What is Wrong?
What is wrong with me?? Allergies (food allergies, particularly) have never brought to my attention for the longest period of time, when I was younger. In North America, food allergy is a norm; peanuts, flour, eggs, seafood etc.
Miles came to learn about his rum allergy in a painful way. His first experience of tasting rum ball (half a piece) resulted in sneezing and runny nose, for a few hours. In the order to be sure that it was rum that triggered the symptoms, he took a bite of rum ball the next day. This time around, it got worse. On top of sneezing and runny nose, he was suffering from watery eyes, stuffy nose; most, if not all of the cold symptoms. It was within a minute or two that his body reacted to the rum that he consumed. The allergy lasted for a week.
Besides rum, some people have allergy to other alcoholic beverage such as beer, possibly due to the malted barley.
I’ve always been grateful that I’m free of allergies, until two days ago… Together with Miles and his parents, we went to Frank’s Finer Diner for supper. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Parmesan, and Raspberry Sour Pie for dessert. They’ve the best homemade pies ever!
I remembered my neck was itching just as we finished the meal. I couldn’t help but scratching my neck with both hands. Next thing I realized, my arms were itching. I thought it was something in the air that caused the skin irritation. There were spots on my right arm that resembled scars from mosquito bites. I couldn’t figure out when that happened…
About 30 minutes later, I was still scratching… My ears felt warm. When I looked into the mirror, they looked red! So does my neck! I pulled up the sleeves of my sweater and realized that there were rashes on both my arms! Not knowing exactly what happened to me, I approached Miles and told him that “I think there is something wrong with me…” He told me that it was hives, the moment he saw the rashes.
Hives… Could it be a food allergy?? I couldn’t think of anything I had for supper was new to my body system. Later that evening, rashes were all over my neck, arms, thighs…
Tags: Allergy, Experience, Fredericton, Life
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
What a coincidence! I had allergy last week as well. I did some patch test on my arms wanting to find out what caused it. I was guessing it might be one of those synthetic fragrance oil or preservative that caused all those itching. But patch tests resulted nothing.
I had rashes on both my arms too, exactly like yours. Red ears, face too, and legs. To reduce those rashes my husband asked me to take cold shower. The rashes were all gone. And I took some loratadine (allergy pills) for 3 days. He also prescribed me with some short burst of steriod. I feel alright now.
Second guess, I think it might be the heat that gave me those rashes.
October 4th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Ai Shiang,
Sorry to hear that you experienced an allergic reaction too. It’s annoying when you don’t know what caused the awful reactions. I had some allergy pills (Benodryl) and the hives were gone the next morning.
I’m not looking forward to allergic reactions…
October 14th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
This looks like an allium allergy to me (onions, garlic, chives, etc). I just diagnosed mine tonight. I have been allergic to garlic for a long time (stomach upset and throw up sometimes), but only tonight made the skin connection to onions. Just an idea.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Hi Cristina,
It’s always good to find out what you’re allergic to, which sometimes may take a while before we get there. Sorry to hear about your allergy. Hmm…it can be hard eliminating garlic from your meals, especially if you’re eating out. Hopefully your body will overcome it eventually.
Thanks for the input. I’ll have to watch more closely to what I eat.