Oh, NurseELB, I feel for you! I've lived most of my life with allergies, and so I know full well how much of a pain it is to have to watch everything you eat or do so that you don't trigger a reaction. And the sucky part is that I passed these allergies on to my kids. : (
As a little kid I figured out that I had an allergy to bees even before my mother figured it out, and my mother being the woman that she is, refuse to acknowledge it as an actual allergy, even though the first time I got stung was when I accidentally say on a bee on my front stoop. Oh boy did my tush swell up!!! It hurt terribly for over a week too. Felt like I'd been beaten, and bending at that hip joint was excrutiating. I was stung again when I was 13 and I was in the back alley tossing around the frisbee with my cousin who was in visiting from out of state. I suddenly felt this horrible pain in my wrist and I looked down and there was a hornet or bee (can't remember which) stinging me! I smacked it (not knowing ANYTHING about the pheromones they release, and I ran up to the house crying my eyes out because it hurt soooooooo bad. My aunt (cousin's mom) moved very quick and put a paste of baking soda and water over the sting to draw out the venom, but the venom had already began to work. That sting literally paralyzed me from the tips of my fingers all the way to my elbow. That lower arm was so hard to the touch too, almost like the muscles had atrophied, and I couldn't use that arm for over a week. My mom was shocked that a simple bee sting could do that. I got stung again a few years later when I put my hand down on a bee and the hand swelled up like something in a bad cartoon, and this summer I got a sting in the back of my knee, but the bee didn't get to even penetrate the skin very deep before I swept it away. In the time it took me to get from the back of the yard to the house (we live on an acre), the knee was already swollen and was starting to lock, but I applied the paste and took Benadryl, and by the next day I could bend the knee a little more, even though it was still swollen. Took about 3 or 4 days to regain full use.
I have those blasted food allergies too. Can't eat thyme. But my scary allergies occur when I eat certain foods together. When I was a teenager I was at my BF's house playing a game with him and his friends, and I brought a big bag of runts (you know, the little hard candies that are shaped like bananas, hearts, lemons, etc.), and I ate some candy and drank some pop. I didn't feel well, got really sick to my stomach, and then I broke out in a terrible rash. HIVES! Head to toe, welts 8 to 10 inches in diameter, welts in places people don't ever WANT to get welts, I was miserable! We never were able to figure out exactly what it was that I injested that day that made me so sick because we ate Arby's food too that day, as well as chips and other things. A few years later I was working in a video store when I got into the habit of drinking Lipton ice tea. Around that same time M&M came out with their peanut butter M&M's. So I figured I'd try them, and I loved them. Well, one afternoon I was working and I was drinking my Lipton iced tea, and I grabbed a bag of the peanut butter M&M's, and I started munching away. After a few minutes I felt an odd sensation in my chest, a sort of tightening, and then I began to feel my throat closing. I sat down, remained as calm as possible while my co-workers all freaked out, and I waited to see if it would pass. It did, and I felt so drained and awful afterwards. But I didn't like the two together, so a few weeks later I was working again and did the same thing again. This time was worse, but I waited it out, barely staying conscious this time, and it took longer to pass. While I sat there concentrating on my breathing, it gave me time to think, and I was able to put one and one together. I try now to NEVER have any form of tea or any form of peanut butter at the same time. Better safe than sorry!
The bandaid thing? Yeah, same here, I'm allergic too. Turns out I have a latex allergy, not severe, but it seems to get worse as I get older. I have to make sure the doctors don't touch me with latex. A brief contact might make my skin tingle, but not necessarily break out, but prolonged exposure will make me not only break out, but it will make my skin blister and weep. Painful!!! When I went into the hospital in '07 to get my gallbladder removed I made sure everyone and their brother knew I had a latex allergy, however at that time I didn't know there was latex in bandaids. I had a really big, painful skin tag on my back, so I asked my mom to put a band aid over it so that it wouldn't be rubbed raw as I lay in a hospital bed for days on end. Well, my back hurt nearly as bad as my incisions did by the time I left the hospital. When I got home I had my mom check the skin tag and she gasped when she discovered that it was badly infected. She didn't realize that all that red, raw, blistered skin around it was an allergic reaction. So she cleaned it up and this time bandaged it with a cloth bandage and latex free tape. About the same time my throat was beginning to kill me, and I suspected that a botched hospital procedure to remove gallstones from my bile duct had left me with strep throat, so I made an appointment to see my doctor. She confirmed the strep diagnosis and then took a look at my skin tag. Let me tell you, it is NOT reassuring when your doctor takes a look at something on your body and turns ten shades of white! I asked her what was wrong, and she said the skin tag had to come off right that minute, the rash was so bad that it was becoming infected and was spreading. So she numbed me up and removed it. I had wanted it removed for years, just didn't realize that all I needed in order to get it removed was to put a latex bandaid over it.
