I Nearly Died From Eating a Gluten-Free Cookie

Annie Walsh is like any other 16-year-old girl — except that she's relied on an EpiPen to save her life 15 times. Here's how she lives with severe food allergies and what she thinks about the fact that the price of her life-saving device just sky-rocketed.

Last fall, I'd just gotten home from church, and I was starving. It had been a busy Sunday and I'd barely had time to eat, so I grabbed a box of gluten-free cookies from the kitchen. I read the ingredients — just coconut, ginger, sesame seeds, and dates, all foods I thought I'd had before. But I'd never had this specific brand, and, because I have severe food allergies, I knew it was better to be safe, even though I couldn't wait to chow down.

"Mom, I'm going to try these — could you grab the EpiPen?" I asked as I tore through the wrapping.

As hungry as I was, I took a tiny bite, just in case. Less than a minute later, I knew I was having a reaction. My throat closed up, and I gasped for air. My mom handed me a Benadryl tablet, but I could tell quickly that it wasn't working. My heart started racing as my mom jabbed the EpiPen into my upper thigh. I could barely feel it go in, though I could tell it was helping almost immediately — a small rush of relief. But I was still having problems breathing, so my parents rushed me to the hospital. The entire ride, I was gasping for breath and my heart was pounding as my parents tried to keep me calm. When I got there, the nurse administered a second EpiPen through a syringe and gave me IVs with steroids and more Benadryl.

When I woke up the next morning still in the sterile hospital room, I felt like I was out of the woods even though breathing was still tough. Later that day, at home, my asthma kicked into high gear. I had to take a day off of school, and I couldn't run track for a whole week.

I'm 16 years old, and terrifying, life-threatening reactions to food have become a pretty regular part of my life. Since I was one year old, I've had one almost every year. Luckily for me, the EpiPen has saved my life 15 times. Now, I know there has to be one nearby — no matter what. My mom always carries one; I keep one either in my school backpack or my purse; and the school nurses have them. All of my best friends know the symptoms of an attack and who to call when I need help. So, I know I'm covered — but it doesn't make the reactions any less scary. Allergies are serious. If I eat the wrong thing, it could kill me.

EpiPens have been all over the news lately. The price has gone up to more than $600 —that's six times what they were in 2009. I think it's horrible and a huge problem. This is a life-saving device for people like me; I need the EpiPen to survive. I'm as careful as I can be, but people make mistakes and we need access to this device. I've talked to my mom a lot about it. We have insurance, but we're worried the cost will still go up. No matter what, my parents are committed to keeping me safe, so we'll be forced to pay whatever it costs. I feel so strongly that the company has a monopoly so they can raise the price as much as they want and people still need to buy them. It's ridiculous because people need these to survive.

I am severely allergic to 18 foods: wheat, rye, barley, eggs, beef, tree nuts, peanuts, carrots, peas, beans, lupine, nectarines, dates, ginger, sesame, shellfish, chia seeds, and poppy seeds. The first time the EpiPen saved my life, I was just a baby and my mom fed me wheat. I ended up in the emergency room and was administered epinephrine. Since then, I've had major reactions almost annually.

The first attack I actually remember happened when I was five and got some licorice when I was trick or treating. I knew by that point I was allergic to wheat, but I didn't know licorice has wheat in it — I figured it was pretty much just sugar. I spent that Halloween night in the hospital. That's when I realized how serious allergies are and that I needed to be careful with every single thing I eat. I've had reactions to everything from homemade cookies to pizza at a restaurant that assured me what I ordered was gluten- and egg-free. In the case of the pizza, I suspect it had been placed on a contaminated surface or cut with a knife that had come in contact with something that's off-limits for me.

For a long time, my food allergies embarrassed me, so I avoided talking about them. And, of course, it can be really frustrating to go out to dinner to celebrate an awesome track meet with my teammates and have to bring my own food. But in the last couple of years, I've learned to channel that frustration into helping other people. I started the Prospect High School Food Allergy Club at my high school in Illinois. We started with just a few members, and now we've grown to more than 30. We've raised money for a local nonprofit that raises food allergy awareness and is working to equip all Illinois first responders with epinephrine auto-injectors. I'm also a teen advisor for FARE, the Food Allergy Research and Education organization.

My next challenge is choosing a college. I have to be sure that anywhere I go has kitchen facilities to accommodate my allergies. I'm thinking about going into medicine, because the main thing my allergies have taught me, after visiting doctor after doctor, is how important it is to help other people. Hopefully the makers of EpiPen will learn from this backlash and remember how important it is to help people, too.

from:womansday