Welcome to my first blog post.
The aim of this blog is to reach out to others who may also be suffering from allergies that may be perhaps similar to mine, and to let you know that despite what I have been told by some medical professionals, my allergies have only surfaced in the last year.
I'm a female in my mid-30s. I have lived (and still live) a lifestyle that I would consider healthy. I walk wherever possible, I eat well, I don't smoke, I drink maybe a glass of alcohol twice a year, I work and love what I do, I'm happily married and am a mother to two wonderful children. Normal and healthy, with no known allergies; But something changed in 2011 that resulted in severe allergic reactions. The allergic reactions spanned 6 months. When it was at its worst, my eyes were pretty much swollen shut, I had itchy red rashes over my face, around my neck, down my back, the inside of my elbows, and on the tops of my hands. At its worst, I saw the inside of ER at my local hospital. It wasn't pleasant.
I was put on steroids to control the allergic reaction and told to rest. I was quizzed on whether I was stressed about anything or if anything in my life had changed recently, to justify my body reacting suddenly this way. The only thing stressing me was that my face looked like an uglier version of Will Smith's character in Hitch, and I didn't know why.
I started analysing everything I came in physical contact with, starting in the bathroom with the soaps, shampoos and cleansers. I struggled to find any common ingredient between them, that may be making me react badly.
I saw a dermatologist. That was no help. I saw an allergy specialist and had a blood test, where I came up as positive to a few things that I didn't know about, but more importantly, the foods and chemicals I suspected by that stage, that I was allergic to, I wasn't tested for. I had a long consultation with a dietician.
Throughout all of that, I was told that it's impossible to develop food allergies this late in life, but that I'm clearly reacting to "something", and it's probably a level of intolerance. My instincts told me to listen to my own body and try what I thought was right, and after listening to everyone else's advice for 6 months, to just attack this the way I think I need to. So I did, and I found something interesting:
I'm allergic to sulphites. Even a trace of it will start a rash. Sulphites are in most things. Sulphur is a common ingredient in cleaning agents and it's a preservative in foods. In its natural form, sulphur is in eggs. I'm allergic to eggs. If I eat one, my eyes swell up. I'm allergic to whey, so that means no dairy, unless I can find milk, butter and cheese without whey, which I don't think is possible. I'm allergic to benzoates, which make my skin paper thin and create open sores. The allergy test showed that I'm allergic to wheat, but I use to avoid that anyway because I use to bloat after eating it. (More on that in another post.) I also avoid gluten for similar reasons. I need to limit my intake of soy, specifically soy milk, because a rash will appear if I have too much.
If I avoid all of the above, I'm okay, but it's not easy to do.
After speaking with other people, I've found that I'm not alone here with my allergies nor with it "appearing" later in life. Allergies to food and chemicals seem to be on the rise, with many people not bothering to get tested for specific allergies, but have rather figured it out themselves (usually by an elimination type diet) and have managed the allergy by avoidance. This process is simple if you're reacting to one or two things, but in my case it was harder to determine because there were so many things, and to be honest, I'm still on the lookout for anything else to add to my list of things to avoid.
Anyway, through this blog, I'm hoping to share my experiences and journey with you. I'll outline how things use to be and also my reasoning behind some of the decisions I've made about food and chemical avoidance.
I'll be happy if I can help even a handful of people avoid going through some of the pain that I've had to. I'm also hoping that if you show similar symptons to food and chemicals, that you'll stop and take note, and avoid the horrible allergic reactions that your body can go through when it just hits overload.
Disclaimer: I am in no way a medical professional and I am not trained in anything related to food, diet, additives, chemicals, etc. I'm just your everyday person who is living through food and chemical allergies that I've recently been made aware of, through severe body reactions. This is my story.
