Tentative OK on the eggs

Made myself two poached eggs for lunch today to no ill effect.  Hopefully, that means eggs are safe.  Next, I will try rice in isolation.

Milk, Soy, Bananas (?), Rice (?), Eggs (?) ... oh my!

Things have been challenging of late.  Ever since I returned from my trip to Rome.  It seemed to take forever to get over the Rome-Subway fiasco.  (We think maybe the sausage had parmesan cheese in it.  That would be much better than a cross-contamination reaction from not changing gloves.)  The pain in my gut lasted forever.  I think all told, it lasted 17, maybe 18, days.  That is actually within normal, but it seems like forever when you are in it.

The thing I couldn't understand was that even after the Great Acne Breakout I was getting itchy.  Now, the milk had never really made anything other than my face itchy before, but this was everywhere ... and weeks after the initial exposure.  It just didn't make any sense.

THEN, I went to tae kwon do class and broke out into smallish hives on my legs, arms, and chest and had some trouble breathing.  Truly, I wished that I had my inhaler.  When I got home, I used my inhaler and had all sorts of trouble all week and skipped tae kwon do on Friday. 

The next Tuesday, I went to class, and it happened again except WORSE.  I fell out of line (didn't even ask permission, just went) went I started having trouble swallowing.  Grabbed my inhaler:  once, twice, thrice, four times I took a puff.  I grabbed some Benadryl and tried to swallow it.  Thankfully, after the third, maybe fourth try, I was able to swallow it.  That last time was the last time I was going to attempt before calling 911.  I cannot even describe how I felt or even how I feel about it.  Shocked or maybe dismayed.  

In thinking about it all, the common element was soy.  Both times before class, I had myself a bowl of raisin bran with soy milk.  Since then, I've restarted my food diary, and sure enough, soy causes all sorts of itching and rashes and a dripping nose and nausea and exhaustion and so forth.  This, I think I am angry and annoyed by.

The food diary is also showing possible reactions to bananas, eggs, and rice.  These aren't so clear cut, and I will need to do better at tracking and isolation.  I can't even be angry by this.  It's enough to drop me into a pool of despair.  I feel like my body is attacking itself.  Worse, I am so very tired.  I don't really know what to do and am pretty convinced that there isn't much the medical establishment can do to help.

The internet is a bust.  Histamine Intolerance:  avoid all histamine foods especially fermented ones.  Leaky Gut Syndrome:  repair the gut by eating naturally fermented foods.  You Can Develop an Allergy at Any Time:  we've no idea why or what to do about it. 

I am a relatively health forty-two year old woman.  My heart is good; my blood pressure and pulse are good; my iPhone app says I have a low resting heart rate.  I am not a work out machine, but I am relatively active when I don't feel like a pile of poo.  My weight is well within the desirable range.  Until this recent craziness, my migraines were gone with the elimination of dairy and so was my acne.  Lungs show clear; no asthma.  While I think I've had this dairy allergy for a long time, at least since I started college, I never knew of any allergies.  What the hell is going on?!  What do I need to do to get and feel better.  Not that I am hungry, but I begin to dread meals.  What can I possibly eat?  What is going to make me sick this time?

I'll be seeing the allergist on the 11th.  Maybe something good will come of that. 

Foggy-brained and lack of direction

This past two weeks since my Rome-Subway exposure have been quite difficult.  For such a slight exposure, it has been troubling how long it is taking me to recover.  Last Tuesday, a few days after I had my cross-contaminated sandwich, I had difficulty breathing during my tae kwon do class and needed to resort to my inhaler that I thought I could put aside and had the nurse take off of my current medications list.  Coughing and like were problems before class, but it was even worse after.  Even today as I sit and write this, there is some pressure and squeezing in my chest.  Of all the symptoms I've struggled with these past two weeks, I really cannot say which have been the worst:

• The lump in my throat
• The tightness in my chest
• The muddle-headed fuzzy-brained lethargy
• The sharp pain in my bowels
• The intermittent itching on my scalp, face, and stomach

Each one of these symptoms bothered me to no end off-and-on.  Even now I can't pick.  At least the bowel pain has finally gone as has the lump in my throat.  The rest come and go.  I am really ready for this to be over.  The cycle lasts 10-17 days, and I am at day 14.  It has got to be over soon.

Also feeling a distinct lack of direction.  Life has taken another left-turn.  It seems as though that is the new normal.  No sooner do I start feeling settled and in a groove, then things change again.  It makes it hard to pick a direction.  It's bad enough that the ADHD makes it difficult to stay interested in engaged in anything that isn't immediately rewarding.  It's even worse that I've been so darn sick the last forever that I have had no energy or real motivation for anything.  These continuing, unexpected, difficult to deal with changes, make it no easier.  It certainly makes it hard to decide.

Hoping to feel better soon, so I can get excited about something.