When hubs was stationed in Quantico, we used to go down to a place called Sammy T's, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant. They also served a few regular dishes that hubs was able to indulge in. My favorite there was falafels served over tabouli with a lemon tahini dressing. It was phenomenal. I went as often as I could bribe hubs with the Civil War battlegrounds tours. However, it has been nearly 5 years since I last had access to Sammy T's. I didn't realize how much I missed that place until I saw this video. And I thought, hmmmm, could these be like Sammy T's? Perhaps brain fog tricks me but I made these tonight and I feel like I am in heaven. High protein dinner.
I had another rough day yesterday with inflammation. I can't claim with certainty that the inflammation is directly related to my Alpha Gal diagnosis but I can't help but wonder. When I have these rounds, it will start in a target area, which is usually my left shoulder. I have had this problem for years and years, just like I had the hives episodes for years and years. I used to call it *lightening strikes* through my shoulder as it would feel like electricity pulsing through my body radiating outward like lighting. And sadly it spreads over my whole body until even my hair hurts as odd that sounds. If I reach up and touch my scalp it feels very much like sunburn. I don't get a rash or redness or anything. Just misery. When I get a full blow episode of whatever this is, it hurts to move and I just want to go to sleep. Sometimes I sleep it off. And that just doesn't make sense to me that I could sleep it off. So that makes me wonder if it is dietary. Most of the time though I do take a couple of Ibuprofen when I finally resign myself to sleeping it off.
I need to get better about keeping a food diary so I can make connections on issues like this and get to the bottom of it. Yesterday I ate at Taco Bell. I had a bean burrito -- perhaps it had animal fat in the beans? I'll have to look into that. The other thing I had there was a Potato Griller -- it had sour cream on it. I had thought I wasn't having issues with dairy like others afflicted with Alpha Gal but I am truly beginning to wonder.
I need to get better about keeping a food diary so I can make connections on issues like this and get to the bottom of it. Yesterday I ate at Taco Bell. I had a bean burrito -- perhaps it had animal fat in the beans? I'll have to look into that. The other thing I had there was a Potato Griller -- it had sour cream on it. I had thought I wasn't having issues with dairy like others afflicted with Alpha Gal but I am truly beginning to wonder.
I hate to call it an Alpha Gal diet but I don't know how else to term it. Basically, being forced to drop mammalian meat from my diet, has resulted in 16 pounds dropped and still losing. I have to say, I found it hard to believe because truly, I have tried all sorts of ways to lose weight and struggled so hard. Despite my best efforts, I only lost 5 to 10 pounds for my trouble and it always boomeranged back on. It has been quite a pleasant side effect of my dietary change to be losing weight and seeing it remain off.
I rather suspicion this is likely a temporary thing and will level out once I get a steady menu. In truth, there are some days that I don't eat much 1) because I don't crave food like I used to; and 2) Not being able to eat something that I want is sort of a put off and I end up eating lightly.
Last night however, I had a craving that I could indulge within my Alpha Gal limitations -- I wanted hot, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. So, I snagged some ready bake cookie dough from the grocery store and baked a dozen. I didn't eat them all by myself - my hubs shared them with me. They were awesome with ice cold milk. So far, am fortunate to still be eating dairy.
I rather suspicion this is likely a temporary thing and will level out once I get a steady menu. In truth, there are some days that I don't eat much 1) because I don't crave food like I used to; and 2) Not being able to eat something that I want is sort of a put off and I end up eating lightly.
Last night however, I had a craving that I could indulge within my Alpha Gal limitations -- I wanted hot, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. So, I snagged some ready bake cookie dough from the grocery store and baked a dozen. I didn't eat them all by myself - my hubs shared them with me. They were awesome with ice cold milk. So far, am fortunate to still be eating dairy.
