Allergies*

I'm sure I've talked at some point about my allergies, but not recently. Is there anyone in the US who isn't allergic to something? I don't think so. Here's the thing, I'm allergic, but to weird stuff and it's taken me years to figure it out. 


When the Hub and I came back from our honeymoon (1988), I was sick a lot. I would get up to go to work and feel so crappy that I'd just go back to bed. It took us 2 months to figure out that I was allergic to the flannel sheets we had bought at L.L. Bean - vicious cycle! Over the years, I've discovered that I'm also allergic to latex, bananas, and kiwi - they all come from the same kind of plant, so they're all related and they all cause me to break out in hives.


I went through a really bad patch several years ago where I was tested for auto-immune disease (lupus, Cushings, rheumatoid arthritis) and they came up empty handed. My diagnosis was ultimately "chronic idiopathic urticaria". Which essentially means that sometimes I have hives and no one can figure out what causes them. I take fexo-fenadine daily and that seems to have pushed them into submission.


Yesterday I was sitting in a meeting and I feel this weird spot on my chin. It was a cross between an itch and a crawling sensation. I touched my chin and felt a pea-sized lump and as soon as I touched it, it exploded in itchiness. I'm sitting across the table from my boss and I can feel my chin and lip start to swell up and itch like nobody's business, but I can't go anywhere or do anything about it.


By the time the meeting was over, my lower lip was completely hard to the touch and my chin was hot and bright red. When I got home, my daughter said, "Your mouth looks crooked." Everything was so swollen that it was pushing my face out of whack. Extra anti-histamines took care of it, but it was still a little swollen this morning.


I try to figure out what causes each episode, because that's the only way I can avoid the trigger. So, we were talking about it at breakfast and decided that maybe one of the people I shook hands with before the meeting yesterday had eaten a banana. Since I am incapable of not touching my face at any time, I must have transferred the allergen to myself during the course of the meeting. Am I destined to become one of those people who go around not shaking hands and instead have to bow to people?




*You'll forgive me for not posting a picture. I actually Googled them and started itching just look at the images.