Sugar!

  So, instead of being informative about the life of an allergy afflicted teenager, i decided that today i would just write about a funny story and lighten the mood! 

  One night i was going out with my friends to dinner at the ninety-nine, a common Lynnfield hot-spot. We got seated at our table and we're just having fun, gossiping about the week. When the waitress came over to take our orders, she was loud and overly-friendly. She immediately asked all of us if we went to Lynnfield High School, and when we all answered yes she started to rant about how she was a close friend of our history teacher. Us, as a group of teenagers, felt awkward that she wouldn't stop talking.

  Eventually, she took our orders and almost all of us ordered the same thing, the BBQ chicken wrap, which is probably the only dish i like at the ninety - nine as well as it is the most popular dish served there. 

  When i placed my order i told my waitress about my food allergy and when she confirmed that she would check with the chef and let me know when she came back out, i felt safe. But, right before she left our table, she said, "Well, it must really stink being allergic to sugar!"

  I was extremely confused by this statement and immediately asked her what she was saying, to which she responded, "You said you were allergic to sugar, right?" "No..." i said, "I'm allergic to tree-nuts..." And after that was said she went into a rant about how her hearing was going as she gets older etc etc etc. Once everything was cleared up, she left and me and my friends immediately burst out laughing at our table. "How could she think saying tree-nuts was sugar?!" we all kept saying, barely able to talk from laughter. 

  Ever since that night at dinner, saying "Sugar?!" in an old woman's Boston accent has become an inside joke that can make any of my friends laugh at any time.

  Although allergies are a serious thing, there are always funny stories and times that come along with them! Being safe is a priority, but so is having fun with friends!

For My Mom

  My mom is the most amazing person. She is the best mother i could have ever hoped to have. She is the sole reason that i am alive today, she has been willing to do anything to keep me safe. Ever since the moment when my parents discovered i had life-threatening allergies, my mom has done everything in her power to keep me safe. If i can't eat somewhere, she won't eat either. She has always been willing to sacrifice anything she can to keep me alive and smiling. She has been with me through everything and has been at the hospital holding my hand every time i have had a reaction, severe or not. I go to her when i'm scared and she always helps me to feel better with her great sense of humor and wonderful smile. I remember one time when i came home from a middle school pizza party crying because i couldn't eat the pizza they were serving, i sat on the stairs sobbing and she hugged me and told me everything was okay and somehow got me to smile, even though i was so upset. She made sure to bring pizza home for dinner the next night. My mother is amazing. As well as being a fantastic mother, she is a great cook. Whenever i couldn't eat something when i went out, she would always make the safe version of the food the next day for me so that i could eat it. She can make anything and everything she makes is delicious. She loves to try those 30-minute meals from the Rachel Ray magazine and loves to try new things. 
  I don't know what i would do without my mom, she keeps me happy and makes having food allergies less stressful. She helps me to forget all of my troubles and makes life simple. I am the luckiest person to have such a mother. I could never thank her enough for what she does every single day. I love her with all of my heart.

  My mom is also a wonderful singer and has sung in several movies and video games, she has many CDs too, check out her website and listen to some music!

Friends are Forever

  So my sister has been reading my blog and has told me that it is incredibly morbid and depressing. I would like to change that, i don't want to be too depressing about allergies.

  Having friends sounds like it is just a simple task. Making and keeping friends is not so easy though, especially when you have allergies. You keep them from eating some of the foods they want to eat, because if they're around you while they eat them, you risk having a reaction. You also sometimes keep them from planning certain things because you can't eat at a certain restaurant or you can't be in a certain area where food is. Well here comes the happy part, there are some really amazing people out there. Some of my friends are the most accepting, inviting, and special people and i am so lucky to have them in my life. They don't treat me like i'm the reason that we all can't do certain things, they know that i can't control my allergies. They are so kind and are always willing to change their plans in order to keep me safe. They are the best friends i could ever ask for.

  My best friend has been with me since we were 4. We have been the best of friends since we met in preschool fighting over a toy. She is the best friend i have ever had and could ever hope to have. She is always there for me and is so laid-back about my allergies. She's careful, but doesn't treat me like a charity case that could die at any moment.

  I love my friends and I wouldn't survive without them, they've helped me through all of my difficult times and keep me sane. Even though some people can be jerks and call you "allergy girl," you have to be patient to meet those special people who will be with you through anything and everything.

  I have been lucky enough to meet and be friends with some of these people in the world and i don't know what i would do without them. I love them with all of my heart and i could never thank them enough for what they do. They are all amazing.

  I would love to hear stories from others about their friends and lives with food allergies, so please comment and share your stories!

My God-Awful Summer

So for my first real, non-introductory, post, I'm going to tell you about the worst summer of my life. It was the beginning of the summer of 2007, I was about 9. I had recently been getting strange stomach aches almost every single day and eventually my mom made an appointment at Children's Hospital. First, they put me through a test for diabetes. For those of you who don't know what this involves, it's basically drinking a full cup of, to me, melted gummy bears. The down-side to this was that, if you threw up, you had to do the whole process over again. Oh, and did i mention that all of this was on an empty stomach?! I threw up. But i begged my mother not to make me do it again so eventually the doctor gave in and let me go free. Over the next few weeks i had other appointments. One was a scratch test, this test is when they put several oils of different nuts (or other allergens) onto a board of small, sharp pyramids. For me, they tested tree-nuts (which we already knew i was allergic to, so there was NO point). Every single spot lit up and flamed red. My arm was so itchy, but of course, "No scratching allowed dear" was all i heard. Eventually, after i left the hospital, the area where they tested walnuts turned into a painful, raised bruise. This bruise stayed for about a week. So after all of these tests, like i was some sort of lab rat, the doctors were stumped. Apparently being stumped and not knowing what to do in their minds means "take her off of every food that makes life enjoyable and lets ruin her summer." Without doing any more tests, the doctors told me what i could no longer eat until later tests, here is said list:
Tree-nuts
Peanuts
Milk
Wheat
Mango
Sesame Seeds
Now most these food items were what made life with a life-threatening food allergy tolerable because it was still easy to find foods that i could eat. Now, though, i could barely eat anything. Throughout the whole summer i ate rice-cakes and scrambled eggs (two things that i can no longer tolerate eating after that summer). I could no longer go to my friends houses because they didn't have any of the food i could eat and i could no longer go to any sort of restaurant. I was stuck inside my house all summer because the doctors wanted to cover their asses. I lost a ton of weight and became unhealthily skinny. Near the end of the summer, my mother became worried about my health and decided to go in to talk to the doctors again. My stomach aches had gone away but i refused to accept that taking away any of the foods that they took me off of resulted in this. When i went in again, the doctors did more tests! This time, however, they actually got somewhere. They didn't test for any sort of allergy this time, but tested for something wrong with me on the inside. After several blood-tests they discovered that i had (prepare yourself for this one) Hashimoto's Hyper-Thyroiditis. This sounds pretty freaking scary now doesn't it. It means that my thyroid has basically been tiring itself out and will eventually lose function, resulting in me becoming depressed and over-weight. Overall, this was the "cherry on top," as some would say, to my god-awful summer. I was put back onto the foods that the doctors had forbidden me from at the beginning of the school year, but it was far too late. My summer had already been categorized in my mind as the worst summer of my life.