Pre Princess Diary 2

Twas the night before cruising,
And all through the house, lingered incense a burning,
To stifle a mouse.
The chewable vitamins, all taken with care,
To banish the flu, which no one could bear.
The eyes started flaming, all red, full of tears,
The skin started itching, 'til welts did appear.
Aw, chuck it. So I started having trouble breathing, and wouldn't you know it - ended up in the hospital, itchy, teary and breathless, with a slightly low for me blood pressure. The doc gave me  prednisone, told me I wasn't too bad, they were going to keep me an hour until the welts subsided and then send me home. While sitting in the corral with the other poor patients, I started to feel funny. Instead of crying the universal distress call (NURSE!!), in an attempt to not bother anyone much, I stood up, walked to the nurse's desk, and told her "Excuse me, I think I am going to pass out." Something every good nurse like me would do. Out came the wheelchair and the BP cuff, and with a pressure of 72/41 or something similarly in the boots, I was placed in a lovely vinyl recliner, tilted feet up, and plugged with liquid. Unfortunately, it was normal saline and not beer.  After a couple of hours, my pressure was up, the breathing was better, the spots subsiding. Now all I had to do was go home and pack for the cruise. Which meant less than 2  hours of sleep. Not sure if it was the incense my girlfriend's sister was burning in the house, or the two Sunkist chewable vitamin C tablets with natural strawberry flavour and carmine red colouring that caused the reaction. It was the start of an eventful cruise. Sort of.
Cheers!