midnyte

I'm posting a PSA, PLEASE READ IT:

As some people know in my mid 20's I developed a series of serious food allergies. I never knew even the symptoms of allergies like this until I wound up in the hospital and almost died. I have also noticed people around me and those in food service do not take food allergies as seriously as they need to.

A food allergy is DEADLY people. Even the DUST or SMELL of a peanut can kill someone with a peanut allergy and often these allergies become global, which means if someone is allergic to peanuts they are also allergic to ANYTHING nut or BEAN related. That means a hazelnut coffee, or a soy product. Just scraping the offending item off of something does not help. Even cooking such a thing in the house with an allergic person can kill them just from the fumes.

When a person starts to develop an allergy to something the first few times they often will get nauseated or diarrhea. It usually happens very fast, like for me I was at a restaurant and halfway through the meal I was laying in the bathroom on the cool tile wishing for death, hardly breathing and dizzy and vomiting all over. I was lucky and did not die. I got a small rash on my belly the next day but blamed it on being in a vinyl dress and laying in vomit for several hours.

I ate the food again and I made it home before vomiting violently and then had a severe rash develop. It started on my belly and ended up taking over my entire body. It felt and looked like a severe sunburn. I then swelled up a lot and my skin cracked all over and blood came from between all of the cracks. I looked like a bloated cracked bright red doll. Then my skin all started to peel. It took 4 months for me to stop reacting. The entire 4 months I was as sick and miserable as I have ever been in my entire life. It was like my entire body was on fire.

If you look at photos of people who have died, photos of people who die from allergic reactions are some of the most horrific you will ever see. They look like burn victims and then some. The caption under one in a forensic book said "The victim mummified while still alive"

I am writing this because one of my housemates was careless with his cooking and cooked something I am allergic to last week and stored it above some of my food in the fridge. I recognized the symptoms after spending some quality time with a toilet in a convenience store. When I got home I was developing a rash and my eyes swelled. I was able take the right medication to arrest it before it became lethal, but that is only because last time I had a doctor who cared enough to prescribe me the whole severe allergy kit. As it is it damaged my eye somehow and I presently am nearly blind in my left eye. I am seeing my doctor again in a couple hours.

I want to tell this awful tale as a warning to anyone who has ever vomited immediately after eating (food poisoning takes at least an hour and up to 16 hours sometimes) and if it is a bug people around you will have it too, or develops any kind of rash after eating, even something you have eaten many times before. I developed my allergies to foods I love and used to eat all the time. Be wary of food allergies. Your body generally gives you one mild attack and the next time you are exposed it can be fatal.

Even if you have an epipen, it only buys you about 10 minutes to get to a hospital.

Please people take your allergies seriously and take the allergies of people around you seriously as well. If someone says they are allergic to something, you have to be neurotic about it. If someone is allergic to nuts, you can't even bake them a banana bread in the same oven you baked banana nut bread.

Ok, that is all, I am going to go back to being miserable now.