Thirty years ago I suffered an anaphylactic shock. It was fairly mild as I didn't lose consciousness but I came close. I was rushed to the nearest hospital where a quick check found that my blood pressure was dangerously low. I was given cetirizine hydrochloride to combat the allergic reaction.
I don't know for certain what caused the sudden attack but I suspect that one of my work colleagues put something in my drink.
Anyway, I recovered within minutes but six months later all my hair follicles were dead. My hair was falling out in clumps. I lost every hair on my body and my fingernails were cracking. A consultant told me that I was lucky because an anaphylactic shock such as I'd experienced can cause the autoimmune system to attack anything or everything. For me, it chose the keratin-producing cells. But it could have attacked the pancreas (type 1 diabetes), the myelin sheath around nerves (multiple sclerosis), the heart valves or many other things.
So, a warning: having a "faint" after an injection might sound like nothing but it could be life-changing.
(Feel free to re-post this on social media.)
Thank you.
That's a really good anecdote. I note the six month delay as interesting. How are your hair and fingernails these days?
Six months before hair loss appeared but the follicles probably died earlier.
Slight fuzz finally growing on head. I once had eyelashes for a while and I have a few eyebrow hairs. Nothing elsewhere apart from two hairs on one toe - which my chiropodist loves to point out on each visit. Nails mostly OK, although I get occasional brown markings due to psoriasis - another minor cross to bear.
Losing my hair also meant losing my vanity. It made me stronger as a person.
Thanks for asking.
What was the beef with the coWorker that they’d poison you?
They probably thought it would give me constipation (or something) without realising that I was allergic. A stupid "joke". Nobody hated me.