So, I’m sure it’s a bit hard to imagine going from just the standard seasonal sneezing to EVERYTHING OUTSIDE IS TRYING TO KILL ME! Well, like many things it didn’t happen all at once, it was gradual over time.
Back in 2006-7, while I was in an FFA high school (for plant science no less), I started noticing that apples were giving me a sort of itchy throat if I ate them with the skins on, and a little later it was if I ate them at all before they were cooked. [Had I known about Oral Allergy Syndrome then, I would have made the move to see an allergist sooner.] It was just apples though, so no big deal, easy enough to live without. Then between 2007 and 2008 it started showing up in more things. Celery, carrots, tomatoes, baked potatoes (with the works and with just butter), and it just seemed annoying really but nothing I had to rush to a doctor about… Until strawberry season in 2008. I had gone out with my family to go strawberry picking, which was great fun, and when we got back my mother had us all go wash up while she cut up the strawberries, added some sugar, and put them in the fridge for a little later. A few hours go by, the shortcake is ready, I’m in the kitchen stuffing as much of my favorite berry into a bowl as I can, and then putting some whip cream on top (with a strawberry piece on top for good measure). Sounds like an awesome time, right? Yeah, I thought it did too. I get a few spoonfuls in and suddenly I’m in all sorts of pain in my abdomen/chest. For the next three hours I was up in my room curled up on my bed in the worst pain I’ve ever felt only getting up to spit out the phlegm that had build up in my mouth (I really didn’t like moving). Needless to say the next day we made a doctor’s appointment and they said to go see an allergist.
Come early winter of 2008, I finally get to see the allergist I was recommended. Now I didn’t completely understand what they had said about not taking my allergy meds. They said not for the whole week, I thought they said 24 hours. Probably a good thing I didn’t listen since when they did the scratch test the red rash from all the trees and grasses went up past my shoulder. They said it was most likely Oral Allergy Syndrome to all plants, so just cook them thoroughly. That was the story, until about two years later when I went to the ER for anaphylactic shock to, of all things, some fresh ginger in teriyaki sauce that I was given to dip some steak into at a restaurant. Of course I didn’t realize I was in anaphylactic shock until I go to the ER, why? Because go figure, I didn’t have the kind that involves suffocating to death. That would be easy. No, I get the kind where my stomach empties itself completely (and I mean completely) and allows NOTHING in (not even saliva), if I tried to have a sip of water twice as much would come back up (somehow). So, yeah, joy. I have a full blown food allergy to all raw (and some cooked) plants now, yay. Couldn’t possibly get worse, right?
It gets worse.
A few years later, about 2011-12, in the spring a friend of mine is making a joke about how easy it is for plants to kill me and is “stabbing” me with the stem of a freshly picked blade of grass… And I suddenly start breaking out in hives. Thankfully I’m carrying a ton of Benadryl on me and that was an easy fix. Oh, I should probably mention the reason I have a ton of Benadryl on me is because my doctors at this point had given me permission to take one Benadryl every hour from when I get up to just after dark/dew-fall (that was a fun stretch of time, good thing the stuff didn’t make me drowsy). Now here I was figuring that this has to be rock bottom… That’s when the ground opened up beneath me and showed me where Hell was.
About two years ago in 2015 it happened that I could no longer breath the pollen in the air without my lungs acting up. By acting up I mean what seems to be them breaking out in hives (kind of hard to see in there, but that’s what my doctors think it sounds like). That was fun thing to learn how to work around. I now have to wear a N-95 mask around anywhere I’m exposed to air that has large concentrations of pollen in. Which is great fun when you’re outside for long periods of time and can’t eat. Thankfully I figured out a way to drink water with breaking the seal on the mask as little as possible (it involves a cup and a bit of thin plastic tubing from the plumbing section of a hardware store… yes I cleaned it thoroughly). Oh, and at the same time this hit me, for reasons unknown I’m apparently allergic to poultry too. Fun fact, eggs from a chicken don’t count as poultry, weird right?
Well, anyway, that’s the history of it all. I guess from now on I better keep this more updated as to how things are going. Until next time.
Life and death with pollen 