cb12

Over the last week, I have had quite the learning experience and came out with a very profound sense of respect for folks who live with severe allergies, especially food ones.

The last two weeks have been filled with doctors appointments because I kept getting these swellings/hives on different parts of my body. It started with my arm, then moved to my eye, and last night was my ankle. Last week, the doctor I saw was very concerned that I had developed a food allergy, so she told me to avoid the following: wheat, dairy, nuts, bananas, strawberries, and fish. I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating grocery shopping is when you can't have wheat. Wheat is in everything! Even tomato soup!

Thankfully, I saw an allergist today and I'm back to my normal diet including wheat and dairy. *so excited* but interestingly, I'm mildly allergic to carrots. Who woulda thunk?!

I give major props to folks with food allergies! That takes some serious discipline.

Kialua

Glad it worked out for you. I had hug swelling from mosquito bites recently and I needed antibiotics. I don't have any food allergies except for yogurt which I can live without very easily. My daughter on the other hand gets sick from all kinds of foods and she doesn't work very hard at it to keep away from those. She loves food, eats and pays the price, though it's internal, not like suffocating from a peanuts allergy or breaking out in hives.

Chris1000101

I love cooking, especially for others when I have the chance. Many are shocked when I ask, “Are there any allergies that I should know about before making the meal?” I have similar issues with pork so I defiantly know about being cautious. I’m adamant about cross-contamination. I’ve been known to add minced carrots to my red sauces but that is an easy one to do without. I would be curious to know if parsnips are an issue too. I’ve been known to add one with mashed potatoes just for a change in taste.

Thinking about this thread . . . My alcoholic parents would have done nothing but complain at first had they known of someone’s allergies. Trust me when I say they would have used it against us kids as a sick form of punishment given the time to think about it. I can be grateful I’m not like them but it is sad to know how they think and what they would do. Anyway . . .

Glad to hear it’s not wheat that is giving you problems. I have a friend in Kansas that is deathly allergic to wheat and corn. Between the two, there is nothing she can eat but salads unless she buys it raw from a health food shop or grows it on her own.

frances2011

Glad you are getting to the solutions and expert help you need to be happy and healthy.

For me, as an ACOA, taking care of my physical health is VERY ON TOPIC. lol.

JustAYak

Carrots?? I didn't even know you could have such an allergy... Interesting.

Kialua

Chris1000101 you are right on target, my parents would have used that as punishment. We had to clean our plate under threat of beatings no matter what. And we did. Until one day at my confirmation dinner with all the relatives I decided that I should stop eating mashed potatoes to loose a couple pounds. When my A Dad saw that he raged at me and sent me to my room, missing my own party and waiting for the beating to come. I know he would have done the same thing if one of us were allergic too. We never went to the doctor once.

Chris1000101

Kialua, I don’t remember having to clean my plate after my bio-parents divorced. I do remember my bio-dads second wife couldn’t cook. Six days a week, it was hamburger helper. I can’t eat anything that resembles it today. I made goulash once and when it was done wouldn’t touch it. I told my wife, now ex, after dinner to give it away or I was throwing it away. One of the foster homes had the clean your plate thing. I didn’t do well with being told what to do. I was only there for 2 weeks before I was in another home. lol Thank god those days are over!

Sorry to hear about your parents being that way.

cb12

Wow! I never expected food or food allergies to be a source of "pain" related to alcoholic parents, but it's a very good point. Growing up, my parents were happy when we were apart of the "Clean Plate Club", but we weren't punished for not having a clean plate. Then again, my dad wasn't home very often for dinner so that doesn't say much. This is something for me to ponder.

SpeedyJason- I had the same reaction... are you serious? Carrots? I guess anything can happen. I read that it is a very rare allergy in the United States, as to why this is I have no clue. Whatever I was reading also said that it is more common in the UK.

Chris- you brought up the point about also being allergic to parsnips, I don't know if I am, but I've heard that people can have food-pollen allergies. So, some folks are allergic to foods associated with certain pollens. If parsnips are "related" to the same pollens as carrots, then I probably would have a similar reaction.

Frances- thanks for that reminder. I had a friend tell me today that he hopes I'm taking time to take care of my health. I'm the first to admit that my physical health is the last thing on my list of priorities during the day/week/month/year. I have always been "lucky" to be tall and thin, so I tend to take it for granted. There are moments every couple of months, where I realize just how lucky I am to not have weight issues.

I'm so glad that this ended up being a topic that could relate to ACOA issues. I felt a bit guilty even posting about it. Thanks for all of your replies!

Kialua

LOL as far as my childhood with my crazy parents goes there isn't a topic I can't turn into a ACoA story I guess...

cb12

I got the last of my allergy test results this morning. I'm also allergic to barley and I accidentally just ate it. I'm not used to checking labels. Note to self: check breads. All breads.

I have some weird food allergies. Carrots and barley.

JustAYak

Isn't barley like a wheat product?

cb12

It's a grain, yes. I'm still figuring out just how many foods/breads contain barley. I checked the label on the plain bagel I ate this morning- it had barley too.

I am kinda bummed because I eat a lot of bread. It's one of my favorite foods. My friend suggested that maybe I created my own allergy just based on how much bread I consume.

The pro to all of this is it gives me a valid excuse to turn down a beer every single time.

frances2011

CB12, glad you are getting to the bottom of it. LOL on being absolutely, truly 100% allergic to beer. Huh, barley and carrots. *scratches head*

My experience with friends with food allergies is watching them feel SO much better after finding out and avoiding their allergens. Hope this is true for you even though it's a major hassle.

Chris1000101

Frances2011 - Beer would be first on the list but believe it or not so is caramel color, malt, malt flavors and most whiskies. I’ve done some research on my pork issue over the years, should I get to the point of having anaphylaxis from it I’ll have to eliminate gelatin. I pray I never get diabetes gelatin is used in insulin.

