Allergy, Asthma, and Eczema

Hi, I’m MLO.

Way back in 1989 I nearly flunked out of my freshman year in college because I had a severe case of sinusitis – and I do mean severe. I also had other symptoms I thought were normal. What were those symptoms:

  • alternating diarrhea and constipation;
  • painful elimination;
  • severe menstrual problems;
  • severe cough;
  • 4 to 6 severe cases of sinusitis/strep every year;
  • watery eyes;
  • inability to lose weight unless I was very very sick.

I thought this was the way everyone lived. I didn’t realize this was not normal. After most meals I ended up being stuck in the bathroom sick. Problem was, I didn’t know I was sick. I thought this was what everyone went through when they eliminated.

Painful periods? Think passing out because I was in so much pain. Turns out I had undiagnosed – until 2007 – endometriosis that was so severe it left my reproductive organs stuck around and embedded into each other.

Then I saw a guest on Oprah talking about undiagnosed food allergies. I recognized so much of what he said that I demanded a referral to an allergist. Thank God! Here I was 19 and finally able to get to the right doctor.

The first allergist I saw was amazed I had functioned as well as I had for as long as I had. What I remember from that first appointment was a feeling of being completely overwhelmed. I later learned I hadn’t remembered all the things he had told me that I was allergic to – and it made the one I forgot that much worse because of my overexposure to it.

I’ll never forget the first words he said to me after the testing: “You are a very allergic woman.” Remember, this is an allergist saying this to me. He is not going to say this later. He gave me a list of foods to avoid by conversation – nothing written down. I remembered, milk, soy, peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, and every legume and string bean under the sun. I think he might have told me corn, but I don’t know for sure.

Things stayed relatively under control until 1998. I noticed my allergies seemed to be spiraling again – food was my enemy. I got a referral to my present allergist who promptly set up testing.

Have you ever seen an allergy nurse make an exclamation and run to STOP the scratches? As in slather you with steroid cream? I have. And that was mainly from the trees, I think, which all came up to 4+++ on a 0 to 4 scale. The really scary ones were the new (to me) food allergies of corn coming up as a 4+++.

Now, these are not food intolerances, those are much more easily managed. These are IgE- mediated Food Allergies. Kanga at Purple Puzzle Palace has a wonderful post called:

that explains all about what IgE vs. non-IgE mediated allergies are and are not. All of the allergies I discuss here are IgE-mediated.

When the doctor came in, he actually handed me the test results. What a difference this makes! I am actually taken seriously by other physicians because I have records of my testing! I cannot count the number of times I had doctors prescribe drugs or make recommendations that I was allergic to because they did not take my allergies seriously. I even had a “wonderful” Emergency Room experience in 2006.

My current doctor listens and does not believe he knows everything. Of course, I belong to what most would call the “long-tail” version of the allergic patient.

Of course, in 2008, seeing a dermatologist about a suspicious mole, I then finally find out what is going on with my feet – since I was a pre-teen. I have eczema. Eczema is related to the immune system and often caused by allergies. Now, if I could only figure out what triggers mine…

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