Okay, this is a cautionary tale of taking a free sample because it's there. Earlier this week Faith and I decided to get our butts in gear and start being productive human beings. Our work is just piling up because we have many different projects going on at once. We are intending to diet, but we really have not become serious about dieting yet. In fact Faith is not on a diet at all which makes what happened to her extremely awful and funny and terrible and funny again. This is my account.
We'd been working for a while but on different projects and in different areas of the house. I knew that Faith was going to be stuck working on the Vela's Villa website all day, but I also knew she had other stuff on her list as well. I too had a list of things that had to be completed, and I must admit we were both successfully ticking things off our list, but we were both afraid we might lose some steam if we kept working the way we were. Earlier that afternoon Faith reminded me that we had these energy drink-dietary supplement samples. She asked me if I wanted to share a packet. I assumed she thought that if we split it we would get less caffeine. I assumed she thought of killing two birds with one stone by getting the energy to work and maybe burning a few extra calories. To be clear she was not on a diet. I, on the other hand, was attempting to fast that day. I was feeling pretty good and could not risk anything going wrong. So, I told her I wasn't going to try it. I had a very bad feeling.
A few hours pass. Faith forgot to take it. She is getting things done, and then somehow the idea must have popped into her head again. Again she asks me if I want to split the sample. Now let me inform you I rarely, if ever, turn down a chance to experiment with a new diet supplement. I am usually the first in line. If it will help you lose weight, I will take it! So, imagine Faith's surprise when I said, "No, I don't want to." There was a little voice inside my head that said if I drink this stuff I will REGRET it. Maybe it was the packaging that warned me. Maybe it was because I really didn't want to ruin my fast. Little did I know my fast was about to get destroyed because at some point Faith took what she thought was a half portion of that sample.
Our family in general has a problem with side effects, and if there is a side effect it will manifest in Faith's body with a quickness. I was taking a break in Joy's suite because my area is being worked on and Joy's suite is right across from Faith's. Faith calls out to me and ask me if I had any Benadryl. She is attempting to be calm. She is trying not to scream. She is trying not to scratch. She is telling me as calmly as she can that she is having a reaction to that sample (Optimum Nutrition Platinum PRE- Pre-Workout Fruit Punch) she took. Her body movement says volumes. She is acting like her hands, arms and head are on fire. We look throughout the house. I always buy Benadryl but this time there is not one pill in the house. I had taken them all up to our place in the mountains. I give her the topical version instead in hopes that it would help her hands; it doesn't. Later that night we would learn that Benadryl would not have worked to stop this reaction anyway.
Faith kept saying her blood was making her itch uncontrollably. The more upset she got, the faster her blood would move and the worse the itching-tingle would become. She had to stop working and be calm. She began to do research on this diet supplement and if there was a way to reverse the effects (Thread On Beta Alanine Experience). Not only did she learn she would have to ride it out, but also she learned that there was another side effect, an "awful terrible" one. She thanked god that she was being spared this particular one, but was she really being sparred?
We decide to give up on work (because Faith really needed to stay as calm as possible) and watch some episodes of a Korean drama Full House Take 2. I, at this point, was still fasting. Hamburgers were being made, good ones. I was still refusing to eat. Then Faith got the "terrible awful" side effect. One minute she was sitting on the couch, the next she was running to her private bathroom with fear she would not make it up the stairs. Our mother screamed, "Just use the bathroom downstairs," but we all thank God she didn't. That is when Bryan decided that Faith would need to have some extra treats and left the house to get her potato chips and soda. Faith was becoming dehydrated fast. At this point I said "F it," and we all settled in for a long night. The hamburgers were awesome. Watching Faith run back and forth was hilarious! She drank a two liter of ginger ale all to herself! It was a long hard night. By the end it hurt for her legs to stand. By morning she had lost 5 pounds and she had gained the knowledge that she would never ever take anything with Beta-Alanine again! I am just happy I avoided a world of pain. Seriously, I wish I had taped it. It would be so funny to watch now! As for me, I didn't gain or lose weight that night.
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