That was a painful heal, but it did heal, and I learned from that doctor about the latex in the bandaids. Now, the only brand I will buy is Nexcare as they clearly label on the front of their boxes which ones have latex and which do not. So, I avoid latex as much as possible, which isn't easy since it's all around me, in my clothes, bras, underwear waistbands, pony tail holders, adhesives, gloves, you name it. I'm also allergic to Tide soap, Snuggle fabric softner, Sheild soap, any of the decorative soaps and body washes, most shampoos nickel, and more that I'm not even remembering at the moment. New allergies pop up periodically. I also developed asthma which is usually triggered by allergies, and have allergies to fertilizers, almost all weeds, grasses, and cats. The cat allergy is mild though, comparatively. I just vacuum like mad and brush the cats, and I'm usually ok. Several people in my family are allergic to cats though. My older daughter's allergies are more severe than mine though. She has breakouts of hives from randoms foods all the time. This week she might eat blueberries and break out in a full body rash, and next week she can eat blueberries without any reaction at all. I discussed this in depth with her doctor, and the doctor was baffled. Then an idea came to me-maybe it's not the food, but the fertilizers and preservatives used in the foods to make them bigger and disease resistant. And so, now what I do is try to reduce the amount of fruits and vegetables that I have to buy so that I can reduce her exposure to allergen triggers. She breaks out fast with the worst looking, and most painful hives, so I learned very early on to always, always, ALWAYS keep Benadryl in the house. I home school now but when she attended public school I had to make sure the nurse had a bottle of prescription Benadryl in her office, and that the teacher had a specific list of foods not to give my child, and what signs to look for. I was furious when she was in 1st grade and I came to pick her up at school and she came walking to me very stiffly. As she approached, I could see the rash. Seriously, there was not a single inch of my child's body that wasn't bright red and covered in hives. I took her right back over to her teacher and asked her what did my daughter eat, and how did she miss that rash? It could have been nipped in the bud within a few minutes if the teacher would have noticed. The teacher felt awful, but seriously, I could see the rash for 20 ft away, how could she sit in her classroom for hours and NOT see the terrible rash all over my child? It made me very nervous to have her in public school if they weren't going to pay attention to a child with allergies. It took a good week to get that rash completely cleared up. I also always keep oatmeal on hand for oatmeal baths for just such reasons. As a baby she was allergic to every single brand of diapers except Pampers, she was allergic to wipes with fragrance, she was allergic to her first solid food-green beans, she was allergic to formulas with iron, and basically all formulas except Carnation. I breast fed primarily, but supplemented as I didn't produce enough milk, she was allergic to cow's milk when we first introduced it, and I could go on for hours as to everything that she has had a reaction to in the past. These allergies come and go, so that's what makes me think it's not the actual food, but the preservatives in/on then. I don't permit her to just go grabbing produce in the stores because she has had allergic reactions doing that too, but she never listens. She is also allergic to all but 3 detergents on the market, mosquitoes (she gets the enormous welts that other people here have mentioned their children getting), she has hayfever, and more. I call her my walking allergy. Poor kid. She has learned to grab a Benadryl if she feels a reaction coming on. But I've gotten good enough over the years with her to know what can potentially trigger a reaction, and I am armed in advance. She has so far only had one reaction this year, and we aren't sure what the trigger was, but a Benadryl taken immediately nipped it in the bud before it could really spread. She also has severe metal allergies. Her ears are pierced but she can't wear earrings because so far, even up to 18K gold makes her break out. I'm thinking I'll try 28K, and if that doesn't work, Platinum, and if that doesn't work, she can just give up the idea of wearing earrings altogether. Cause I really don't know what else there is out there to use. I'm not sure if she has a latex allergy, but she was complaining the other day about her bra. She doesn't like to wear them, she says they burn around the ribs, just under the breasts, and that's what happens to me, so I wouldn't be surprised. My younger DD just experienced her first food allergy this year. She ate something, can't remember what, and broke out in painful hives. I gave her a Benadryl and popped her in an oatmeal bath and it went away in a couple of days, but she was miserable. She thinks she ate something and drank something, and they didn't agree. She is also the one that shares my shampoo allergy, and she had a diaper allergy as a baby too, so we just stuck with Pampers for them both. Only my mother doesn't seem to have any allergies. Lucky her. The 3 of us seem to more than make up for her missing share, though I'd be more than happy to share some with her if she really wanted them. I'm going to see about getting a formal allergy test done on them both. I'd like some piece of mind!
I had no idea that steroids could destroy bones and muscles!!! I can't imagine the pain you must be in NurseELB! And yes, how ironic that they chose to treat a steroid reaction with a steroid. Thank you for letting me know about the coconut in the chocolate. I like knowing what is in foods so that I am better able to track down the allergen. It's exhausting sometimes living with allergies. I had an epi-pen for my bee allergy but never used it, and I lost it in the move. I'm glad to know the reaction they can cause. If I get prescribed another one I'll make sure to avoid using it unless absolutely necessary!