I've always wondered what is the difference between beans and legumes but I never had any incentive to look into it...until now. Being diagnosed with Alpha Gal has spurred me to careful assess my dietary intake and to have a better understanding of what foods are and what they do for me nutritionally. Beans and legumes are truly a jackpot protein source. All beans and legumes are not created equal but they all have great nutritional value and with all the varieties, an abundance of eating options.
My all time favorite is brown beans and cornbread which I talked about in my last post. I am going to have a big pot of beans today. There is a food program in the U.S. for women, infants and children called WIC and they have this really awesome bean guide pdf. It has really awesome tips on different ways to cook beans including quick cook instructions for doing beans in the microwave. Basically, instead of soaking beans overnight like most instructions will tell you, you put them in water and microwave them for about 8-10 minutes, then take them out and let them sit for an hour. Then drain, put in new water and cook for 10-20 minutes and VOILA! A fresh pot of beans. I am going to try that today and see how well it works out. Be sure to click that link to the bean guide and take advantage of all the valuable bean bennies it has in it. ;)
So, back to my original question -- what are legumes? According to the MayoClinic.org website:
Legumes — a class of vegetables that includes beans, peas and lentils — are among the most versatile and nutritious foods available. Legumes are typically low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are high in folate, potassium, iron and magnesium. They also contain beneficial fats and soluble and insoluble fiber. A good source of protein, legumes can be a healthy substitute for meat, which has more fat and cholesterol.The same site goes on to list a variety of legumes and what dishes they are commonly used in. It is well worth the read. On the second page of the article it gave some tips about beans/lentils/peas that don't have to be soaked before cooking:
Lentils, split peas and black-eyed peas don't need to be soaked. In addition, some legumes are "quick-cooking" — meaning they have already been pre-soaked and redried and don't need extra soaking. Finally, canned legumes make quick additions to dishes that don't require long simmering. Just be sure to rinse prepared and canned legumes to remove some of the sodium added during processing.But all this did make me wonder, if *legumes* include beans, peas and lentils -- what are lentils? I know what beans and peas are. So, I did some more digging...
According to the World's Healthiest Foods website:
Lentils are legumes along with other types of beans. They grow in pods that contain either one or two lentil seeds that are round, oval or heart-shaped disks and are oftentimes smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser. They may be sold whole or split into halves with the brown and green varieties being the best at retaining their shape after cooking.Ok, so I guess that is a little clearer....
Now, I'm off to quick micro-cook my pot of brown beans. I can't wait to sink into a bowl with some buttered cornbread. Hurry, hurry...this is one hungry Alpha-Gal-Licious gal....
Went to our favorite Mexican restaurant today. It's been a very stressful week running up and down the highway between my house and daughter's house -- she lives 65 miles away. I have a little Cottage there that she has decided to move into so I've been moving out stuff I had stored in it and helping daughter clean it up. Had the water turned out only to find out it has a water line break that has to be repaired. Plumber can't come until mid-week. Sigh...
On top of all that stress, the window on the driver's side broke a cable and fell down in the door. The passenger side window had already done the same and was pulled up and shimmed in place pending getting a new door mechanism to fix it. We salvaged one from an old van of my mother's but it got broken before installation and after all the trouble of putting it in place, it didn't work. So, this week, Mom and brothers found a place to salvage parts for both doors and I went to brother's house to have them installed. Took about 3 hours to do and it was a nice visit. And I was so happy to have both windows operating -- that is very important when your air conditioner doesn't work. It's an old van -- 1997, so what can I say? I've been eyeballing those *red neck coolers* where you use a styrofoam ice chest, a frozen milk bottle and a battery operated fan but I haven't put that into practice yet.
Back on point of this post, I wanted *comfort food* and for me, that is food at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. I've always loved chicken and cheese and rarely ate beef so being diagnosed with Alpha Gal Allergy didn't disrupt my patronage or food choices there. However, I did decide to get something other than my usual chicken dishes -- I went for a plate with a Chile relleno and a cheese enchilada -- or so I thought.
