Nurse with exercise allergy comes out in hives and risks life-threatening reaction every time she has vigorous sex

A NURSE with a severe allergy to exercise has spoken about how having sex or going for a run could kill her.

Katy VanNostrand, 34, was diagnosed with exercise-induced anaphylaxis in 2009, meaning she is allergic to exercise and has frequent extreme reactions after physical exertion.

For years Katy, from Colorado, USA, would suddenly go into anaphylactic shock and have to be rushed to hospital for epinephrine medication, vitals monitoring and life-saving antihistamine treatment.

But, despite repeated occurrences, doctors struggled to find the trigger.

Her first reaction happened when she was a 22-year-old college student, studying religious studies at Bates College, in Lewiston Maine, while she was out running with her friend.

Katy said: “I was running and suddenly I started to feel really terrible. We stopped and I thought I must be really dehydrated or something.

“I pulled up my shirt and my friend looked at me and said ‘Oh my gosh’.

“My face and lips were swollen and my eyes were swelling so much. I was also covered in deep red hives.

“We ran to the local hospital and they said I was having an anaphylactic reaction, but it could be anything that caused it. Something I ate or maybe my washing powder.

“After that, this started happening pretty frequently. I had between 15 and 20 reactions a year.

“From 22 until I was about 28, I saw loads of doctors, but no one knew what it was.”

After moving from Golden, Colorado to Carbondale, Colorado with her husband John, 35, who is also a nurse, Katy wanted to make some new friends and joined a gym with her neighbour.

But within 10 minutes running on the treadmill, her face started swelling and she was rushed to accident and emergency at Valley View hospital where a doctor referred her to a new allergist.

Initially sceptical, but desperate for answers, Katy agreed to see him and within a few minutes, he told her he suspected she had exercise-induced anaphylaxis.

The ultra-rare condition means that if Katy eats certain foods, her body goes into shock when mixed with the hormones released when her heartbeat rises.

She has had to cut out grapes, cranberries, oats, corn, rice, onion, celery, fennel, nuts and even black pepper from her diet, in a bid to control the reactions.

She added: “Exercise for me can mean anything from going for a brisk walk with my dog, to a long run or even vigorous sex can trigger it.”

She has to carry an Epipen – an emergency injection which controls the symptoms of an anaphylactic shock – in case her throat starts to swell and she stops breathing.

She said: “I still love exercising, but there have been a couple of times that have been really scary and I’ve thought I might die.

“One occasion I’ll never forget happened back in August 2011.

“My husband and I lived in Alaska and I had run for about an hour out on this trail, when I started having a reaction.

“John was working a night shift, so he was asleep.  There was no one around and I knew he wasn’t going to wake up.

“My face was swelling and I was struggling to breathe, but I was just about able to drive myself to an emergency room. It was very scary.”

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