My brother has been taking bee pollen for the last few days and I just now read an email from him saying he had an allergic reaction to it yesterday. Swollen lips, itchy eyes, the whole nine yards. However, he is planning to take the bee pollen again tomorrow morning. I read his email so late that I could not talk to him. I have texted him and said “DO NOT TAKE IT AGAIN or you will go into anaphylactic shock.” I texted my step dad and my sister imploring them to make sure he does not take it again.
The immune system, when it sees an allergen such as bee pollen, will mount a mild immune response to it at first. Upon repeated exposure, this immune response will get stronger and stronger, until finally the allergic person will go into anaphylactic shock! I believe this is what is happening to my brother, and if he takes the bee pollen again, he will go into shock. Not only can he NEVER take bee pollen again, he has to now carry an Epinephrine pen with him, just in case of accidental exposure. His immune system has been primed from these first few exposures and is ready to go, all guns blazing.
I hope and “pray” that he listens to me. I have set my alarm for 7:30 am so I can call him and absolutely forbid him to go anywhere near the bee pollen.
I am full of anxiety and dread at what he is going to do. I cannot lose another brother.
So much for the power of now. I am telling myself to remain calm, I have done what I could do being 600 miles away. I feel guilty for having traipsed around all day, celebrating the power of Now and not having read his email earlier.
Ok. Calm down. Be in the Now. Don’t bring phantom catastrophes upon your head.
I hope he reads my texts and listens to me, I am, after all, a Molecular Immunologist.
Oh please listen to me, Little Brother and don’t take the damn bee pollen ever again.
We will survive. I am assuming all’s well with him right now, and I’ll speak with him in the morning. I accidentally, somehow just pasted the following into this post, how appropriate it is to the current situation: “I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now.I Am.”
(Excerpt From: Tolle, Eckhart. “Stillness Speaks.” New World Library, 2009-01-01. iBooks.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/stillness-speaks/id379310794?mt=11)

Calm down. Stay in the present moment. Do not catastrophize.