The food came and I was ready for it and dived right in. I snagged a fork full, was talking to hubs and poked it my mouth. It was delicious and as I chewed, I realized it wasn't just cheese -- it had BEEF in it! I immediately pulled the enchilada open and sure enough, it was a beef enchilada full of cheese sauce. I called the waitress over and explained to her that I can't have beef and that it was supposed to be cheese. She apologized and said she would bring me it to me right away. In a matter of minutes she reappeared all apologetic again and placed before me another enchilada...but it wasn't cheese either! Thankfully, it was chicken so I ate it. The rest of my meal went off without incident.
It has been six hours now since that fateful accidental bite of beef and so far so good. I think I am going to skate through this round without incident. I hope I don't end up eating those words.
Good night all. Looking forward to an Alpha-Gal-Licious day tomorrow. I'm thinking beans and cornbread with a slice of onion....
Eyeballing the recipe on this blog post -- only mine will be minus the bacon...sigh.....
On top of all that stress, the window on the driver's side broke a cable and fell down in the door. The passenger side window had already done the same and was pulled up and shimmed in place pending getting a new door mechanism to fix it. We salvaged one from an old van of my mother's but it got broken before installation and after all the trouble of putting it in place, it didn't work. So, this week, Mom and brothers found a place to salvage parts for both doors and I went to brother's house to have them installed. Took about 3 hours to do and it was a nice visit. And I was so happy to have both windows operating -- that is very important when your air conditioner doesn't work. It's an old van -- 1997, so what can I say? I've been eyeballing those *red neck coolers* where you use a styrofoam ice chest, a frozen milk bottle and a battery operated fan but I haven't put that into practice yet.
Back on point of this post, I wanted *comfort food* and for me, that is food at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. I've always loved chicken and cheese and rarely ate beef so being diagnosed with Alpha Gal Allergy didn't disrupt my patronage or food choices there. However, I did decide to get something other than my usual chicken dishes -- I went for a plate with a Chile relleno and a cheese enchilada -- or so I thought.
The food came and I was ready for it and dived right in. I snagged a fork full, was talking to hubs and poked it my mouth. It was delicious and as I chewed, I realized it wasn't just cheese -- it had BEEF in it! I immediately pulled the enchilada open and sure enough, it was a beef enchilada full of cheese sauce. I called the waitress over and explained to her that I can't have beef and that it was supposed to be cheese. She apologized and said she would bring me it to me right away. In a matter of minutes she reappeared all apologetic again and placed before me another enchilada...but it wasn't cheese either! Thankfully, it was chicken so I ate it. The rest of my meal went off without incident.
It has been six hours now since that fateful accidental bite of beef and so far so good. I think I am going to skate through this round without incident. I hope I don't end up eating those words.
Good night all. Looking forward to an Alpha-Gal-Licious day tomorrow. I'm thinking beans and cornbread with a slice of onion....
Eyeballing the recipe on this blog post -- only mine will be minus the bacon...sigh.....
When you tell friends you can't eat meat, their first thoughts are 'oh, so you're vegetarian now? or are you vegan?' The answer is yes/no and maybe.... Then I tell them it is because I have Alpha Gal allergy and of course they want to know what that is. So, let's start there. Here's a definition from Wikepdia:
The befuddling thing about this allergy is that it is sporadic -- one time a person might eat mammalian meat and be fine, even for weeks, months or years and be fine. But then one day, BOOM, serious reaction. As they learn more about Alpha Gal they gain a better understanding of how it works. Some people get tick bit once and they have symptoms forever afterwards. Some have ebbs and flows with the allergy based on how often they get bitten by ticks. There has even been one reported incidence of a child recovering completely. What a lucky, lucky boy!
The Lone Star Tick in particular is known to cause this allergy but it may not be the only tick since there are cases reported in places in the United States and abroad where the Lone Star Tick isn't a native resident. Considering Lymes Disease and Rocky Mountain Fever caused by ticks and now Alpha Gal, I would say, no tick is a good tick.
