Idiopathic Laryngeal Angioedema with a combination of severe asthma is my disease. I had the fortunate experience of being diagnosed with this at the age of 9 after spending several days in intensive testing in Chicago, IL.

At this time, I was an active boy participating in any sport I could get my parents to let me join. This was a difficult task as I had already been diagnosed with extreme asthma and had to carry a nebulizer with me anywhere I went. My asthma had gotten to the point where I had a breathing machine for the house and a special one that could plug into a car. Keep in mind this was in 1988 and most nebulizers ran about $5-$10,000 dollars.

One day while playing in grandparent’s backyard, I had my first introduction to Idiopathic Laryngeal Angioedema. With virtually no air coming into my lungs and a nebulizer that was not working it was only minutes before I lost consciousness. I was saved by my neighbor who carried me to the emergency center.

When I awoke, I was in the hospital with tubes, needles, and breathing machines all around me. My parents were at loss with what to do. The Doctors referred me down to Chicago to see the only specialist in the country who had dealt with a case like mine. At the time, we would find out I was only 1 of 200 people in the world with this case. I would be documented and placed in his book before his death.

After a week’s worth of testing, constant needle pricks of every allergen known to man, and a mother who could not move her arm anymore from waving magazines over my back (to help with the itches) I was told to drop sports or I will die like all the others. It was my understanding that the other 200 had died or are in the process of.

I was issued a medic alert bracelet and given epi-pens that even up until today, save my life on a monthly basis. For reasons unknown to anyone, I continue to have attacks that completely close my throat, give me diarrhea, activate my asthma and knock me down to bed for days. I gained 35lbs. in one year in HS when pumped with steroids to help control the disease.

Being as though I am Irish, stubbornness comes naturally. Being stubborn, I could never give up playing sports. I was an all-star baseball, football, track athlete all through HS and eventually much further. During this entire time of competing, I was ridiculed by coaches and teammates alike for being lazy and “out-of-shape” for not being able to run for long periods of time. This would continue to current day.

Regardless of the constant “bashing” from my peers, I managed to get a baseball scholarship to a Division I University for baseball. At the end of my four years, I was saved by several teammates (epi-pen injection while unconscious) on multiple occasions. I managed to “go to the bathroom” outside during any conditioning exercises (due to disease I get diarrhea) and not get embarrassed. Overcome coaches telling me I was out of shape and un-committed. For doing all this, I was rewarded twice Division I All-American and broke the single season stolen base record. To this day I still hold a majority of all records in the conference and school.

In 2003 I was drafted by the San Diego Padres to play professional baseball. I declined, finished out the year and received my degree in Political Science. I now Direct Development at a multi-million dollar construction company located in Michigan of all places.

I still have to carry an epi-pen everywhere I continue to have a breathing machine with me at all times. What I don’t have is an ability to get “beat down” and let a handicap effect me. I can say with confidence, there are few people in this world with disease of this nature. I never know when it will hit, what makes it go off, or even if I can stop it and survive. All one can do is live life to its fullest and make each day memorable.

We all have problems in this world; its how we deal with them that separates us. I do know that regardless of what happens next, the only real defense to this disease is exercise and physical conditioning. Odd, but what seems to cause this problem is also what solves it. I have found that I must constantly push myself to be in the best physical condition or else I will become controlled. If I push too hard….It won’t be long before my body sends me a message in the form of a severe Idiopathic Laryngeal Angioedema attack.

Some rough estimates of epi-pen usage, inhalers, nebulizers in my lifetime

Angiodema & Epi-Pen Stats:

·         Over 20 times administer to myself

·         Over 10 times administered by somebody else (I had trusted friends that looked-out for me)

·         Over 5 times it did not work and I was hospitalized

·         Over 50 times used personal nebulizer

·         Pricked over 200 times of every allergen known to man in hopes of targeting problem.

·         2 times investigated for drug use, someone thought epi-pen was a illegal drug.

·         4 times publically embarrassed “diarrhea” in public when training.

·         Countless times had teammates sleep in my room with me because they thought I would not make through the night.