Growing up we didn't know about allergies. I had "summer colds" my mom thought that was weird. I coughed and hacked at night till we all thought a lung was going to come up. That was the "croup". It wasn't until learning about my kids that I learned that my cough was asthma.
Having knowledge has been key to understanding the allergies and asthma and finding ways to feel good and not have the cough anymore. Over the past few years I have developed something new. New to me anyway. I have at least one food allergy if not more then one. We know for sure sesame is bad for me. I knew that my reaction wasn't "good" but it took me a good 4 years to go to the doctor for the medicine I needed. Mainly because I figured I could just stay away from sesame and be okay. The final straw was a couple weeks ago.
Dash, Cman, and I were out and we were going to try this fun new place. It was a BBQ place so I was VERY okay with that! I love good BBQ! The problem was when we walked in--it smelled of sesame. Dash started to walk back out. I said "no, I'll find something I can eat here." We stood there a few minutes while I considered options off the menu and then it started happening. I started feeling sick. How can that be? I hadn't even eaten it?!
When I spoke to the doctor about my symptoms (my general doc not a specialist) he said, yes you need an epipen he also verified that what I was experiencing was anaphylaxis reaction and that the epipen would help but not to take it unless I could not "get better" on my own because of what the epipen does to you.
Scary stuff. This is new territory for me. The thing of it is, allergic reactions get worse and last night we ate at a Mexican place and I felt bad for quite a while afterwards. It wasn't all the same reaction as sesame, so now I think there might be other things in fried foods that make me sick. I grew up eating peanut butter and I've eaten it recently and was fine so it's not peanut. My doctor recommended that I see a specialist to help isolate other allergies I may have, I guess that's the next step I'm going to have to take. It's weird. I don't mind taking my kids to go and get what they need and I encourage them with their own allergies on how to handle it but I don't want to take the time for myself to deal with all of this.
I think a lot of it for me is if I can take care of it on my own that's what I want to do and the reality is with my allergies getting worse I probably should have it looked into and make sure that there's not more I could do and to know more specifically what to avoid. What a bummer. I wonder how long it will take me to make that call!?
5 comments:
I didn't realize you could have a sesame allergy. That would be annoying because you don't always know what all is in certain foods. Hope you figure out what the other allergy source is.
Food allergies are tough. We are discovering my wife is allergic to milk and wheat products.
I would strongly vote for the go-find-out soon course of action. Once you know you can have a plan. Plus, you wouldn't tell your kids to wait a year, so you have to be willing to do the right thing for you as much as them. I say this because I just made myself go for a check up (3 years since I'd done one.) Everything is fine but it's just a realization that once in a while I should do the right thing, even when I don't want to!!
Allergies - I HATE 'EM! I am allergic to anything green including mold. Everytime I get a cold in the Spring, Summer or Fall, I have to learn of other people being ill in order to know if I have a REAL cold or just too much antihistamine for my body to deal with. Spain is weird. Some problems have vanished - while others have increased - like dust mites. Allergies can be triggered by stress, or genetics or problems during early years of development. You have my sympathy!
I understand how hard it is to make your own doctor appts. I hate doing it. It's always best in the long run though.
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