Jun 21
Arriving home on a Tuesday morning in a taxi at dawn, after a night of public vomiting, feeling woozy, clutching an unmarked brown paper bag containing five small blue pills could at once, seem like a night out well spent. Or, on the other hand, signal the return home, after another night in a crowded emergency ward in the midst of a global pandemic, hooked up to a drip after an unexplained anaphylactic episode, that again, took my breath away.
Welcome back! Catch up with all the nonsense from part one here.
Do you glow when you eat a tomato? That’s what I was trying to find out so was very eager to hear back from my allergist with my latest results.
One afternoon at the beginning of Jan 2019, I answered the call that changed my life.
“Hello Louise, your results are in”
“Great, what am I allergy to?”
“Nothing”
“Wait what?”
“Nothing”
“Can you say that in English because I swear you’re saying that after 3,5 years of very restrictive eating, a few cross contamination episodes which landed me in hospital, an irresitable love of interrogating restaurant chefs, and a whole lot of faffing about regarding the interpretation of food labels, ARE YOU NOW TELLING ME I AM CURED? I DO NOT HAVE ANY FOOD ALLERGIES, I AM ALLERGIC TO NOTHING?”
“Yes”
“What about tomato or wheat, cooked or raw?”
“Go eat pizza if you want”
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???? CAN YOU EVEN CURE YOURSELF FROM FOOD ALLERGIES? I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS BEFORE, ARE YOU A REAL DOCTOR?”
“Your immune system has now healed and I can’t detect anything in your bloodwork; you’re fine.”
“I thought I hated you, but I love you”
“Thanks”
“Do you want a picture of me for your wall or latest medical magazine cover, this is amazing.”
He didn’t.
Turns out, he was correct. I went home and tested myself by eating tomato sauce, just a few drops. No reaction. I ate a crumb of bread. No reaction. We ordered pizza. No reaction. Over the coming weeks, I re-introduced all my forbidden foods, all of which came up with no reaction. Not even a single scratch.
Oh, and didn’t I eat for Sweden! Making up for lost time.
“Would you like a cinnamon bun?”
“Yep, make it two!”
“Want a cardamom bun”
“Jesus, of course I do, hand them over”
“Darling, should I get pizza on the way home?”
“HELL YES!”
With gleeful abandon, for 2019 and the first half of 2020 I ate grains with joy, with a side of tomato salad.
Well, until this happened. Since, nearly dyings, I’ve gone back to a restrictive diet, with success I might add, as I haven’t had much of a reaction since. But not knowing really what the cause of my reaction in May was, every time I eat, I feel like I’m playing Russian roulette. Will we end the night with Netflix or a trip to emergency?
But Friday is the BIG DAY. I have an allergist appointment including a skin prick test and the works – with a new allergy clinic as I refused to go back to my original allergist. I can’t wait to sort this all out, and to find out, if I am once again a scientific miracle, or if I’ll be given an epi-pen and orders not to eat anything but apples.
More to come.
loulouloves 