Being bit by a tick and contracting Alpha Gal allergy is truly a case of once bitten, twice shy.
You will see it often called the *red meat* allergy but that's a bit of a misnomer, because it also includes pork which people commonly think of as the *other white meat* due to great marketing strategies by the Pork Producers competing with the poultry industry. The more accurate term is *mammalian meat* allergy with mammals being any animal that nurses it's young. I once thought I could describe it as hoofed animals because it includes beef, sheep, pork, goat, buffalo, venison, big game, etc. But it is important to know that it also includes rabbits and squirrels which don't have hoofs. Horse would also be included but as an American, I don't think of horses as meat but in case someone out there lives in places where they do, they are mammals as are cats and dogs.
So, if mammals are off the table, what does that leave? Everything else! There is all manner of plant based proteins and yummy ways to prepare them, such as beans and legumes which readily come to mind. But let's not forget to talk about the actual meat sources that do remain on the list as edible options - chicken, turkey, fowl, fish and seafood. While it might seem like a small list, it is actually quite a lot. And a particularly awesome meat AGers can have? Emu! Which I'm told looks, cooks and eats just like beef! I have read raving reviews that people have served it to others and they couldn't tell the difference between it and beef. I am anxious to try it. In fact, I've found a listing for an Emu farm about 2 hours from me, so I have tentative plans to go there the next available Saturday. I will be sure to do a post or two on that adventure and maybe even some videos.
This is just the tip of the ice burg of what Alpha Gal is. Every individual stricken by it has a unique set of symptoms and reactions and sometimes complicated by additional unrelated allergies. Or perhaps they are related and there just isn't sufficient research yet to link them.... Some AG sufferers can eat dairy and some violently react to it. Some can have pork and those lucky dogs continue to gnosh on bacon while I can only dream of my bacon days gone by. And as if all that isn't complex enough, there is something called *pork/cat syndrome* which isn't truly Alpha Gal but it is equally unpleasant for those afflicted.
What is a person to do if diagnosed with Alpha Gal? Take a deep breath, educate yourself, make adjustments and know that there is most definitely a high quality life awaiting you after your Alpha Gal diagnosis. You just have to get through it to get to it. Or, as my Daddy said when he was alive, *keep on keeping on*.
You're thinking, HUH?, right? Basically, here it is in a nutshell -- ticks have a form of sugar in their saliva called galactose-alpha-1,3-gallactose. When they bite a person who is sensitive to that sugar, their body goes on the defense and generates an abundance of IGE antibodies ready to fight the problem. What complicates the issue is that sugar is also stored in mammalian meats and it doesn't dissipate with cooking. When an AG allergic person eats meat, the reaction occurs several hours later after consumption because it takes the digestive process that long to break down the meat allowing the offending sugar into the blood stream. Therefore, a person who eats a typical evening meal of meat awakens in the middle night to a horrendous flood of histamines causing a reaction of hives. In extreme cases, even deadly anaphylaxis shock.
The befuddling thing about this allergy is that it is sporadic -- one time a person might eat mammalian meat and be fine, even for weeks, months or years and be fine. But then one day, BOOM, serious reaction. As they learn more about Alpha Gal they gain a better understanding of how it works. Some people get tick bit once and they have symptoms forever afterwards. Some have ebbs and flows with the allergy based on how often they get bitten by ticks. There has even been one reported incidence of a child recovering completely. What a lucky, lucky boy!
The Lone Star Tick in particular is known to cause this allergy but it may not be the only tick since there are cases reported in places in the United States and abroad where the Lone Star Tick isn't a native resident. Considering Lymes Disease and Rocky Mountain Fever caused by ticks and now Alpha Gal, I would say, no tick is a good tick.
Being bit by a tick and contracting Alpha Gal allergy is truly a case of once bitten, twice shy.
