I'm normally so careful but a hidden ingredient I was allergic to.

[CantAffordTheOlympics]

I work as a childminder and one of the children's parents came over on Saturday with a thank you present as her children was leaving our care. Now the present was a tray of raspberry ripple cupcakes from Greggs. I had one slowly with a cup of tea and had no reaction to it.

The next day I was having my supper and fancied having one of them but I was tired so ate it quickly after my drink as I wanted to get to bed. In the matter of a few minutes the back of my throat and my tongue swelled up. While I felt the change I told my DH to get my allergy tablets. It didn't help. So eventually he phoned 999 when my breathing was difficult. Very scary.

The sat nav sent the ambulance to the wrong road but when they did get to me they gave me 2 doses of adrenaline. It made me all shaky.

Got to the hospital and got seen by the doc eventually and I was given something or other (dh says anti biotic??) we asked at 3am when we could go home to be told that the doc had finished her shift and I had been given to another doc. I hate to think what time we would have gone home if we hadn't had asked. We were there for 2 hours with nobody coming in the cubical to see if i was ok. Is this the norm when dh is with you?? Anyway we got home at 3.30am.

In the morning my dh popped into Greggs to ask about the cupcakes ingredients and they couldn't tell him. So he phoned up customer services and asked them. They sent him a list via email.

So looking at the email I found Apple! One of my main culprits of my allergies. I'm allergic to a lot of different fruits but I thought I was ok because raspberry's I thought I was ok with.

Seemingly it's not against the law for Greggs to not display ingredients. I thought at least they would have a book they could refer to or something? They cover the "may contain nuts" warning but people seem to think that you can't be allergic to anything else.

I did go down the route of going to the doc, getting referred to allergies clinic, getting epipens etc but that was years ago and I never had the need to use them.

I am trying to make a appointment to see the doc again (the phone is engaged when I call) as I need to discuss it with him again. One thing that I'm concerned about is that I'm not getting the right nutrients that I'm supposed to get because I can't eat a lot of fruits.

My dd has odd stomach reactions to certain cakes and bakes but not all cakes and bakes. For example greggs ginger bread men give her coeliac symptoms but not other local bakers. She had a reaction to some of the cupcakes at school and a cookie at soft play and usually she is fine to chocolate cookies and as you say as they don't have to display every ingredient its hard pinning down what she may have reacted to.

She's also allergic to tree nuts but fine with peanuts, and peanuts are readily listed but not tree nuts, she also has problems with some pollens but not all and has a shellfish allergy and often fish pies have prawns in them and some salmon dishes also have prawn but restaurants and pubs don't always list shellfish so we avoid fish when were out.

So I understand your frustration just because it may not be a common allergen doesn't mean the ingredients shouldn't be listed properly and I would suggest an epipen, we have one but thankfully have never had to use it.

I would also suggest greggs should fully list the ingredients and be careful with raspberries in things as raspberry tea and juice often have apple in.

you more than likely got a steriod, not antibiotic. you stayed for 2 hours (should have been 4-6hrs btw) in case you had a bi phasic reaction.
which is when a 1st reaction is controlled and then suddenly re-appears. you also had blood pressure pulse checked and hopefully your chest.oxgen levels, to monitor your breathing etc.

you should have been sent home with prednisoline steriods to take for 3 days to ensure your airways and breathing are not suffering side effects of allergic reaction.

you had a severe reaction with tongue and throat swelling, antihistamine tablets as you found out dont work for anaphylaxis.

if you were not given steriod tablets you need to go to your GP and ask for help. Gp can prescribe some , and give you epi pens. you can also ask to be refferred to an adult allergy clinic with a immunologist.
I would also recommend ringing the anaphylaxis campaign helpline. I have found them to be very useful over the years.

p.s. you REALLY need epi pens, as an adult its up to you to look after your health, and your children and those you love shouldnt be helpless to help you if you dont have epi pens or carry them around when another reaction happens.

good luck.