Allergic reaction to Egyptian ibuprofen

To top off the flus, on Wednesday I had a very bad allergic reaction. I’ve been having this type of reaction a few times since we got to Egypt, but I haven’t been able to figure out what it is that I’m allergic to. I never had any allergies like this before. On Wednesday it was pretty clear though; I took an ibuprofen just before we left for the pool, and about 15 minutes later I could feel my scalp starting to itch and swell, big boulders pushing through, then my eyes swelled, my lips turned fat, my cheeks swelled and within 40 minutes, my whole head and face were swollen. My lips were so swollen I had trouble talking, and my eyes were so swollen my vision was blurry. I looked like a tomato. Courtney came over with an antihistamine that I took, and then we went home. By the time we got home I could feel my throat was swollen as well, and my head was pounding, not from pain but from the pressure. I lay down on the couch and must have drifted off for a moment, and Courtney got out the shot we had been given by the university pharmacy for something like this, frantically searching the internet for instructions on how to give an intramuscular shot. At the prospect of Courtney sticking a needle in my thigh, I managed to get up and started walking around the apartment. After a while I could tell that the antihistamine was working, and we could all relax. The swelling went away very slowly though, and it wasn’t until the next afternoon that I thought I looked normal enough to go out. Still today, Friday, I can see that my cheeks are a bit puffy.

I was never allergic to ibuprofen before and wonder if there’s something special in the Egyptian one. I don’t know that this is a very common allergy either. I got a phone number for a specialist that I am going to see next week, and hopefully he can help me sort it out so I don’t have to have something like this happen to me again.