You will see it often called the *red meat* allergy but that's a bit of a misnomer, because it also includes pork which people commonly think of as the *other white meat* due to great marketing strategies by the Pork Producers competing with the poultry industry. The more accurate term is *mammalian meat* allergy with mammals being any animal that nurses it's young. I once thought I could describe it as hoofed animals because it includes beef, sheep, pork, goat, buffalo, venison, big game, etc. But it is important to know that it also includes rabbits and squirrels which don't have hoofs. Horse would also be included but as an American, I don't think of horses as meat but in case someone out there lives in places where they do, they are mammals as are cats and dogs.
So, if mammals are off the table, what does that leave? Everything else! There is all manner of plant based proteins and yummy ways to prepare them, such as beans and legumes which readily come to mind. But let's not forget to talk about the actual meat sources that do remain on the list as edible options - chicken, turkey, fowl, fish and seafood. While it might seem like a small list, it is actually quite a lot. And a particularly awesome meat AGers can have? Emu! Which I'm told looks, cooks and eats just like beef! I have read raving reviews that people have served it to others and they couldn't tell the difference between it and beef. I am anxious to try it. In fact, I've found a listing for an Emu farm about 2 hours from me, so I have tentative plans to go there the next available Saturday. I will be sure to do a post or two on that adventure and maybe even some videos.
This is just the tip of the ice burg of what Alpha Gal is. Every individual stricken by it has a unique set of symptoms and reactions and sometimes complicated by additional unrelated allergies. Or perhaps they are related and there just isn't sufficient research yet to link them.... Some AG sufferers can eat dairy and some violently react to it. Some can have pork and those lucky dogs continue to gnosh on bacon while I can only dream of my bacon days gone by. And as if all that isn't complex enough, there is something called *pork/cat syndrome* which isn't truly Alpha Gal but it is equally unpleasant for those afflicted.
What is a person to do if diagnosed with Alpha Gal? Take a deep breath, educate yourself, make adjustments and know that there is most definitely a high quality life awaiting you after your Alpha Gal diagnosis. You just have to get through it to get to it. Or, as my Daddy said when he was alive, *keep on keeping on*.
Now with my Alpha Gal diagnosis, I have to consider my dining out options very carefully. First, I have to figure out which places might even have suitable vegetarian/vegan options and secondly, whether there might be cross contamination risks. Not always, but usually burger joints are pretty much out, especially for fellow AGers that are effected by the molecules in aromas. Yes, even the aromas of mammalian meats cooking can trigger reactions in some that are super sensitive. Thankfully, so far, aromas are not an issue for me. We will see if that changes. I'm hoping it doesn't...
Today, we had errands to run and at times like that it would have been our custom to grab a bite to eat while out and about. That hasn't been so easily doable since my husband's preferred foods clash with my AG limitations. However, we found out that Mazzio's has some new lasagna dishes. A roasted vegetable one, a chicken Mediterranean one and a *make your own*. I decided to go for the vegetable lasagna. According to PizzaMarketPlace.com, Roasted Veggie Lasagna is made from ricotta cheese-filled pasta blended with Asiago Alfredo sauce, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and oven-roasted tomatoes. You can read more of PizzaMarketPlace's article about Mazzio's lasagnas and family pasta bakes here. I tried looking on Mazzio's website for nutritional info but didn't find it.
Here is what my lasagna looked like. I have to say, it was very tasty and generous helping for me. I only ate half of it. Although it came with a piece of garlic toast, I ate the cheese sticks with marinara sauce appetizer and polished it off with iced tea. I'm a light weight sweet tea drinker, a traitor to my southern roots, I drink my tea half strength -- half sweet/half unsweet.
This was my dining adventure for today.
