Going for official allergy testing always scared me because I knew there was something going on, but if I knew what it was, changing would be a must instead of an optional thing. I never wanted to be the guest at the table who couldn't eat anything in front of me. Sometimes allergies take over everything. Nope, I played it 'safe' calling possible allergies just things that bothered my body.
I was pregnant with Charis (baby #4) and addicted to an evening ritual of Strauss chocolate chip mint ice cream and a warm cup of vanilla rooibos tea. Tim and I had three small children, one of whom was a baby, so it was like a date night to tuck them all into bed around 6 PM (YES bedtime was that early...still is...way less cranky kids) and cuddle on the couch watching something from Netflix or Gilmore Girls because we had a tradition of watching every season we owned each pregnancy.
Charis was my first homebirth baby with a midwife who expected a strict diet from her clients. I was up for the challenge, minus the whole ice cream thing. In my mind, I viewed it as some extra protein and we only got the best quality. Along with a healthy diet, was an infusion of raspberry leaf, nettle, oat straw, and alfalfa. I drank it everyday and fully believed this would all put me in the best health of my life.
Then a rash appeared on my left arm, just below my shoulder. My dark brown skin never turned red, so all I knew was that it itched like crazy and didn't go away. I blamed the drink and experimented with eliminating different herbs. Since the rash felt like stinging nettles against my skin all the time, I assumed it was this. It took six months to get rid of the rash and three of those months were with an baby girl in my arms. She was my fourth, but my body was acting strange.
When baby number five was born, I began to feel puffy and I weighted the most I ever did in my life. I didn't know what the cause of this was, but I crave foamed milk a lot. I found myself having a decaf latte a week for awhile as a treat. Not only did I get a treat, but my four kids were all strapped into the car for a whole twenty minutes while I went to purchase the coffee. The ice cream habit had grown into warm coffee milk. I drank my special infusion, as I did the time before, but without the nettle, so the stinging rash did not come back. I thought I had figured everything out. Other than feeling fat, I was rash free. I even noticed I hardly got sores in my mouth, when I used to get them all the time. Being healthy was paying off in several ways.
HIVES! I was covered in hives after my sixth child was born. I knew I must have an allergy, but I could not imagine what to. I traced it to possibly peanut butter because I had been making my son a PB & J sandwich daily for his school lunches when I had never really had much peanut butter before. In fact, I noticed my face swell slightly once after making my son's lunch, so I cut it out of my own diet. However, just cutting out peanuts seemed to not work...unless I was getting into trace peanuts constantly without knowing it. The symptoms got worse. My ankles and legs had welts on them. I had a huge hive breakout on the back of my neck making it challenging to sleep. Sleep with a newborn was hard enough. It was six weeks before these hives mostly went away. I went to the doctor who tested my blood for all kinds of things, but not allergies. Frustrated, I gave up and tried to test myself by eliminating things.
I started with peanuts and moved on to soy. Maybe I still had hives because I was allergic to soy as well? Often soy and peanuts were processed together making it difficult to pinpoint if I was allergic to one and not the other. This got things under control. I would have a few smaller hive episodes, but nothing like what I dealt with the first six weeks after baby number six was born. However, things didn't go completely away.
Then I went back to school and found myself back in my old college ways. I didn't want to be a pain, and I had not real proof I was actually allergic to anything, so I went and I ate what was provided to me. Worse than any hive breakout ever, I found myself knocked out for a week. My throat felt like it had a trail of hives all the way down it. I needed to sleep any spare moment I could get. I felt ill, but I wasn't sick. I knew I would need to be more careful next time, so I set out to buy a lot of my own food.
Without access to a kitchen I bought food I could just eat. This included a quart of my favorite whole milk yogurt. If I needed to shy around meats in strange sauces, then I would want some kind of filling protein beyond nuts. I didn't think twice about things like cheese frequently served with Mexican food (super popular in southern CA). I also bought fruit, nuts, and plain salad. I didn't want to get dressings because of the soy and peanut factors and a bottle of olive oil seemed like a bit much for the whole ten days I would be on site for school.
The first time, I was at my school's ten day intensive I made it a couple of days before my mouth broke out in sores. This time I made it five days. I was sure it was the tortillas in some Mexican food that may have contained soy oil. Everything went back to that meal.
However, everything went back to another food group in all of this. DAIRY! I have never been best buds with dairy. It was a suspect of discomfort ten years ago, but I had conveniently forgotten that. When I came home from my second intensive, I was knocked out for weeks...in fact over a month before I went to the doctor for a physical, and begged to start allergy testing. I was swollen with hives on and off, and I felt like I almost had the flu for weeks. I should also state that I worked out six days a week intensely and never lost a pound. I did mysteriously gain about four pounds during the ten days I was gone, and I ate less than usual.
I went for blood testing. It was not always accurate, but a good place to start. When I opened the results I was possibly allergic to dairy and sesame. Suddenly a lot made sense. By avoiding all things with soy and peanuts, most sesame things were out of my diet as well. There was a granola I loved that gave me hives, but did not contain soy or peanuts. Guess what it did contain? Sesame. As for dairy, one can see I ate a lot of it. I also always cooked in butter. It tastes so good. This was going to be harder for me to eliminate.
It's been two weeks now without either of these things! I feel wonderful. No longer is the couch calling me for a nap every hour of the day. I lost two pounds! I don't have hives! I still have the remains of a few sores in my mouth, but they are healing. I don't feel swollen. Plus, I feel so great I don't miss the bear paws, lattes, cookies, veggies cooked in butter, etc. I do miss bread and butter, but other than that, so far so good. It has been worth it to remember what it felt like to actually have energy! Maybe I haven't figured it all out, but what I have learned is to not ignore one's body's warning signs.
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