Let's Talk about Anaphylaxis

If you’re a law student at the university of Dundee and you’re in the cohort of 2017-2021, you know about me.

That’s not because I was elected as disability rep, ran for law soc, stayed back a year after getting sick, or I’m the now CMS brand ambassador, no, it’s actually something a lot more personal than that.

You might not know me, but you know of me, and you might have laughed about my deathly allergy to oranges, orange oils and orange derivatives, it even made it to the Facebook page ‘Dunfess’. (it's okay, I laughed when I saw it)

That’s because Brian in Family law, in Foundations of law, and in the Criminal law lectures he covered shouted out in the front of lectures that people were not to eat oranges in the lecture theatres.

As he was supposed to.

Other lecturers might have included it in their emails, but if they did it wasn’t memorable, and others just didn’t bother.

At severe risk to my life, might I add. And I wish I was exaggerating.

The story of the boy who died after a slice of cheese was chucked at him? I went into anaphylaxis after tripping over on an orange peel in the playground once.

But that’s not the worst of the stories about my uni and oranges,

I get a separate room for exams, because I run to the bathroom a lot, cheers to my intestines for that. Anyway, with my separate room comes a scribe, because with my Ehlers-Danlos my joints can suddenly freeze (very similar to arthritis), and an invigilator, because you obviously need an invigilator for an exam in a traditional setting. I use a laptop for my exams usually, as I have only rarely actually needed the scribe, so they usually get to sit and have a fairly easy time, read a book or something. These individuals are told of my arrangements the same as my lecturers are, ie- my conditions, why I need my adjustments. Accordingly, they’re told not to eat oranges, orange drinks, wipe surfaces, do the usual.

Did they do this?

Well, no,

In fact, for one of my exams after I had just been discharged from hospital and diagnosed with Crohn’s, hating life, convinced I would be needing to resit the exam as it was, the scribe had brought in a bag of oranges with them. As some sort of snack.

You couldn’t make it up.

And it’s funny *now*. (Not really).  I can laugh about it *now*.  (Not really.) But in that moment, I could have cried. When my immune system was already in overdrive as it was, attacking my digestive system and skin, the last thing I needed was to be sitting in the same room as something that had the potential to kill me *very easily*.

So why is it important that nobody in a lecture hall eats an orange if I’m sitting in it?

It’s just too risky. Imagine a peanut allergy on a plane, and the air gets recycled on a plane. When you break open an orange, the same thing happens in a room that isn’t guaranteed to be ventilated, to a lesser extent. But additionally, the oil spreads and it lands on surfaces. Kind of like Covid-19 spores. But the tiny tiny bits of oil in the air can set off my immune system which, as we now know for definite with the diagnosis of Crohn’s, hates the body it lives in. When it senses orange oil, it wants me dead. When I ate a chocolate orange one Christmas, it nearly succeeded.

As much as I joke around, I really do kind of like existing on the planet. And my orange allergy is a funny allergy. Of all the things to be allergic to, my body picked one of the most common, cheapest fruits: one of the most common ingredients, one of the hardest things to avoid in daily life. So if you’re upset you can’t eat your orange in lectures, don’t worry! I’m not a fourth year this year, and it looks like big lectures are virtual anyway x

In all seriousness, do you know how to administer an epi-pen? Adrenaline is a lifesaving device, and I have to carry two pens with me at all times. Teachers aren't allowed to touch these unless they're trained, to my understanding. My pens are branded, and so have diagrams printed on the pens, but generic pens may not always have diagrams. If you notice someone cannot breathe, has started panicking, has changed colour, or has been in contact with a recognised allergen and they carry an Epi-Pen/adrenaline pen, don't panic! here’s what you can do…

remove the cap [usually BLUE]
administer to a fleshy part of the body [usually a thigh]
hold for roughly TEN [10] seconds to be safe if you can while doing the next step [we were told to count in 'one apple', 'two apples', 'three apples'…]
call an ambulance and say ANAPHYLAXIS 

Allergies can be an expensive business, and epi-pens have to be replaced every year or they could lose their effectiveness.

Leanne-Sydonie x