Today, we had errands to run and at times like that it would have been our custom to grab a bite to eat while out and about. That hasn't been so easily doable since my husband's preferred foods clash with my AG limitations. However, we found out that Mazzio's has some new lasagna dishes. A roasted vegetable one, a chicken Mediterranean one and a *make your own*. I decided to go for the vegetable lasagna. According to PizzaMarketPlace.com, Roasted Veggie Lasagna is made from ricotta cheese-filled pasta blended with Asiago Alfredo sauce, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and oven-roasted tomatoes. You can read more of PizzaMarketPlace's article about Mazzio's lasagnas and family pasta bakes here. I tried looking on Mazzio's website for nutritional info but didn't find it.
Here is what my lasagna looked like. I have to say, it was very tasty and generous helping for me. I only ate half of it. Although it came with a piece of garlic toast, I ate the cheese sticks with marinara sauce appetizer and polished it off with iced tea. I'm a light weight sweet tea drinker, a traitor to my southern roots, I drink my tea half strength -- half sweet/half unsweet.
This was my dining adventure for today.
story goes here
Stay tuned on this one folks -- I've caught wind of an Emu farm 2 hours away so I've got a field trip in the works. And lots of details to come on Emu - the *new* beef especially for the Alpha Gal afflicted!
Diagnosis Alpha Gal means embarking into the realm of meatless meals or so it feels like as your rib eye steaks and bbq ribs are stripped away. However, in truth, although all mammalian meat (any creature that nurses its young) is definitely off the menu, fowl, fish and seafood (FFS) remain. Plus there are also many plant based protein (PBP) sources that are quite delicious.
Going forward, I will be looking into the many recipes of FFS and PBP. :) After all, as babes fresh from the womb through the first months of life, mammalian meat wasn't on the menu and we were quite nourished and healthy. Time to roll up the shirt sleeves, dive into the research and get smacking on some new foods.
I've been plagued since my mid-teens with hives that would hit unexpectedly. We would run ourselves crazy trying to figure out what I *got into*. We considered contact issues such as fiberglass insulation - my Dad was a carpenter - to plants I might have brushed up against - I was an avid outdoors person - to what I had eaten immediately before. It was a crap shoot as to whether we came up with something to blame it on.
The very first time this allergy hit me, it was an emotional day. My father had taken a job working out of town and had been gone for weeks. I was really looking forward to seeing him again. However, I had play practice for a talent show and was so excited that he would be home when I finished -- only he wasn't there when I got home. Nobody was. I was dumbfounded. How could the whole family have just gotten up and went without leaving me any word about where they had gone? I really worked myself up into a lather and had quite the emotional teen blow out crying and *snot slinging* as my father would have said. This being back in the 70s, it was way before cellphones and still during the time of party line phones. If you don't know what those are, count yourself lucky. We had an exceptionally gabby neighbor that was happily camped out on the party line merrily chirping away about everything and nothing so I was stuck at home with no way to even call anyone to track down my parents. On the flip side, they weren't able to call me either. And so both parties were stuck in place without the ability to contact the other. Our neighbor was on the party line for nearly 3 hours. I had cried, pouted, slept, and fitted. Finally my parents were able to call me and let me know they were at my cousin's house and wanted me to walk over. I remember resentfully thinking a note would have solved it all had they thought to leave one. But I quickly shifted to happiness that I was back in the loop and going get to see my dad after several weeks of him being gone.
I chose to walk through the pasture to my cousin's house, rather than the long way around using the road. I had no idea what a fateful choice I had made that day. In the sometimes shoulder high weeds lurked those pesky ticks that initiated me into the unknown world of Alpha Gal.
Once I got to my cousin's house, they placated me with homemade coconut balls. They were marvelous. And as I sat eating them, I started to sting -- we found a tick biting me in the middle of the back. Several *stings* later, we had pulled a handful of ticks from various parts of me. When I got home, I took a hot soaking bath and doctored the bites with alcohol and aspirin -- a mixture my Mother always had readily on hand since the big chigger bite episode several years earlier.