As a little kid I figured out that I had an allergy to bees even before my mother figured it out, and my mother being the woman that she is, refuse to acknowledge it as an actual allergy, even though the first time I got stung was when I accidentally say on a bee on my front stoop. Oh boy did my tush swell up!!! It hurt terribly for over a week too. Felt like I'd been beaten, and bending at that hip joint was excrutiating. I was stung again when I was 13 and I was in the back alley tossing around the frisbee with my cousin who was in visiting from out of state. I suddenly felt this horrible pain in my wrist and I looked down and there was a hornet or bee (can't remember which) stinging me! I smacked it (not knowing ANYTHING about the pheromones they release, and I ran up to the house crying my eyes out because it hurt soooooooo bad. My aunt (cousin's mom) moved very quick and put a paste of baking soda and water over the sting to draw out the venom, but the venom had already began to work. That sting literally paralyzed me from the tips of my fingers all the way to my elbow. That lower arm was so hard to the touch too, almost like the muscles had atrophied, and I couldn't use that arm for over a week. My mom was shocked that a simple bee sting could do that. I got stung again a few years later when I put my hand down on a bee and the hand swelled up like something in a bad cartoon, and this summer I got a sting in the back of my knee, but the bee didn't get to even penetrate the skin very deep before I swept it away. In the time it took me to get from the back of the yard to the house (we live on an acre), the knee was already swollen and was starting to lock, but I applied the paste and took Benadryl, and by the next day I could bend the knee a little more, even though it was still swollen. Took about 3 or 4 days to regain full use.
I have those blasted food allergies too. Can't eat thyme. But my scary allergies occur when I eat certain foods together. When I was a teenager I was at my BF's house playing a game with him and his friends, and I brought a big bag of runts (you know, the little hard candies that are shaped like bananas, hearts, lemons, etc.), and I ate some candy and drank some pop. I didn't feel well, got really sick to my stomach, and then I broke out in a terrible rash. HIVES! Head to toe, welts 8 to 10 inches in diameter, welts in places people don't ever WANT to get welts, I was miserable! We never were able to figure out exactly what it was that I injested that day that made me so sick because we ate Arby's food too that day, as well as chips and other things. A few years later I was working in a video store when I got into the habit of drinking Lipton ice tea. Around that same time M&M came out with their peanut butter M&M's. So I figured I'd try them, and I loved them. Well, one afternoon I was working and I was drinking my Lipton iced tea, and I grabbed a bag of the peanut butter M&M's, and I started munching away. After a few minutes I felt an odd sensation in my chest, a sort of tightening, and then I began to feel my throat closing. I sat down, remained as calm as possible while my co-workers all freaked out, and I waited to see if it would pass. It did, and I felt so drained and awful afterwards. But I didn't like the two together, so a few weeks later I was working again and did the same thing again. This time was worse, but I waited it out, barely staying conscious this time, and it took longer to pass. While I sat there concentrating on my breathing, it gave me time to think, and I was able to put one and one together. I try now to NEVER have any form of tea or any form of peanut butter at the same time. Better safe than sorry!
The bandaid thing? Yeah, same here, I'm allergic too. Turns out I have a latex allergy, not severe, but it seems to get worse as I get older. I have to make sure the doctors don't touch me with latex. A brief contact might make my skin tingle, but not necessarily break out, but prolonged exposure will make me not only break out, but it will make my skin blister and weep. Painful!!! When I went into the hospital in '07 to get my gallbladder removed I made sure everyone and their brother knew I had a latex allergy, however at that time I didn't know there was latex in bandaids. I had a really big, painful skin tag on my back, so I asked my mom to put a band aid over it so that it wouldn't be rubbed raw as I lay in a hospital bed for days on end. Well, my back hurt nearly as bad as my incisions did by the time I left the hospital. When I got home I had my mom check the skin tag and she gasped when she discovered that it was badly infected. She didn't realize that all that red, raw, blistered skin around it was an allergic reaction. So she cleaned it up and this time bandaged it with a cloth bandage and latex free tape. About the same time my throat was beginning to kill me, and I suspected that a botched hospital procedure to remove gallstones from my bile duct had left me with strep throat, so I made an appointment to see my doctor. She confirmed the strep diagnosis and then took a look at my skin tag. Let me tell you, it is NOT reassuring when your doctor takes a look at something on your body and turns ten shades of white! I asked her what was wrong, and she said the skin tag had to come off right that minute, the rash was so bad that it was becoming infected and was spreading. So she numbed me up and removed it. I had wanted it removed for years, just didn't realize that all I needed in order to get it removed was to put a latex bandaid over it.
I had no idea that steroids could destroy bones and muscles!!! I can't imagine the pain you must be in NurseELB! And yes, how ironic that they chose to treat a steroid reaction with a steroid. Thank you for letting me know about the coconut in the chocolate. I like knowing what is in foods so that I am better able to track down the allergen. It's exhausting sometimes living with allergies. I had an epi-pen for my bee allergy but never used it, and I lost it in the move. I'm glad to know the reaction they can cause. If I get prescribed another one I'll make sure to avoid using it unless absolutely necessary!
