I have celiac’s disease and am allergic to wheat and gluten. That means I can’t have anything with regular flour in it - like pizza, bread, cake, etc. If I eat it, I could end up with diarrhea and severe stomach cramps. That’s the allergy part of it. But the intolerance part means I’m damaging my intestines and could end up with funner diseases like crohn’s disease, et al. The funny thing? I’m a child of the 70s - so my mom used to feed me things like wheat germ because it was good for me. A lifetime of not understanding why I was always sick as a kid when I was always eating so healthy- was just diagnosed back in 2008. For those of you who seem allergic to everything, including soaps and stuff - consider getting tested. 1 in 143 people have some sort of gluten allergy.
I was previously misdiagnosed as having IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).
There are a lot of substitutionary foods out there - but trust me, a lot of them taste like flavored cardboard. It’s the one thing that makes me really ranty. When people say stuff like “there’s so much gluten-free food now!” Yeah, right. Next time you walk down the cookie aisle, tell me how many kinds of cookies you see - and then how many are actually gluten-free. Usually it’s like 100 varieties and only 2-3 gluten free items. Ginger snaps (which are actually my go-to cookie because they almost taste normal if you dunk them in coffee long enough.), peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies (that taste like cooked play-dough). Don’t get me wrong - at least I have options and support groups that teach you how to replace the food you love - but don’t tell me how many options I have. . . .
glares My wedding ring doesn’t cause problems either, but snaps on jeans, belt buckles, etc cause me grief. I guess I’m not too bad off; there are worse things to be allergic to like, say, antibiotics.
OK, I came into this thread to applaud the combination of Thread Title/OP’s name.
I, too, am not allergic to a platypus.
The only allergy I seem to have is something in Avon brand mascara - makes my eyes water like crazy. Can’t wear it.
However, my mother is highly allergic to copper, to the point where even the copper in yellow gold causes a reaction. She has to wear either white gold or very high purity level yellow gold (which is rare, expensive, and not really worth it when there’s so much white gold around.) Almost all her jewelery is sterling silver.
True story: After I was born, she went to get an IUD (this was the mid-70’s). She was in the stirrups, and the doctor happened to casually mention that he was going to give her the “Copper 7” type IUD. Can you imagine what that would do to someone with that high of a copper sensitivity? Needless to say, she informed him of the allergy and he gave her a non-copper-based version instead.
Yep. The sun. As little as a half hour of driving on a sunny day will make me feel nauseated. Sunday I was out in the sun for 45 minutes unprotected and it wiped me out. It is now Tuesday. Not only do I still feel physically weak and nauseated, but my hands have broken out in painful little boils that itch and burn. After a day of sun exposure, I generally have to stay indoors for the next one or two days in order to recover. Even moving near a sunny window makes me feel sick again.
Sunscreen can usually mitigate the damage but not erase it completely. A full day at the beach requires at least three days of complete recovery. On road trips I usually end up in the passenger seat with my entire body, face and all, concealed by a blanket. It sucks.
Combine this with that fact that I’m nocturnal, reclusive and intolerant to garlic, and you can see why Sr. Olives calls me his ‘‘little vampire.’’
Speaking of Sr. Olives, he has 13 major food allergies.
It makes shopping a royal PITA.
It makes going out to eat a royal PITA.
It makes visiting guests a royal PITA.
It makes cooking meals at home a royal PITA.
I’m allergic to gold. Before we got engaged I explained that under no circumstances was my then-boyfriend ever to buy me a gold engagement ring. It needed to be silver or platinum.
I have some low-level allergy to ragweed and pollen. It makes springtime less than pleasant.
I am allergic to mosquitos. If I get bitten once it swells and itches but is fairly normal. If I get bitten two or more times the bites look like I have half a golf ball shoved up under my skin. Last year we got a bunch of mosquitos in the apartment somehow and I covered myself with bug repellent before bed every night for 6 weeks.
