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Health stuff - feel free to ignore
Jan. 23rd, 2008 09:29 amThis is a note for Melbourne and Sydney and Canberra friends who may be sharing food with me in the next few months. Unfortunately I had three instances of anaphylactic shock while I was away (that, and the 24 hour bug the others also got, and the leg problems and the asthma and the fever now - I was just a tad unlucky - unfortunately the one time I could get to a chemist for advice the chemist was closed, so I was unlucky there, too). What this means is that I'm now a lot more sensitive to a whole range of allergens than I was. I need to build up higher food tolerances again with a more restricted diet. The option is to react to fish and chips wrappers at 20 metres and since anaphylactic shock means suffocating to death, this is not an option I care to consider.
What this means is that I need to be 100% clear of fish and the other potentially fatal things, I will have to check labels for traces various foodstuffs again (I had built up enough of a tolerance so I could eat a lot of packaged foods without checking, which was such a blessing - I shall miss that luxury). I have to add walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts and cashews to the list of nuts I can't eat and I won't be able to eat bananas or avocadoes or various other things at all. Cakes are off the menu unless I know exactly what's in them (but if I avoid them entirely I shall be healthier, so I'm not worried about just saying 'no' to cake). It also means there are types of restaurants I can't go near for a few months.
It gets too complicated for much eating out. Unless you're used to acute allergies, I suggest we meet for coffee or we go shopping together or to a gallery or something. If there are meetings with food attached, please don't be offended if I sit a little bit apart or if I eat beforehand.
I don't know how long it will take to build up my tolerances again. Until then, it's going to be really painful for me, because I love eating with friends and I particularly like it when everyone can order their favourite foods. The last time the sensitising happened, I was a postgraduate. I used to deal with it by making sure we got tables near the door (fewer food smells) and that I only ate hot chips. This wasn't a good solution.
PS I still have my fever, but I think it's from my legs. You don't want to know the details of what happened to my legs in Yackandandah. Suffice it to say they are sore and look rather curious. I woke up this morning and they were less inflamed than yesterday, which makes me rather suspect that the fever is my body dealing with infection. If it continues past tomorrow,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eneit, I shall see the doctor.
PPS Times like this I envy those who get aches and pains but are not chronically ill. Two weeks with normal people have given me a bad case of body envy :). I rather suspect that said normal people are relieved to be quit of my whingeing.
What this means is that I need to be 100% clear of fish and the other potentially fatal things, I will have to check labels for traces various foodstuffs again (I had built up enough of a tolerance so I could eat a lot of packaged foods without checking, which was such a blessing - I shall miss that luxury). I have to add walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts and cashews to the list of nuts I can't eat and I won't be able to eat bananas or avocadoes or various other things at all. Cakes are off the menu unless I know exactly what's in them (but if I avoid them entirely I shall be healthier, so I'm not worried about just saying 'no' to cake). It also means there are types of restaurants I can't go near for a few months.
It gets too complicated for much eating out. Unless you're used to acute allergies, I suggest we meet for coffee or we go shopping together or to a gallery or something. If there are meetings with food attached, please don't be offended if I sit a little bit apart or if I eat beforehand.
I don't know how long it will take to build up my tolerances again. Until then, it's going to be really painful for me, because I love eating with friends and I particularly like it when everyone can order their favourite foods. The last time the sensitising happened, I was a postgraduate. I used to deal with it by making sure we got tables near the door (fewer food smells) and that I only ate hot chips. This wasn't a good solution.
PS I still have my fever, but I think it's from my legs. You don't want to know the details of what happened to my legs in Yackandandah. Suffice it to say they are sore and look rather curious. I woke up this morning and they were less inflamed than yesterday, which makes me rather suspect that the fever is my body dealing with infection. If it continues past tomorrow,
eneit, I shall see the doctor.PPS Times like this I envy those who get aches and pains but are not chronically ill. Two weeks with normal people have given me a bad case of body envy :). I rather suspect that said normal people are relieved to be quit of my whingeing.