I must be in the right place! - Allergies Message Board

glynis_girl · 12-25-2007, 11:37 AM

After reading some other posts about "New here with Food Allergies," I see that I came to the right place for help and...well, commiseration.

I am 44 years old and usually check the Thryoid Disease board because I have autoimmune thyroid disease. Over the years, it has been discovered that I am allergic to several different medications: Codeine, Morphine, Penicillin, unknown spinal anesthetic...and recently Bactrim.

For several years, I have been avoiding tuna, salmon and cod because when I ate them sometime within 20 minutes to 2 hours it felt like I was hooked up to intravenous espresso. I would get anxious, have heart palpitations and sometimes itch. I have also had "strange" things happen after eating trail mix, so I had been avoiding all nuts for the past several months.

My daughter had blood tests this year after reactions to nuts and fish and she is HIGHLY allergic to both.

The day after my oldest daughter's wedding, I ended up in the Emergency Room for anaphylatic shock. I had been taking Bactrim for a week and my face had been gradually getting redder with a fine rash, eventually my whole body swelled up and I wound up on Medrol, Benadryl and Tagamet. I was send home with a prescription for prednisone.

The next day, I woke up, still miserable and itchy and ate a handful of cereal. My lips immediately blew up and I was in the ER again. This time I ended up with a prescription for a Medrol titration pack. I saw my doctor 3 days later and was STILL highly reactive.

The steroids made me feel horribly anxious and raised my blood pressure quite a bit. I was miserable and stopped taking them when the hives went down.

I saw the allergist 12 days after the first ER visit. He said I still had angioedema. After digging deeply into my reactions to various things, he decided to run a huge gamut of blood work. He also told me that people with autoimmune thyroiditis are prone to histamine sensitivity. So I've been trying to follow a low histamine diet.

I had to wait for the steroids to be mostly out of my system to get the blood work done. They took SIXTEEN vials of blood! I was the lab tech's record for most blood out of one patient at one sitting. Some of the tests will take 2 - 3 weeks to get back. I go back to the allergist the second week in January.

All that to finally get to my question: Has anyone else found themselves totally paranoid about eating after something like this? I think I'm giving myself anxiety over food and causing symptoms to happen when nothing is really wrong. (Tight throat, spacey feeling, edginess, light-headedness, etc).

I was given a prescription of Allegra and haven't taken it yet. Having so many medication allergies, I tend to be fearful of taking new drugs. My regular doctor assured me that he knows no one who has had any problem with the "possible" side effects. I took some Benadryl today to hopefully make it easier for me to enjoy Christmas dinner.

Thanks for reading this long, long post!

Sannah · 12-26-2007, 04:41 PM

Glynis, there is an alternative doc in Cinncinnati, OH who can cure you. His name is Theodore Cole. He has helped my daughter and I immensely. You know food allergies can cause auto immune diseases. Allergies are just an over active immune system (our immune systems are not suppose to think that pollens, foods, etc. are harmful). Your immune system continues to go out of whack until it starts to attack your own body.

glynis_girl · 12-27-2007, 12:20 PM

It would definitely be worth checking him out!! I'm about 5 hours from Cincinatti. Is he an MD or OD who does alternative?

MAD MAZ · 12-27-2007, 03:06 PM

Hi glynis I am 43 years old and I also have Autoimmune thyroid Disease and in May of this year got told I have lots of allergies to trees, grass, cats, dogs, (PEANUTS AND ALL NUTS) fish, wheat, egg!!

I just don't know what to eat, I feel so alone I also have sinus problems, I think once you have Autoimmune Disease's going on its not good with our health... Ha I gave up smoking three years ago and that when it all started to go down hill... Have you had any food tests...Mandy

Sannah · 12-27-2007, 05:37 PM

He is a DO. He is the best! He has helped us out so much. I trust him more than any other doc that I have known. I drive 1 1/2 hours to see him. My daughter was allergic to almost all food and very sick. She is eating everything now and is very healthy for the first time in her life. (And for any doubters out there who think that she just outgrew the allergies. She barely tolerated the allergy testing and 2 months later was eating everything and she had anaphylaxis).