Day 15: Struggle

In my whole life, I've had maybe 5 allergic reactions. 4 that I can remember. I'm allergic to CHEER laundry detergent, but I don't remember what happens when I'm near it. I've just been told about it, so I'm sure something happened in my life to determine that allergy. As for the other 4, I'm not sure what caused them. The first one I can remember was about 7 years ago, I think. I was in college. That's about as much as I can narrow it down for you. And it was late summer. So maybe my sophomore year at Belmont? Anyway. I had eaten dinner with my family. Mostly our own farm raised foods. All things I'd eaten before. And then when I got back to my parents' house, I noticed I was having a hard time breathing. And I was itchy. Well, my stomach, back, palms, feet, and lips were itchy. My mom checked it out and said it looked like someone had drawn on me with a pink highlighter where all the whelps were on my body. I somehow managed to convince her that I did not need to go to the doctor, and just took some Benadryl and went to sleep. I woke up about 2 hours later and threw up. Think projectile. Definitely not good. I went back to sleep after that, and then we went to the doctor the next day (a Sunday afternoon, I think). My doctor pretty much told me I was dumb. She said anytime you throw up when you're having a reaction, it's not good and you need to get to the doctor quickly. So with food allergies, there's not really a way to test you to see what the cause was, so I was sent home with an Epipen and instructions to pay attention to what I was eating--especially if I had another reaction.

Since then, I've had 2 other reactions--neither as extreme, and my Epipen has expired with no renewal from me. (I know that's probably bad. I'm sorry.) Today, I'm having another one. The feelings associated with my reactions are pretty distinctive, which is good because I know what's going on. I took some allergy meds, so I'm currently still breathing, only itching a little, and not throwing up. I'm also very sleepy. Fun times. I've made promises to my mother and my boyfriend that I will go to the doctor if it gets worse, but I'm thinking I'll be okay.

I'd normally be running on a Tuesday, but tonight I'm meeting my friend for dinner. I'm glad this is happening on a day that I already was planning to not run because there's no chance I could make it through today. I'm not all that concerned. I'll run tomorrow instead, and I think that's okay. It is a little bit irritating though because I've been eating better and wanted to feel great, and today I just don't. So hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to tell you about how adding vegetable and cleaner foods to my everyday has made me feel so much better already. I'll let you know. :)