My wife is deathly allergic to bee stings. We first discovered this on the day I almost lost her. At the time, I managed to get Benadryl down her just seconds before she passed out.
Her allergic reaction came on sudden and without warning, she was simply stung by a bee. She walked into the house, acted drunk, sat on the bed and fell onto the bed... and soon quit breathing. Had she been unattended at the time, she would likely be dead..... and so would I, because I don’t want to live without her.
After that, we always have Benadryl and two Epi-Pen’s around. One Pen in her purse and one that I control in my med bag. We keep them up to date, but if one were expired, I wouldn’t hesitate giving it to her. Frankly, the only other option would be to watch her die.
Some weeks later we each performed a simple blood test on our own blood. A mix of fine Teflon balls is mixed with the blood sample and gently rocked on the slide to mix. Antigens and antibodies in the serum coat the balls. If there is an auto immune mix, the balls clump hard. My fellow students were much annoyed when 10 minutes of gently rocking netted no results. When I did it, my slide clumped with only 3 tips of the slide. Oops. A warning that rheumatoid arthritis was in my future. I was 20 years old at the time. Last week the bill came due. I'm 56 and the classic joint problems presented in my left hand joints and wrist.
The immune system is a wonderful thing, but it can also be very damaging.