Lastly I am allergic to dogs. This is the worst of the allergies because I love puppies. I have to wear latex gloves when I visit people with dogs otherwise my hands and arms get covered with itchy blisters. I love the kitties and I am always happy to rub their bellies but I would love to be able to have a dog too. I grew up with dogs but in the last 3 or 4 years this allergy popped up out of nowhere.
My roomie makes a great chocolate chip cookie with corn meal, she developed the recipe for a celiac friend of mine. Ill tie her down tomorrow and get her to tell me the recipe.
Just make sure it is good quality chocolate, some have wheat products in them.
Augmentin. I get hives that have hives. The doctor was astonished when he saw them. I was covered in the things. He called in some nurses to see them, too. :dubious:
Also, pineapple. It makes my lips swell up, and I get all wheezy. Never more than that, though.
Dogs and cats are the two that affect me the worst. If I handle them and then rub my eyes, my eyes get itchy in short order, but washing them relieves that, and anyway I usually wash my hands right away after handling the animals. I can be in the same house with them for only a few hours before wheezing, sniffling, and tearing set in for 2 or 3 days. But shorter periods can sensitize me for other allergies, even if I didn’t get symptoms.
Wool. Fur. Animal hair and dander. House dust. Mold. Smoke of various burning things, like tobacco, leaves, wood, and incense.
Pollen. I do get a minimal touch of hay fever in April or May–a little bit of sniffling and eye irritation. It’s just a minor nuisance.
Wheat. Overindulging in shredded wheat, for example, will get me wheezing a bit. Ditto for corn.
Chocolate, minimally. Little enough that it’s worth the trouble.
Lobster. My mother would make lobster tail occasionally and it didn’t bother me. But once when we were eating out, when I was in high school, I had lobster and my tongue swelled. Not enough that I couldn’t finish the meal, though. Since then it just makes my mouth a little itchy.
Penicillin, although Keflex (a relative) doesn’t bother me at all.
Thought I wasn’t allergic to anything, but then I got hives last fall. I had been playing a game of pickup soccer outside but I was fully clothed, plus hives are usually related to food allergies. Had I tried a new food lately? Yep. Darjeeling tea. Apparently I am allergic to darjeeling tea.
Augmentin and Cefprozil. Also ragweed/mites/pollen. Every member of my immediate family has had allergy shots. The most annoying one for me is nickel. Once the paint on my glasses started to wear off on the ear pieces, and the exposed metal gave me a rash. I can usually wear something with nickel for several hours to a couple days before getting any reaction, so I do sometimes wear costume jewelry. It took me years, however, to find a watch I can wear every day. I finally found simplywhispers.com. They sell nickel free watches, jewelry and jewelry components, and most of it is well-priced.
Shellfish is a killer for me (literally). All shellfish, although most fish is OK in moderation. That’s a tough one living in the Northwest. Shellfish is everywhere!
I’m also allergic to iodine, adhesive tape, the preservative in novacaine and preservatives in some processed frozen dinners. Unfortunately, I never know which dinners until I eat them and start to itch and wheeze.
Also, eggs, dairy, peppers and according to my naturopath; wheat, onions and beef. All animals and just about every grass and tree. I also have a problem with sensitivity to most make up, a lot of perfumes, permanent hair dyes, perm solutions, soaps and shampoos.
MSG makes me violently ill for a few days if I ingest it in any but minute amounts.
Unasyn (Ampicillin/Sulbactam) antibiotic. Never had a problem with any other penicillin antibiotic, but when they put this in my IV last year I broke out in a full body rash.
I can’t eat eggs more than once or twice a week without unpleasant stomach issues.
Sulfa drugs - hives
Pineapples - scratchy throat
Some kinds of pizza and bread - lotsa hives
Pollen - dry eyes and runny nose
Dust - Itchy
Whew, the one that bothers me the most is the pizza thing because I still haven’t figured out what causes me to react to it only sometimes. My guess is that its some sulfa based additive used in cheaper bread.
