allergic to penicillin now!

Tracy, that's true. Food allergies are often outgrown. Medicine allergies are always considered present once identified, though. I'm impressed that you carry an Epi-pen, and even more impressed that you carry Benedryl. If you can avoid using the Epi, do so. Benedryl is MUCH better on the body than Epi. I'm not saying that in a life threatening situation you shouldn't use it, just that it sounds as if you play it smart!

Story time (all true):
I had a mother once who's child ate ice-cream with an unknown kind of nuts in it. The child didn't realize there were nuts until he'd eaten it and was upset because he'd ingested some. The child had a severe peanut allergy. The mother stuck the child almost immediately with an Epi-Pen when he told her he had eaten nuts, even though he was asymptomatic (he didn't have any signs of allergic reaction). Even worse, mom was more than prepared to stick him again if he didn't stop "breathing funny."

Turns out the child was crying so hard he couldn't get his breath (you've all seen people cry so hard they seem to gasp, right?). He wasn't crying because he was having an allergic reaction. He was crying because he was already upset, then mom popped him full of epinephrine giving him a raging headache. To top it off she was ready to hit him with another dose. Poor kid!

As soon as we got the unused Epi-Pen away from mom and the child comfortable in the ambulance, he settled down and was fine, except for the nasty side effects of the Epi. Turns out the child had whet walnuts in the ice cream. He wasn't allergic to those.