STORY THREE
Dear Reader,
One day in the fall of 2018, I was doing a late shift at work when I started feeling very itchy on my hand. I worked closely with fast food at the time, so I thought it was possibly due to all of the grease, and my hand was just irritated. But then it was my whole arm that was feeling itchy and irritated, and after just a few minutes, the skin on my arm started to become noticeably red. I asked to go home, and on the way home, the side of my back started to feel itchy and irritated. Still thinking it was irritation from the grease, I instantly went into the shower when I got back to my dorm. Unfortunately, in the show, I started noticing red spots on my body, and at that point, I was experiencing extreme itchiness. I yelled for my roommate to come over to see if she saw what I saw. She instantly screamed, "Oh my God!" She ended up giving me a Benedryl that only helped slightly, but I was breaking out in hives, and it was spreading really fast.
I called my dad, and he said to go to the ER. By the time I got to the ER, the Benedryl had kicked in pretty well, and the itchiness had calmed down, but the redness was still there. I explained to this white blonde nurse what was going on and expressed the rash was all throughout my body. She only saw me for about 5 minutes in total and only looked at one section on my arm that barely visible the redness. She checked no other part of my body and told me that she didn't see anything wrong. When I said, "But you didn't check my entire body," she said she didn't need to because there was nothing wrong with me. I immediately called my dad and told them what was going on, and he told me not to leave until they fully checked me. He even asked to be put on speaker so the nurse could hear him. The nurse told him no because, again, according to her, there was nothing wrong with me. And when she came back, she handed me discharge papers and another paper that detailed how to deal with anxiety. When I went back out to the front, I requested her name and another nurse to check me out because I wasn't leaving until I was properly checked. Of course, they called the police. Not wanting to go down that road, I left, went home, and went to bed.
The next morning, we'll look at that; I still had a rash all over my body. Needing to get this under control, I went to UrgentCare instead. When I was seen, I was seen by a doctor. I was scared he would say the same thing because the rash wasn't as red as it was the night before. But he took one look at me and said, "Well, you're having an allergic reaction to something." and even questioned why the nurse from the previous night sent me home. Even said, "Well, I would have anxiety too if I was having an allergic reaction!". This was an Asian doctor this time around. Thank God. He gave me a shot of steroids and some medicine to take for the next few days. It turns out I was allergic to the new organic face wash I had just bought and used for the first time that previous day. Anger doesn't even begin to describe my experience. Especially when I got a $200 bill from the ER a few months later. But I guess that's how it goes, right? I am a black woman.
- Ariana C.
