Worms to my Rescue!

I did have skin prick testing done in 2007, but no foods registered at all on the skin. I did react to every type of dust mite and many types of mold and pollen. My allergist told me that negative skin-prick results for foods were only about 60% reliable, so I didn’t put too much stock in it and I don’t plan to have it redone.

I’m now able to tolerate all foods that I’ve been willing to try. Some still precipitate a reaction, but a much-diminished one. There are a few foods that previously required my keeping an Epi-Pen available, and I haven’t quite gotten up the courage to try those. Honestly, when something makes you that sick it’s hard to stomach, anyway, so I haven’t had the urge.

My allergic responses were largely GI-related, in addition to joint pain, mouth ulcers, fatigue and cardiovascular symptoms. The worst allergic response I ever had (the one that prompted the Epi-Pen prescription) started with allergic diarrhea ~20 minutes after consumption, followed by bradycardia, low blood pressure and loss of consciousness. After this incident I had the worst set of beau’s lines in my thumbnails that I’d ever experienced or seen in anyone (I commonly get beau’s lines when I’ve had a very bad reaction, but I don’t know if it’s common among others).

Allergy testing is nice, but for food allergies I don’t consider it very reliable. Elimination diet and food challenge/response testing is the way I figured out my allergies, however if you go this route I encourage you to work with an allergist and/or have an Epi-Pen on hand and help nearby. You never know when it could be the big one.