My throat tightened sharply like a door slamming shut with brutal force. Heat flooded across my face while my tongue suddenly felt thick and heavy. The room tilted slowly and the edges of my vision blurred.
“See,” my mother began saying confidently, “nothing happened at all.”
I tried speaking but air refused to move correctly through my throat. My chest pulled in shallow desperate breaths while the roaring sound of rushing blood filled my ears.
Miles’s chair scraped loudly against the floor. “Her face is turning bright red,” he said with rising alarm. “Mom, please look at her right now.”
Lena’s confident smile disappeared instantly. My father’s eyebrows drew together in confusion.
“Elaine,” my mother said suddenly with fear replacing certainty.
I reached for the table but my fingers slipped across the polished wood surface. My legs lost strength while the room spun faster around me.
The final thing I heard before darkness swallowed everything was Miles shouting with urgent panic. “Call emergency services immediately because she cannot breathe.”
When consciousness returned, bright hospital lights hovered above me while a steady monitor beeped beside the bed. My throat burned painfully and an intravenous line tugged against my arm when I tried to move. Miles sat beside the bed leaning forward with tense shoulders while staring at the floor. When he noticed my eyes open he straightened instantly with visible relief.
“You scared everyone,” he said quietly while squeezing my hand gently.
“What happened exactly,” I whispered because my throat still felt raw.
“You had severe anaphylaxis,” Miles explained with careful seriousness. “Paramedics used two epinephrine injections during the ambulance ride because your airway kept tightening.”
Two injections sounded terrifyingly close to disaster.
My parents’ voices echoed outside the room while arguing with a nurse. A doctor entered soon afterward with a tablet while introducing herself as Doctor Ingrid Salazar.
She examined the chart carefully before speaking in a calm professional tone.
“Your blood tests show strong indicators of multiple severe food allergies and something known as food protein intolerance syndrome,” she explained clearly. “These conditions can develop during adolescence and become dangerous when untreated for years.”