Geoff, does this sound familiar? It came from someone’s travel diary I came across as I was searching:

“We had a few hairy moments during our last few days in South America! On Tuesday Clare went into anaphylactic shock and I had to rush her to the doc’s. It was pretty scary as she has never reacted to anything like that before and we still don’t know what it was. The doctors were fab and very hygienic, and thankfully she got better pretty quickly but it was a little scary for a while there!”

Apparently, as well as having antihistimine pills in your pouch, you should have self injecting adrenalin for future emergencies!
You should be able to buy this at a chemist in Thailand without prescription; or ask at the hospital.
I thoroughly recommend buying one before leaving Chiang Mai!
The site I looked at said, if problems arise:
Take an antihistamine (25-50 mg tablets or capsules of Benadryl by mouth) if you can swallow without difficulty.
If you are wheezing or having difficulty breathing, use a bronchodilator (borrow Geoff’s ventolin)
If a reaction of the entire body has been present, you should be given a prescription for a self-injecting epinephrine device when you leave the hospital. Inject yourself with a premeasured, prescription dose of epinephrine. Known as EpiPen or Ana-Kit (epinephrine), these self-administered medications are easily and rapidly injected into the thigh muscle. This is extremely effective and fast acting. Anyone who has experienced a prior anaphylactic reaction should carry these kits.

So there you are. I send this in an email but I’m not sure if you got it.

No, the problem with Muesli is if it has too hefty a percentage of oats. There’s a great advert on the TV at the moment which has some sour, earnest soul sitting at their breakfast table filling a bowl from a big brown bag labelled ‘Cat Litter’, while their happy, healthy looking friend, eating from her own bowl, has a colourful box of scrunchy looking quality cereal in front of her.

I just sent you a couple of emails with folk wisom from Mama concerning swellings and a few other things. My only questions are:
Have you got a ready supply of antihistimine to carry around? (See email as for why)
Have you got a handy electronic warehouse locally to purchase a better adapter?
Err, it’s a six hour time difference at the moment!
I must go and ring the travel company to get your insurance number. For some reason, I have your itinerary in triplicate, numerous, wholly useless photocopies of travellers cheques, and no sign of your insurance papers!

Crap? Get out of it! That man is so classy he could make anything funny.

Where are you now? I would suggest staying on in NZ for a year yourself, but I’m not sure your bank balance will stretch to it. I’m sure Chichester Institute could wait, though.

Mama says wear socks to prevent bites. I say get out of the festering hole where these insects breed. They might be plague bearing, too.