Allergies

Ugh, I don't like this post already. :(

I will begin my tale of woe a while back. My sister went to a Naturopathic doctor for her nursing school and she found out that all of the skin sensitivities and ailments that she's been having since teenage-hood are because her body is unable to process ALL grains. For a limited time she tried to live grain free, felt better, but it proved too difficult to follow so she abandoned it, which showed her that she really does have issues to all grains.

Now back to me.....I have some skin sensitivities as well so I thought I would try an elimination diet. First up, gluten. It proved successful: I've been gluten free for about 6-ish months and have had the sad opportunity to test my gluten intolerance which = red, itchy, swollen eyes (image below) and eczema flare ups. I still had some feeling like there is something else that is causing me issues, like I'm missing something. Derek and I recently got new insurance, so I thought I would take advantage and get tested to see if I'm allergic to something else.

Okay here's my normal vs. red, itchy, swollen eyes:

 Looks like I've been beaten up but without the black and blue.

Little did I know that ALLERGY and SENSITIVITY/INTOLERANCE are 2 totally different things and docs can't test for sensitivity or intolerance. BUMMER! I already know I'm gluten intolerant, and lactose intolerant but figured any other issue I have would be an "intolerance" also. Oh and I can't have bananas or melons (excluding watermelon) because they make my mouth itchy. However I figured what the heck, taking this test can't hurt, so I went ahead with the food allergy test. I was tested for: Beef, Chicken, Eggs, Milk, Corn, Oats, Soy, Wheat, Peanuts, Bananas, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Almonds, Cashews and Walnuts. The results and pics:

Here's my arm immediately after being pricked with the drops of allergens. (initials on my arm correspond exactly with the list above) The first line mark is a positive control (straight up histamine and the line at the bottom is negative control (saline).

Immediately after the test 

When I got in my car (you can see the middle row corn and soy are now bigger):

As you can tell, I had some reactions. :(

The test is weird. First they poke you, then wait 15 min and measure the bumps at that point and conclude that that is what you are allergic to based off of the size of the "positive control" bump. I say it's weird, because I had some bumps that at 15 min were still relatively little bumps but after a few more minutes, they plumped up more to the size of the ones they deemed me "allergic" to.

Anyways, they deemed me "allergic" to watermelon and almonds. But after waiting a few more minutes, I could see that corn and soy also plumped up to the same size as watermelon and almonds. There were others still that had a reaction although it stayed smaller then the "true allergies". By to my way of thinking, if the reason for the test is to find out what foods I should avoid, then wouldn't I want to avoid the ones that gave me any reaction? I don't know the answer to this.

Funny side note: I have NO allergy to milk or wheat or bananas or cantaloupe! I know for sure I cannot eat these things, but not due to an "allergy". What really sucks about finding this out is that since I can't have milk with my cereal, I use and LOVE almond milk; guess that's out. And if I'm going to go with my instincts and say that I should stay away from corn and soy, holy goodness those 2 things are in everything!

Guess I got what I wanted......more things to avoid.

I will absorb this info and report back after figuring out what is left that I CAN eat.