Last August(2018) I flew on American Air heading home from Bonaire to Miami.I am very allergic to seafood, especially airborne and also unfortunately to antihistamines… so Benadryl is not an option for me.
As we boarded I asked the flight attendants if they could make an announcement of some sort that a passenger has an airborne seafood allergy. They said they cannot control what people bring on the plane to eat. I asked if they serve any kind of seafood on the flight and they said no.
Midway through the flight I dozed off but was awakened by my rapid heartbeat, runny nose, throat starting to tingle with feeling of thickness, accompanied by hot flashes from my head down my neck.
I looked down the isle and they were starting to serve lunch and snacks. I pressed the call button and my husband and I started to tell the flight attendant about my situation. He looked at me and said, “If you start to feel any worse, you can grab a vomit bag and breath into it.” At that point my anxiety kicked in and my symptoms started to get worse.
For the rest of the 2 hour flight I sat in my seat, said a prayer over and over, I cried, sucked on ice cubes and covered my head with a blanket trying not to breathe any of the airborne “fish” air. My husband checked my pulse every 5 minutes and did his best to slow my heart rate. All I kept thinking was… omg, Am I going to have to use my Epi-pen, am I going to die at 35,000 feet in the air, do any of the flight attendants even understand allergies and emergency treatment…. what the heck would they do if my throat closed? Give me more ice cubes?
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