{"id":142,"date":"2020-03-05T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allergicliving.com\/thisallergiclife\/?p=142"},"modified":"2025-04-15T18:09:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T18:09:26","slug":"i-admit-it-i-was-foolish-about-my-food-allergies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergicliving.com\/thisallergiclife\/i-admit-it-i-was-foolish-about-my-food-allergies\/","title":{"rendered":"I Admit It \u2013 I Was Foolish About My Food Allergies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sarah
Sarah White<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When\nI was a toddler my mom had a button that she would pin on my shirt that said:\n\u201cDon\u2019t Feed Me, I\u2019m Allergic.\u201d I had given my parents a few good scares that\nended up with me in the hospital. As I grew older, my food allergies became a\nmatter of course, reactions became less severe and I stopped taking them so\nseriously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ncan practically hear parents of allergic kids take a deep breath right now.\nWhat you are about to read next, you won\u2019t like either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I was in my late 20s, I had let my epinephrine auto-injector expire. I had stopped carrying antihistamines at all times and I had stopped listing every one of my allergies to restaurant servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Careless With Order<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I learned how foolish I was in the fall of 2014. My boyfriend and I went out for dinner ahead of my shift bartending at a corporate dinner. I ordered tacos, letting the server know about my dairy allergy, since I presumed that would be the only concern about my order. I asked to have the dish made without cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tacos arrived with cheese. Not a big deal, they replaced them with a fresh order. I credited the spice of the tacos with the tingling sensation in my throat and the burning feeling on my lips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thought crossed my mind, \u201cthis reminds me of when I was little and I would eat something I was allergic to.\u201d Foolishly, I pushed that worry aside. It had easily been two decades since I\u2019d last had a severe reaction. In my denial, I kept eating my tacos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After we left the restaurant, I felt unwell, but soldiered on, blaming my symptoms on the spiciness of the tacos. I got to the venue and began to put my things away in the change room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I leaned over to change my shoes, everything shifted. I couldn\u2019t breathe. My body felt flushed, my eyes were watering and itching like mad, my ears felt as though they were blocked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grabbed my asthma inhaler out of my bag and took a puff. As I dug through my purse, I realized that I didn\u2019t have any antihistamines, and my auto-injector was long expired. I went to my supervisor and told her I needed to go to the nearest store for allergy medication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friend Drove Me to ER<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The cashier at the store looked slightly panicked as I wheezed out my request for Claritin. I took the medication and returned to the venue, but it didn\u2019t seem to make a difference. Every inch of my skin became uncontrollably itchy. I went into the women\u2019s bathroom, lifted my shirt and was horrified to see that my entire torso was covered in hives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying\nnot to panic, I went and sat in the staff kitchen. I will always remember\nturning my hands over and noting that, in a completely new symptom for me, my\npalms were a flaming red color. It was this sign that finally spurred me into\naction. I had dealt with hives, asthma attacks, itchy eyes and stomach aches,\nbut this was uncharted territory for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of you will groan when I admit that I did not call an ambulance. Foolish, right? Instead I had a co-worker drive me to the emergency room, where I was quickly rushed to a bed. I had electrodes attached to my chest and an IV of Benadryl. Eight plus hours and much IV later, I was allowed to leave the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foolish But So Lucky<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

My\nboyfriend had called the restaurant, convinced the kitchen had simply scraped\nthe cheese of my tacos. I had my doubts about that. We decided to look at the\nlist of ingredients the restaurant sent over and there, nestled in the list,\nwas one word: peanuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had never actually eaten peanuts before. My parents had taken for an allergy test as a child and peanuts had shown up on the test. Yet, I had managed to avoid peanuts all my life, until this night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwas incredibly lucky. The emergency room doctor told me in no uncertain terms\nthat I need to have an auto-injector on my person at all times, and that\nepinephrine, not an antihistamine, was the drug to reach for with multiple\nsymptoms. And so now, I carry not one, but two auto-injectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve come to realize that I am not in fact invincible. These days, I always inform servers of all my allergies, since you never know about the ingredients or food cross-contact. Where I was foolish before with my allergies, now I think it\u2019s better to be overly thorough than to wind up in the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Reading:<\/strong>
Pizza Mishap: Why You Can\u2019t Let Your Guard Down with Food Allergies<\/a>
Risk Taking and Allergic Teens \u2013 What I\u2019ve Learned<\/a>
Allergic Living\u2019s: Travel and Dining with Allergies Section<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah White is an actor and writer based in Toronto, Canada. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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