Anaphylaxis: The Ten Minutes That Matter, and What Every Family Should Know

Everything else on this website is written to be thought about. This blog is written to be acted on, so it is deliberately short on nuance and long on instruction.

If you are reading this because something is happening right now, stop reading and call for emergency help.

Recognising it

The word that matters is systemic. A rash alone is not anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis involves the airway, breathing or circulation, usually alongside skin changes, and usually within minutes to two hours of exposure.

A simple way to hold it: think airway, breathing, circulation. Any swelling of the throat or tongue, any change in the voice, any difficulty breathing, any faintness or collapse.

Any one of those after an exposure is enough.

In small children the presentation can be less obvious. A child who becomes suddenly floppy, very pale, unusually quiet or difficult to rouse after a food is an emergency even without dramatic swelling.

What to do, in order

1. Give adrenaline immediately if there is a pen available. Do not wait to see whether it settles. Adrenaline given early works better and the risks of giving it unnecessarily are small.
2. Call emergency services, and say the word anaphylaxis.
3. Position matters. Lay them flat with legs raised if they are faint. Sit them up if breathing is the main difficulty. Put them on their side if they are vomiting or unconscious but breathing.
4. Do not stand them up and do not walk them anywhere, even to a car, even if they seem better. Sudden standing during anaphylaxis can be dangerous.
5. If there is no improvement in about five minutes and a second pen is available, give it into the other thigh.
6. Stay with them. Note the time each dose was given, and tell the ambulance crew.

Using an adrenaline pen

Different devices have slightly different instructions, so read yours when you are calm rather than when you need it. The common principles are the same.

It goes into the outer thigh, midway between hip and knee, and it works through clothing. Hold it in place for the time your device specifies.

Do not put your thumb over either end while handling it, since injecting a thumb is a genuinely common accident. Then note the time.

Practise with a trainer device if one came with your prescription, and make sure the people you live and work with have practised too, because you may not be able to do it yourself.

Why hospital, even when they recover

Symptoms can return after an apparent recovery, sometimes several hours later, and that second wave can be as severe as the first. That is the reason for observation after any anaphylaxis, and it is why "they seemed fine afterwards" is not a reason to stay home.

It is also the visit at which a replacement pen is issued and a referral made, both of which matter for the next time.

Living with a known risk

• Carry it, both pens, always. The commonest reason adrenaline is not given is that it was at home.
• Check expiry dates and replace before they lapse.
• Tell people. School, workplace, restaurants, and the people you eat with. Reticence about this has cost lives.
• Wear or carry identification stating the allergy.
• Ask about ingredients every time, including at places you have eaten safely before, because recipes and suppliers change.
• Be more careful when unwell or after alcohol, both of which can make reactions more severe.
• Have an emergency plan written down, so somebody else can follow it if you cannot speak.

Where homoeopathy stands on this, stated plainly

It has no role in anaphylaxis. None.

There is no remedy, no potency and no protocol on this website or anywhere else in classical practice that treats a closing airway.

This clinic states that without qualification because the alternative is dangerous. A practitioner of any discipline who suggests their treatment can manage a severe allergic reaction, or who advises somebody to try something before using adrenaline, is putting a life at risk, and that advice should be reported rather than followed.

Where classical homoeopathy is legitimately used is everything around this: the ordinary allergic tendency, the eczema, the rhinitis, the general susceptibility. Alongside conventional care, never in place of it, and never with any suggestion that a rescue medication becomes less necessary.

If you carry a pen, keep carrying it, whatever else you do. The allergies page covers what this clinic does treat, and the blog on allergy versus intolerance explains which reactions carry this risk and which do not.