New and not so new life changes...

Yesterday, I finally went to the allergist. I probably should have gone a while ago but the timing was never right and the truth is that I was not ready to go. However, last week I had an allergy attack that was pretty scary. I finally decided I could no longer ignore what was happening and that I needed medical confirmation for what I already knew in my heart. While not unexpected, I received the news that I am highly, severely, allergic to dairy. I am also allergic to pecans (that came out of the blue! but no real loss since I am not a huge pecan fan).

Years ago, my friend and kinesiologist told me that I needed to stop eating dairy because it acted like rat poison to my system. Scary words and ones I took (mostly) seriously. I avoided dairy because I would suffer the health consequences when I did not- lots of unpleasant GI stuff almost right away and my immune system would crash and I would get a cold within a few days. Still, I joked a lot about dairy being able to kill me. It seemed utterly ridiculous that a food could hurt me, possibly fatally, even though I knew that a large and ever growing number of people deal with serious food allergies. But me? No way. I had eaten dairy on and off most of my life. I would go off it for a couple of years and then be fine with it again for a couple of years. I had no idea that I could become one of the severely allergic members of this country. I had no idea it would become my reality that dairy could actually kill me. It freaks me out just thinking about it. Yet, I also realize that it is not that big of a deal as long as I know what to do if/when I come into contact with dairy. As long as I know, and other around me know, what to do when an attack happens then I will be safe. Yes, its scary but it does not have to control my life.

Still, scary facts aside, I have learned to do without dairy for a while now and I think I do a pretty good job. Something I did learn at the doctor's was that I need to go out and buy a new set of cooking-ware for myself. Non-dairy cooking-ware because cross contamination is too big of a danger. As someone who loves cooking this will not be such a hardship to "force" myself to go get a new (possibly color coded?) cooking set. My dad even offered to go to Williams-Sonoma with me and pick out some fancy dishes! There is a silver-lining to everything!

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful and allergy friendly/safe Thanksgiving!