Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Food... Glorious Food Allergies


Two weeks ago, I took a food allergy test at my doctor's office. The technician drew a bunch of blood. Last week, the diagnosis was that I was allergic to soy, wheat, eggs, peanuts, and corn. This was disturbing to me, as these supposed allergens (with the exception of eggs) are a huge part of my vegan diet. I had questions... lots and lots and lots of questions. How extreme are the allergies? How come I am only reacting to one of these things? Can I have any wheat or corn, or do I need to cut them out of my diet all together?

The nurse that was being the "middle man" during phone conversations with my doctor was fairly useless. Nice. Sweet. Trying really hard to be helpful. But pretty useless. In the long run, my doctor suggested that I see an allergist. So, today I did.

I spent three hours breathing into tubes to check for asthma. I was basically stabbed about 42 times, literally, to test for different allergies. After the welts formed, and they wouldn't let me scratch them for 15 minutes, the decided to test for additional allergies. Instead of skin scratch tests, I was injected under the skin with needles... 9 times. Again, I had to not scratch as welts formed, for 15 minutes. This really sucked.

Three hours later, we discovered that I am allergic to most grasses, molds, tree pollen, and some kind of tree that I have never heard of. I, however, have NO FOOD ALLERGIES!!! This includes the bananas that I have been lead to believe that I was allergic to my entire life. So, now I have to try a banana. I think that I won't like it, since I hate the smell of them. My allergist did say that there is a chance for a cross-reaction with bananas because I am allergic to latex.

You have to love the medical community. One doctor tells you one thing, with a blood test. The other tells you something completely different after stabbing you with tiny needles for 3 hours.

What does this mean?? Well, I am making cookies with wheat flour in them!!! And, I might try my soy milk again, although she told me that it may be an intolerance of some kind. As long as it doesn't kill me, I am okay with that.

2 comments:

Kari said...

BRING ON THE COOKIES!!!!!!!!

Anna said...

I agree with Kari! I'm so excited for the cookies!