It sucks when what was thought to be a mere food intolerance turns out to be a full blown allergy attack. Argh. The reactions are sucking terribly and I feel so awful right now.
Ten years ago, I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted. I had no idea what food allergies really were back then. I had heard of them and had seen my aunt have her reactions during the holidays, but I just didn't know what they did to a person. I remember how my aunt would cook dinner for us each year and then after we ate, she would turn red and get extremely sick. It seemed to get worse as each year passed. The last year she had an attack, she ended up in the hospital and almost died. So from then on, she had to avoid all meat except for poultry and several other food items. If she touched the foods, she risked the possibility of death if her reactions weren't treated right away.
My first reaction to foods was back when they started adding green dyes to cereal. I started getting sick and from then on, I avoided those cereals. No problem. Right? Wrong.
I started having reactions to shrimp and most other seafood long before I realized that I was allergic to them. I would have Chinese food, usually shrimp fried rice (I'm picky and can't tolerate most of the stuff on the menus), and I would end up swelling and feeling mildly sick to my stomach. Migranes were common.
So, I was stupid and ignored the signs and continued to order the items each time we had the urge for that kind of food.
Finally, I started to become more suspicious. One night, when I made a shrimp dip for a holiday meal thing, I had a bad reaction. I had offered to make the dip and it was supposed to sit overnight in the fridge, so of course I sampled a bit as I prepared it. That night, I was so violently ill. Beyond flu or anything else. Stupid me ate more of the dip and several other foods containing the shrimp the next day. I guess I was hoping that I wasn't having reactions to a food I loved. Then my tongue, eyes, hands and everything else began to swell. My throat began to close and I couldn't breathe. Lucky for me, my mother in law is a nurse. She got the benadryl into me and I was fine.
At this point in the stages of my allergies, it took an entire serving of shrimp to make me have a reaction. Now, if any of my food even touches a surface where shrimp was prepared, I get violently ill. I can't eat certain foods from most restaurants because of this. I can't eat mozzarella sticks or french fries from a restaurant if they serve fried fish or fried shrimp. I can't eat a steak if the restaurant cooks any sort of seafood on the same grill.
Allergies suck. They completely limit the foods you can eat or even think about sampling. I can't eat a freaking egg roll if they put one single tiny bit of shrimp in it. I can't pick it out, nor can I even touch the damn thing!
Now, it appears that black olives are on my 'foods I can't eat' list as well. I had suspected them for a while now, but I hadn't had a reaction such as this and they aren't on the official 'common allergy foods' list. Now, I have definitely confirmed my suspicions and know that I am very allergic to them.
Eating sucks.
Currently, the items on my list of foods to avoid are: Milk products, eggs, nuts, corn, popcorn, string beans, butter beans, tomato sauce, beef, lettuce, cucumbers, chocolate, olives, parsley, wheat, hot peppers, beer, shrimp, any seafood, green dyes, jello, kool aid, tortilla chips, salsa, green peppers, rice... and probably a bunch of other things I can't think of right now. That's a lot of stuff to avoid.
I really wish my head would stop hurting.
So, my night has been completely wasted. I spent it in the bed, and not by choice either. I wanted to do some writing and get through some of my homework as well. Now I have to spend extra time working on the stupid stuff this weekend. Great.