Late that night after dinner, I began to itch, we assumed it was discomfort of the tick bites. But then my neck began to itch and got intense. I was welping up and Mom told me to stop *clawing* at myself. But the itching wouldn't stop and it spread rapidly. The next thing I knew, I was clawing myself everywhere, even the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet. I had never felt so miserable in my life. My Mom was at a loss as to why I was broke out in hives. She called Granny to see what to do. Oddly, I can remember everything in detail of that day 40+ years ago except how they helped me. I do know that Mom and Granny decided it was *something* I ate and in reviewing my diet of the day, the only odd thing was the coconut balls. Because I eat Granny's coconut cream pie all the time, they decided it wasn't coconut itself but had to be something in those coconut balls. They blamed it on the parafin in the chocolate coating. Ok, so no more coconut balls for me or anything with parafin. We thought we were done. And so we were.... until my next episode.
I had several more hive episodes that summer. My astute mother noticed that each time they happened I had had an emotional upset -- what teen doesn't have frequent emotional upsets? As a result of this observation, it was determined that it was *my nerves* that was causing the problem and that I needed to not work myself up so much. The funny thing is, the outbreaks didn't occur during the emotional upsets -- it was always close to bed time or several hours after a meal but we hadn't figured that out back then.
These mystery hive episodes plagued me throughout my teens. Sometimes very severe and sometimes only a minor inconvenience. All during that time, we were an outdoors family camping, fishing and hiking -- and getting tick bitten.
Once I married and left home, my outdoor life changed and no more tick bites and no more hive episodes for nearly 7 years. We truly thought my prior hive episodes were just a phase of adolescent hormonal fluxuations and nerves. And then it struck again.
We bought a place in the country and it was full of welcoming ticks. It was a daily do to remove ticks from some part of the body. My first encounter with seed ticks was horrifying. My legs felt tickly and there like a light coating of pepper flecks on my lower legs were pulsing crawling seed ticks. The one thing that really stands out is that tick bites burn/sting as they are happening to me. And they itch for weeks and sometimes leave a tough leathery node that reminds me of a wart. The doctor gave that thickened hide a name once but I have forgotten what it was. Of course after this, I began breaking out with hives again but we never once associated it with ticks. We always looked at food for an answer and for ingredients of parafin or palm oil. I quit eating potato chips because we thought it was something in chips.
As time went on, the hives continued and we kept restricting things from my diet that we thought might be it - no chips, no coconut (good bye Granny's coconut cream pie), we switched to vegetable shortening (yes, meat fat shortening was still available and highly used back then). Each time we eliminated something from my diet, we thought we had solved the issue and so we would be allowed a false sense of security for weeks or months before it struck again.
But it wasn't the food eliminations that were helping me since we weren't eliminating the right thing but rather the fact that we were spraying and eliminating ticks which we had no idea were the source of my illness. Nor did we even realize it was in fact an illness. We just thought I was *getting into something*. At one point, we thought it was caused by perfumes or deodorants or laundry soaps. We were always hunting for the source of my problem....and never truly finding it.
Spraying for ticks and keeping them under control benefited my illness de facto we assume by allowing my body to drop its AG sensitivity -- which we as yet were totally unaware of. So, I ate all manner of meats in abundance having no idea THEY were the source of my miseries due to AG compliments of ticks.
The roller coaster continued, we would move to a new country place and the tick bites ensued followed by hive episodes in the middle of the night. Little did we know how crucial that *middle of the night* tidbit of information would later turn out to be. This mystery misery continued off and on for years with us never solving it on our own. The one thing that became scary was that the older I got, the more severe the episodes became. One night my face distorted so horribly and tongue hung swollen and uncontrollable out of my mouth that I looked unrecognizable as human. It all happened so fast. In terror, I woke my husband at 2:30 am thinking we needed to get me to the ER as I feared my breathing was going to be effected. I could barely get him to understand me. By the time he got fully awakened and jumping to dress, the episode began to subside almost as quickly as it had started. I was dumbfounded and frightened. I puzzled about what I had eaten, bathed in, sprayed on, breathed etc. I had nothing and that was scary. At least all the times before I could pinpoint *something* and feel I had control and could make adjustments. Not this time. But I had to get ready for work, had a child to take care of and life fast tracked on.
