Yes. You read the title of this correctly. And if you know me you probably didn't know this because I didn't know that I did until I was 30. But since I've put a few things about it on Facebook recently I thought that I'd share my story for 2 reasons: maybe it will help you and maybe you can help me.
I'd always thought of food allergies as the typical anaphylatic type reaction. Eat peanut butter and your throat closes up. It turns out, that is not always the case. My reactions started quite differently and I was having reactions and attributing it to other things.
About a year ago I started having episodes where I was feeling like my food was getting stuck in my throat. I would take a bite of something, usually a sandwich, and after swallowing it felt like it was getting stuck in my esophagus somewhere around my sternum. It was painful but after a minute or so the food would pass and I would feel fine. I could breathe and talk usually during it and hid it pretty well if I was around people. I thought that I just needed to slow down. It tended to happen when I was at work trying to wolf down a sandwich at halftime of a game. I told myself "take smaller bites, chew more and you'll be fine." Well it continues to happen and would happen more frequently. It got to the point where, at least twice, I felt the food was so stuck (and this is gross sorry,) I thought I was going to have to vomit it back up. I knew it was getting worse and kept telling myself, you need to get this looked at. It wasn't until I came home from a jog and sat down to eat some leftover macaroni and cheese, that I knew there was a real problem. With every bite there was pain. It hurt all the way down my esophagus and it didn't matter how small of bites I took and how much I chewed. This was my a-ha! moment. I knew it wasn't my eating speed or size of bites, there was something else going that was out of my control. I immediately called a GI doctor and after an office visit with him an EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy) or upper GI scope was scheduled.
During this scope they found two things:
1. My esophagus was inflamed and they took biopsies to try to determine why.
2. Because of the inflammation I had developed a stricture, a ring of scar tissue, in my esophagus, and they stretched it out.
The biopsies came back with the results that I have eosinophilic esophagitis, basically a localized allergic reaction in my esophagus. This is something that is usually caused by food allergies. But I don't have any food allergies I thought. I was wrong.
The next step was food allergy testing and anyone that has been allergy tested, food or seasonal, knows how uncomfortable this is. The prick your back with small amounts of the allergens and see what causes welts. After they do it you sit there for 15 minutes unable to scratch these welts. It's a grand old time. So as I sat there, I could feel welts forming. What was I going to be allergic to? One thing? Something trendy like gluten? Something hard to avoid like dairy? I knew there was something, and probably multiple things because I was itching like crazy.
So the doctor came in and talked to me with my report sitting on the table just out of eye shot. I could see several things highlighted and knew my life was about to change. He kept talking. I kept eyeballing the sheet trying to non-obviously squint to read what items he had highlighted.
Then he told me. Nuts. ALL NUTS. Shellfish, fish, peanuts and strawberries.
Wut.
I was more than a little stunned to tell you the truth. I'm allergic to peanuts? But my throat doesn't close up. I'm allergic to seafood? My face doesn't swell like Will Smith in Hitch. But I am allergic. My mind started racing. What couldn't I eat anymore? sushi. SUSHI. SUSHI! Crap. I like sushi. I also like peanut butter, reese's peanut butter cups, snickers, crab cakes, crab rangoon, almonds, pistachios and the list goes on. This sucked. But, of course, the allergist, who I should note I like very much and have seen many times for treatment of my seasonal allergies, thought it was a good thing because we had answers. I tried to agree but I was crushed. I'm 30. How am I just finding out about this now? The doctor explained that I probably developed these over time, yes that happens, or the reactions have just gotten worse.
I tried to look at the positives. I could be someone with a serious anaphylactic reaction that can't go to baseball games because someone three sections away is eating peanuts. I can still eat food made on the same machine as my allergens. I just can't eat them. Ever again. Ever.
So what does this mean? I want you, just for fun, to start reading the labels on food. They are required to list allergens bold and at the bottom. Try to find a granola bar without tree nuts or peanuts in it. Oh, and as I found out yesterday, coconut is a tree nut. It's hard and usually peanut free stuff is more expensive. Now this doesn't mean I didn't find any, but it was harder.
So, I stopped eating tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish and strawberries. You know what happened? I felt better. My daily headaches were gone. The headaches that I thought for so long were caffeine related were actually a reaction to one of those foods. I haven't had a headache since I started eating this way, unless I know I ate something with nuts. This was how I found out coconut was a tree nut. I ate a granola bar with coconut and within 15 minutes had a headache. I googled tree nuts (maybe should've done this sooner, whoops) and there it was plain as day. I ate some hot fudge on my ice cream last night. Headache within 15 minutes. Coconut oil in hot fudge. It's everywhere. Nuts are everywhere.
I don't want to write this so you feel badly for me. I could be much worse. I will be fine and I feel better so that is a good thing. It has taken some adjusting to for my and Nick even. I just want to know if you have these allergies what alternatives have you found to be good? Where have you found peanuts, fish, or tree nuts hiding? What have you done when you go out to eat to make it easier on yourself?
I never thought I'd turn 30 and this is what I would discover. But I did.
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