Hi! Before I start this blog off, I want everyone to know who I am and how my life with angioedema started. I want everyone who reads this to feel like they have someone to relate to and someone who is actually real. No sugar-coating (unless it's a recipe ;)), lies, or nonsense here! This will also probably be my longest post because I have a long story so hang in there with me! Here we go.
My name is Abby. I am 20 years old, married, and a stay at home wife. I own a German Shepherd named Miya who unfortunately has a very small head. But she is my baby and she is ADORABLE! I am like most 20 year old women except that I have had a medical condition call Autoimmune Angioedema since I was 17.
- Angioedema is mainly swelling of different body parts which can or cannot be life threatening. It is treated with antihistamines and epinephrine, or in major cases, intubation or tracheotomy. The autoimmune side, your body mainly just attacks itself because it does not know how to work properly.
(Sounds gross huh?)
When my symptoms started popping up, the swelling was mainly just my tongue. I was swelling every two to four hours every day and was hospitalized immediately. Every time my tongue swelled, the nurses at the hospital would inject epinephrine into either my thighs or my arms. After one night of this,the doctors that were taking care of me decided that they could no longer be helpful to me so they intubated me and care flighted me to the University of Colorado hospital in Denver. From there, I was in the hospital for a few days and then sent home because my swelling had seemed to stop. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning. Only a few days after getting home, I continued my swelling cycle and it has not stopped since!
Over the past few years the swelling has spread to my entire body. Tongue, throat, face, neck, shoulders, intestines, you name it, I have swelled there! With all of this, I had to be home schooled for the rest of high school. Which home schooling probably was an amazing choice for me. ( I am not promoting home schooling here, education from certified teachers is very important!) But it was a great choice for me because I got to become best friends with my parents. They are absolutely amazing people! I had a few friends my age through high school too and were also the reason I met my amazing husband! But I will get to that in a bit.
I ended up deciding to go to the University of New Mexico after high school. I met three of my absolute best friends in the entire world there! After a year of trying to push through college on campus, I made it through, and went home for the summer. I ended up meeting my husband and started dating immediately. He was crazy enough to get on board with my swelly lifestyle! I ended up not being healthy enough to continue to go to college so I lived with my parents until I got married and we are now caught up!
So that is my story with how everything started and a baseline on what is going on in the crazy life of Abby! I will continue over time to share how my journey is going and also share random things that I think are awesome. Hopefully you will continue to follow my story and share it with whomever you think needs to hear it.
My handsome husband and I
Miya
Also, if you would like to see what my angioedema attacks looked like when they first started, here is a link to a video we made. (PS- I would not recommend showing it to children but it is your choice I guess lol)
