The Start of My Adventure

Thanks for joining me! I love to cook, and I love to take pictures of what I cook. I have to plan what I eat pretty carefully - only certain kinds of bread, ketchup, peanut butter, etc., only dairy-free cheeses, milks, yogurt and spreads, and virtually no chips, snack crackers, store-bought cookies, or dessert mixes. So it can be interesting sometimes, trying to figure out what I can eat, what I can substitute, what I can do without - and what I can get away with! Severe Allergy Benadryl can usually keep me from getting blisters (from eating corn, corn syrup, corn starch, dextrose, maltodextrin, etc), if I take it before I go to bed. I think it also helps keep me from breaking out, if I've eaten dairy.

It started with the dairy two years ago, but it was not a huge problem - I started to get sick from it, and throw up after I would eat in the morning in the fall of 2008. In January 2009 I found out that I was lactose intolerant and cut dairy out - the nausea and morning sickness got much better! By May, I was eating yogurt and cheese again.  Unfortunately, in June, I took a milk powder drink mix for a few days without realizing it was milk-based - dumb, right?

When I finally figured it out, my mouth was swollen and blistered. And that's how the corn allergy started. I was also eating eggs nearly every single day, and when I finally got in for testing last October, I learned that was my worst allergy, even though I don't have a visible reaction to it, as far as I'm aware.

I've been on allergy drops since then, and things have not changed at all. It could take from 3-5 years to see a change, I guess. Until then, I'm just plugging along, doing things the vegan way!