We are currently living in Atlanta, GA while Becki produces her latest film, Barbershop 3. Originally from Georgia, Becki was excited to be making a film in the city where most of her family lives. Being able to visit her 89 year old Father, her mother and her sisters, nephews, niece, etc. was a bonus to the making of the movie.
It started on the soundstage last Tuesday night. Becki texted me with a picture of her face, her upper lip slightly swollen and she joked about her new, sexy, pouty look. She didn’t know exactly why her lip was swollen, but she wasn’t worried. By the end of the night her lip was still puffy, but it had gone down a bit when she took an antihistamine.
The next day, Becki went to set with a tight throat and swollen lip. Her hands and feet had also started to itch. The on-set medic sent her to a clinic in the city where she was given a steroid shot and prescribed steroid pills to be taken over the next 5 days. She went back to work to finish her day. By the time she got home, Becki felt worse, itchy and weak.
When we woke up the next morning, Becki’s body was covered in red welts. This is where everything got scary. She immediately called the doctor who prescribed the steroids. Advising her to take a double dose to start the day. He said it should calm the allergic reaction down. If not, call back. So, off Becki goes to work. By 4 that afternoon she called me to say she was on her way to the emergency room at Emory Hospital.
For the next 3 days Becki was on an up and down cycle of pain, itchiness and being covered in hives. Not knowing what had truly caused such a severe allergic reaction all we could do was to eat very simple, plain food and try to remove anything we could think of that might be the cause. I washed everything in the house, bathed the dogs, bought new shampoos and soaps, trying anything to minimize Becki’s pain and suffering all the while watching her to see if I needed to use the prescribed epipen and rush her back to the emergency room. Thankfully, by the end of the weekend, it seemed that her breakouts had stopped and she might be through the worst of it.
I have never seen Becki in so much pain and discomfort. It was nearly unbearable for her. The not knowing and helplessness of not being able to take care of her was a horrible feeling for me. It has now been a couple of days since her last breakout. She has a follow up appointment with an allergy specialist (who had no clue as to what could be wrong or what the cause may have been), to go over some blood tests. I can only guess that it was a bite of some insect on her lip that started the whole thing, a theory that the specialist says is unlikely while not offering anything else.
Being far from home, far from our doctors and everything familiar made it all worse. I know it’s not rational, but I am looking forward to putting Atlanta in our rear-view mirror and heading home to Hermosa Beach.