Over the years I had learned to have liquid Benedryl readily available and at the first signs of a potential onset of hives, to take several slugs from the bottle. Worked like a charm. However, having lived out of state and in town with no tick bites for 6 years and therefore no episodes, I had gotten complacent and stopped lugging Benedryl around with me. But having moved back to Oklahoma and visiting my daughter who lived in the country, I got bitten by ticks. Little did I know the merry go round was spinning again until it took me for the ride of my life.
In May 2014 I had an episode that hospitalized me. I picked up my tiny grandchildren and went to my Mother's. I had eaten very little but what I had eaten was several beef sticks, a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, a tiny taste of fried cactus, a nibble of dandelion greens, and some coconut oil in my coffee. Both my brothers and myself are into wildcrafting and alternative health so we are always sharing and investigating differing things. Shortly after the coffee I laid down with my tiny granddaughter to help her take her nap. As soon as I laid my head on the pillow my neck began to itch and then it spread to my throat, my arms and legs. I knew immediately what was happening - not why - but I knew it was hives. I was totally unprepared and my brothers and mother did not have Benedryl in the house. There was a little general store a mile from there house so I grabbed my things and went racing off to get some Benedryl. I had no idea how severe this episode was going to turn out. By the time I got to the store, I was starting to have difficulty breathing and feeling a little light headed. I was having trouble speaking and itching and welped up. I think I scared the store clerk trying to explain to her what I needed. They didn't have liquid Benedryl so I had to buy pills. I took FIVE of them. I had to have relief. I was alone and doing poorly. I called my husband to alert him to my plight and told him that if I blacked out on the phone to call 911. I made it back to my mother's house. By then it was extremely obviousl I was going into full blow anaphylactic shock. My brothers immediately put me in the car and took me to the Emergency Room. Looking back on that day, I see how stupid my actions were in driving anywhere that day.
Of course the ER's job was to stabilize me and treat me for my symptoms. Four hours of hospitalization later, I didn't get a diagnosis but I got a very stern recommendation from the doctor that I schedule to see an allergist right away to determine what the problem was. He told me I had escalated beyond home treatments and best guesses because the next episode could kill me. He didn't have to tell me twice. I promptly called my primary care physician and had them refer me to an allergist. A few weeks later, I sat talking to the allergy doctor. I had written up my life history as I knew it and every detail I had about the day I went into anaphylactic shock. Her eyes widened and she told me she needed to ask me some questions that would seem odd and random but it was important that I think hard when answering. And then came the question that put the final piece of the puzzle into place.... had I been bitten by ticks in close proximity to any of the episodes I had experienced and most specifically around the time I went into anaphylactic shock? The answer was a resounding YES!!! And then I explained how the tick bites effect me and showed her the weird scarring lump on my ankle. From there I had food testing to confirm what she already suspected. The only test I didn't have was the blood test for AG levels. She said with my history and my allergy tests it wasn't absolutely necessary unless I wanted it and warned me it would be an expensive test. I waived the test for now and chose instead to spend the money on pursuing a healthier diet. At some point in the future I will have the blood test so that I can monitor my blood levels.
So, compliments of the ticks of Oklahoma, I have become a ticked off carnivore that cannot consume mammalian meat. My dietary journey to health and wellness begins. So far, since my dietary adjustment, I have lost 20 lbs and still losing. This after dieting for years and struggling to drop a minuscule 5 lbs at best. Even though it is a challenge to eliminate foods I dearly loved and replace them with what will hopefully become new dearly loved foods, the changes in the way I feel and the weight loss are exciting.
Different doesn't have to mean bad -- it just means adventure. :) And that is what this blog is about, my Alpha Gal adventure learning to find new delicious favorites and from that came the blog name Alpha-Gal-Licious.
