Food Allergies

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by MrYum

Some of the stuff I read online about this are downright scary. Her doc gave her a self dose of adrenalin for emergency situations. If she feels her throat closing up due to anaphylaxis, she's to jab this thing into the outside of her thigh and immediately get to an ER.

I've been told if I have sulfa drugs orally again, I'd probably die. So I stay away from them. The whole throat closing thing really scares me. The first time I ate them the inside of my mouth, and the side of my tongue kinda broke out. 2nd time, same thing, only a bit worse, and it lasted longer. 3rd time...worse and the breathing scared me. I dropped benydril right away. With me, I don't know if my asthma was kicking in due to scaring me, or if I actually was heading towards anaphylaxis, but I don't want to find out. I'm real careful now if I get any kind of "mixed" veggies, to make sure there are no green beans. I mean, I've heard of nut allergies, but not bloody green beans.

I just hope she gets better soon, and it isn't not allergies. I worked with a girl that had nut allergies, and she couldn't touch anything that contain nuts even to her lip's without her lips swelling up. She didn't even have to keep the thing with the nuts. Just touch it to some part of her town or lips and shoot have a reaction and end up in the ER.

Good luck with the allergy testing. And sorry to hear that your girlfriend is having so many problems.

[pornrex]

For the first 38 years of my life I couldn't tolerate peanuts. My mom knew early on (during pregnancy actually) that I would not be able to consume them, because whenever she ate them, she became violently ill.

As a child I always carried an anaphylaxis kit, had them at school at home and just about everywhere I ever went, just in case and its been a lifesaver for me on more than one occassion.

But here's the kicker: about a year ago, I went for an allergy test as has been my custom for my entire life and I found out that I was no longer allergic to peanuts anymore - no joke. The test was performed three subsequent times since that first time and the same result: not allergic to peanuts! So, being the 'brave fool' that I am, I decided to have my first PB&J sammich, with anaphylaxis pen on standby, just in case.

As it turned out, I had no reaction, which in fact shocked the complete hell outta me. I was puzzled beyond my imagination. For 38 years, I couldn't even bare the smell of peanuts and here I am now able to eat them raw or in peanut butter form, which still feels weird having to tempt fate like I have these past 15 months but no reaction has occurred since.

I asked my family doctor about it and he told me that certain individuals may be allergic to an allergen their entire lives or for brief periods, or even can go 'off and on' but it mostly depends on your genetics, age, time the allergy kicks in, etc.

The best thing you can do for your gf, Yumster is to get her an anapen and avoid peanuts at all costs. Who knows, maybe in a few years or whatever, she may even overcome the allergy but better safe than sorry for the time being.