition. It isn’t intended as a sob story, but to show people no matter how hard something is and when people tell you cannot do something, that you can do it!!