So, for the last several months I have had increasingly worse reactions. I used to eat an occasional Greek salad or falafel with tzatziki sauce, but a few months ago when my usual itchy neck and hands was accompanied by an itchy, swollen tongue I decided it was time to cut cucumber out completely. More recently I had a mild reaction when I picked several slices of cucumber off a salad and proceeded to eat the salad. Apparently the cucumber allergy has gotten so bad I have to worry about cross contamination. So annoying! And it is such a weird allergy.
In the last month or so I've reacted quite badly after eating out, and it was Mexican food each time. Right now I'm really wondering about corn. I ate out Thursday night (had a cheese enchilada and a tamale) and within an hour had a huge hive covering almost my entire neck. By Friday morning it was even bigger and really itchy and hot. I took half a dose of Benadryl but had to cave and take the other half for it to get reduced down to the size of a silver dollar but it still didn't go away. Then had friends over last night and was enjoying some yummy 7-layer dip with corn chips and within minutes got really congested, felt itchy all over, and started to feel like my breathing was tight. The weird thing is that I recently ate a whole ear of corn on the cob and didn't have a reaction. Well, actually I'm pretty sure I took a Zyrtec that night because I had itchy eyes and a runny nose and chalked it up to seasonal allergies. But if it is corn you would think eating that much corn would cause a much worse reaction.
At any rate, I'm going to cut corn out completely for two weeks and then eat a large portion of it and see what happens. If it's not that I'll try eliminating something else. The other common ingredients have been tomato, lettuce, cheese, beans, chilies (but I don't know what different types). Anyone else deal with food allergies, particularly adult onset ones?
Have you considered going to an allergist and getting tested for a range of foods? Seems like that would be easier than the long term elimination of foods through trial and error. :(
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm planning on seeing an allergist. I just know from my experience with my kid that sometimes test results are inconclusive or misleading. She tests allergic to pretty much everything, but can eat a lot of those things with no reaction. And my older brother has had anaphylactic reactions to shellfish but his tests for that are negative. It's bizarre! I'll definitely give it a go, though, if nothing else to get an Epipen since that's where these reactions seem to be heading.
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