DesertEyes

No worries. This forum is intended to be a safe place for ACoA's to find support. Health issues, of any kind, cause stress, which triggers old emotions from the past, etc. etc. SR is supposed to be our "home of choice", as opposed to the "home of origin". We're supposed to support each other in dealing with life. So yes, allergies are a perfectly valid topic.

If a subject is _really_ far out, like say a favorite TV show has been cancelled, then I ask people label the title of the thread as "Off Topic". That is primarily to avoid confusing the newbies and lower the workload on the volunteers.

Mike
Moderator, SR

LotusBlossom

Food allergies are awful! A great allergist though while hard to find....is a miracle!

I am a chemist so I am exposed to all kinds of things that people normally aren't through the air, hands, etc. I mean sure, you wear gloves, but residual...being bored and stupid, haha.
Anyways, one summer while still drinking and in school, I decided I "needed to get serious about my health" (lol) and I went and grabbed a multi-vitamin, women's. I was 20 or 21 years old at the time. I started taking it. I had to go into the clinic and get a refill on a birth control pill and they discovered that my blood pressure was through the roof! Normally mine was LOW and has always been LOW! My normal blood pressure: 90/60 or so? During this time period it was 170/130. The doctor was like I'm absolutely not prescribing refills and I'm putting you on high blood pressure medicine. By the way, it's because you are "fat" (that's a quote). I was technically ~60 pounds over the "ideal" weight for my height.
I kept telling him this doesn't make sense, etc. He wouldn't listen. So on this stupid beta blocker I went. I wasn't getting preggers at that age while still in college (I was married, but didn't care).
I started putting 2 and 2 together and realized that my BP was spiking around 2pm every day...around 5 hours after I took the multi-vitamin every day. Earlier in the year, I figured out I had an extremely severe skin allergy to sulfur/sulfa/sulfate (several forms) from one of my chemistry labs (advanced organic) by all of us taking dropper fulls of stuff and putting it on my skin to see what happened (bored chemistry students = bad thing). So I looked at the label of the multi-vitamin and low and behold, there were SEVEN minerals in their sulfa form. I was like....well...maybe? I'm getting blood pressure spikes, massive headaches (presumably from the BP spikes), passing out...I'll quit taking this. So, I did...and it ALL went away. Couple days later...as an experiment, I took one and 5 hours later, I had the effects. So I scheduled a doctor's appointment (I had quit taking the stupid beta-blocker) and my BP was magically FIXED! He was like OH FINALLY! I can prescribe you your BC now that your BP is fixed. I guess we got the dosage of the beta blocker right. I said ya, it was no dosage (after I had the script in hand). He tried to get the script back from me and I left the office.
I worked in a place that I had to taste flavors and they eventually had to send in the formula sheets because I was having reactions to some of the flavors. The ones I was having reactions to? They had sulfates in them. I also have to watch foods that have a lot of preservatives in them as well since a lot of those are sulfate based. Also sulfa drugs. AND laurel sulfate? That stuff that is ubiquitous in soaps? Gives me rashes and scabs/scars on my scalp/body. Can't use that stuff. Fortunately now with all these products coming out that are "color safe", color safe = sulfate free.

A good allergist? Amazing. Being your own scientist and health advocate? Always your best bet. ♥s and gl figuring out the rest of your allergies! I hope they find them all!! It's REALLY scary stuff!!!

cb12

I emailed my allergist yesterday to find out just HOW allergic I was to barley... Turns out the doctor who left the message (the crazy one that took me off all those foods) missed the pollen part. She said "Barley" so I assumed it was the barley food, he writes and says it's "Barley Pollen." He said I don't need to take barley out of my diet and I don't need to worry about it any more. he's also going to mail me a copy of my allergy test results. He also said that he doesn't think that any of the random swellings were caused by a reaction to food. "Just an over-active immune system."

Ugh. Here I am buying like gluten-free bread (it was the only one I could find that didn't have barley wheat in it) and sh*t and I don't even need to. I wish she would have specified that it was barley POLLEN.

I think I might still use that excuse of being allergic to barley to get out of drinking.

Thanks for all your support and stories.

frances2011

Boo on the doctor not being complete with his message. Boo.

Glad you are figuring it out and that Barley is still on your OK list. I don't mind if you decide that barley in soup is OK but barley in beer is no good.

cb12

I'm not really sure how to go about expanding on this. Taking care of physical health. When I first read this, I immediately thought weight, but I've been contemplating this idea since you posted it and it just seems so important to me.

I bit my nails pretty badly until a couple weeks ago when I decided that I'd try really hard to grow them out. So far, I have not bit my nails and try are the longest they've ever been. Gorgeous, if I do say so myself!

Physical health is not just how much you weigh, it encompasses to much more than that. It's taking care of your whole body. Your hair, your feet, your hands, your nails, etc. I understand now just how hard it can be in the throws of depression just how much work it is to take care of your body.

Thanks for letting me share.

Wascally Wabbit

A few years ago when green tea was "popular", I had to try it. I wanted those health benefits!
Well, I bought a box of tea bags and started drinking one cup a day. I developed a very dry cough, and felt like someone had a grip around my neck. I wound up at an ENT who said he couldn't find anything in my throat. I kept drinking the tea, and continued to cough my brains out.

Weeks later and getting to the point where I couldn't speak without coughing, I mentioned this to a coworker. He asked me if I had been eating or drinking anything different. Bingo. I immediately dropped the green tea and the coughing went away.

Years later a friend develops this cough. (we're not smokers) I mentioned this to her too. She had been to many docs who couldn't diagnose. IT's the green tea! It must be a terrible irritant to some of us.