As a guy who grew up in New York City I happened to be subject to severe
allergies to the pollen or whatever was in the air in Spokane. The doctors
decided to immunize me against this problem. This involved finding out
exactly what pollens, etc., were causing the problem. To find out they
drew a checker board pattern on my back and applied a sample of a pollen
extract to each square. The results showed the relative sensitivity by
the amount of redness, swelling, etc. From this a solution was concocted
for my immunization which involved a long series of shots to be administer
over several weeks in ever increasing doses. Since I had to take the shots
every morning I persuaded the doctor to let my wife Lucille, an RN, give
them to me at home. We kept the vials in the frig. One morning before going
on alert duty she gave me a shot from a new vial. I went off to the squadron
building, met up with my crew commander Ed Loest and went in for the morning
briefing. It just so happened that this was the day for "changeover" when
we brought the new codes secured around our necks, etc. During the briefing
I began to get hot and started to itch and turn red. On the way out to
the site, Ed Loest fortunately recognized what was going on, a severe reaction
to the shot, I was going into shock. He raced me over to the hospital,
along with the top secret crypto codes that were just issued. As the doctors
in the emergency room worked on me, I remembered them asking Ed Loest why
was he carrying a .38 and to wait outside and him telling them no
way he wasn't going to let me out of his sight. I passed out shortly thereafter
and don't remember exactly what happened after that except Lucille took
me home later that night. The next day there was an all points message
from Headquarters SAC to the affect that no crew member will take any medication
24 hours before going on alert. As far as the medication goes it worked
I no longer had allergies. |
