New life changes...

Well, I promised I'd post more later. I got some interesting news yesterday that's going to make my life definately more different but potentially better/healthier.

I've had eczema my whole life. When I was a kid, I was allergic to tomatoes & chocolate, which caused me to break out in a lovely rash all over my inner arms, or my thighs, or my face.

I've been taking allergy shots for almost 2 years now, and they've been helping a lot with my airborne allergies, as I am VERY allergic to mold, as well as most pollens, dust, cats/dogs, etc. But I've still been breaking out in rashes, so I decided (since my deductable has been met for the year) to get food allergy testing done.

The blood draw was last week; the results came in yesterday:

(All on a range from 0-6)

Baker's Yeast - 1
Peanuts - 1
Potatoes, white - 2
Tomatoes - 3

and the killer is...
Corn - 3

The reason this is so killer is that there is corn or a corn-derived product in damn near EVERYTHING. Corn syrup, corn syrup solids, many forms of sugar, cornstarch...the list goes on and on. (I mean that, it's 4 pages long.) Pretty much, if it's a processed food, it will probably have some form of corn in it.

Potatoes makes me unhappy - during specific times of the month, I tend to be a potato-based lifeform. Yeast is no fun; my new bread machine is now potentially a doorstop. Tomatoes I've pretty much given up anyway as they activate my GERD. Peanuts isn't that big a deal, even though I should keep an eye out for peanut oil in stuff, I don't eat a lot of peanuts anyway.

But corn...it's so damned pervasive. My doctor wants me to give up ALL corn & corn-derived products for two weeks, and see if my symptoms get better. After that, he wants me to eat some corn, & see if I have a reaction. Then I can decide from there.

I wanted to lose weight & all, but DAMN...this is going to really fuck with my life. I've been very depressed ever since I heard about it, although I try not to show it, especially since Jess is here this weekend. It's just really messed with my head.

I'm better (from the earlier post) now that I'm home - B at work basically was talking nonstop for the past 3 days & it was finally getting to me. But I survived. ;)

Anyway, I'm going to tackle this, although I'll admit I've given some serious thought to saying "fuck it, I'll live with the damn eczema" but I could also develop a worse allergy over time & start looking at anaphalactic reactions. (Oh, yeah, I'm going to have to give in & get an epi-pen, too.)

It's just a shock. I'll be fine with it eventually, but right now it sucks. < girl stuff> It doesn't help that it's *that* time. < /girl stuff>

Back to go indulge in my last meal without worrying about ingredients. We ordered Chinese. :)