<snip>

Had I gotten sick just from the purchased egg salad, then I would believe it
was food poisoning.  However, a week later I made my own egg salad and had
the very same reaction as I did the first time.  The first time I ate it, I
got sick 16 hours later.  When I ate it again the following day, I got sick
30 minutes later.  I did not know at that point whether it was the eggs or
perhaps even mustard.  I generally do not like mustard.  And in looking
back, during the period of time when I was eating eggs every day for
breakfast, I was routinely getting sick 30 minutes after eating.  But I
never thought of a food allergy at that point in time.  I had so much else
medically wrong with me that I never considered a food allergy.  And I did
not have respiratory symptoms which is what I thought a food allergy was.
So now it's beginning to make sense to me.

The reason I considered a food allergy now is that my mom and daughter had
both been diagnosed with multiple food allergies and they tend to run in
families.  Many of the distressing symptoms I'd been having were the same
ones Angela had been having, but hers cleared up when we took the allergenic
foods out of her diet.

Now I do not believe in any way shape or form that a Naturopath is the way
to go for medical care.  I think a lot of what they do or how they think is
BS.  However the test he performs is the RAST (blood test) and that is a
widely recognized and standard test for food allergies.  My mom made the
appointment for me and called to say that she did it.  She knows I do not
like this particular "practitioner" if you will.  She has also been very
crotchety lately and I didn't want another fight to start with her.  So I
went there.

He did not try to sell me any supplements.  He went through everything I am
taking and told me that I do not need a few of them.  I have discussed this
with my GP and he told me I should be taking those.  So I will not be making
any changes there.  He also said that the elevated phosphorus meant nothing
and certainly didn't mean I should stop drinking the diet soda.  He said
there is nothing wrong with diet soda.  He also said that my elevated liver
enzymes were most likely caused by "fatty liver" a condition common to
diabetics.  He said there is nothing they can do for it nor do they need to.
But just in case he has scheduled a liver ultrasound for me on Monday so I
will know for sure.

Mr. Naturopath has not called me back so I must presume he can't think of
any other way to get more money out of my mom in my behalf.  He kept wanting
to see my daughter, but I told him that wasn't going to happen.  He did
however freeze a wart off of her finger during my appointment.  None of the
Drs. I had taken her to previously would do this.  They kept telling me it
was no big deal.  But it was bothersome and because warts are cause by a
virus, new warts kept forming.  I was treating the wart with some stuff from
the health food store.  This stopped the new ones from forming but didn't do
a thing for the original one.  The wart is almost totally gone now.  There
is just some peeling skin there.

Tomorrow at lunch will make one week of being off of almonds, dairy and
eggs.  I am not feeling totally better.  In fact I am having some weird
symptoms I didn't have before.  Like acid reflux.  I've had some odd bouts
of dizziness and at times have feel like I was really light, almost like I
was floating.  Sort of the same sensation I have at time when I'm having a
hypo, but I've checked and I'm not having a hypo.  And I'm very tired and
cranky at times. The diarrhea has stopped though.  Woo hoo!  No more stomach
pain.  And I no longer look pregnant.  My stomach had grown so huge and was
hard to the touch.  I just thought it was because I was fat.  Apparently
not.  I've already lost some weight just in that amount of time. Most likely
the dairy was the cause since it was something I was eating every day in the
form or butter, or more often, cheese.  No more weird stomach noises at
night when I'm trying to sleep.

It took Angela about two weeks to feel a lot better.  Actually at about the
two week mark she spent two days throwing up and then she said she felt a
lot better.  I've been trying to find something that would tell me how
others have dealt with this in terms of how long it took them to feel better
and what happened to them as they got the allergens out of their bodies.
But I haven't found too much information of the sort.  Seems most people
were diagnosed with food allergies as infants or young children.  Not as
adults.  But when I was a child, Drs. didn't believe in food allergies.
They knew I couldn't have any sort of milk as a baby because I'd throw it
right up.  But according to what I've read, the word "allergy" wasn't even
in the dictionary in the 1950's.  This is something that came about in the
1960's.  I was tested for allergies as a teen.  But they did only inhalants.
I was not tested for food allergies because at that point in time the only
test they had was the prick test and I was told this was not reliable. The
standard test then was the elimination diet and they didn't advise it for
growing children because it involved eating a very limited diet for a very
long time and really it wasn't all that reliable either.

So...  I will report back when I get the results of my liver ultrasound.

http://www.naturowatch.org/

The "egg allergy" sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy to me. It
could very well been food poisoning, especially from OTC egg salad.
I'm sure you are going to vehemently disagree with me, but that's my
opinion. You won't change mine, and I know you well enough to know you
won't change yours.

Sleepy

_______________________________________________________
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the
necessary may speak. -Hans Hofmann, painter (1880-1966)
_______________________________________________________

I got my labs back from the Naturopath today.  I have a severe egg allergy!
So for all of you who said I couldn't possibly have gotten sick from the flu
shot, now we know why!  The shot was making me sick because of the egg.  I
am also allergic to dairy and almonds, but to a lesser degree.  Now I must
find new foods to eat, especially for breakfast.  I had stopped eating eggs
around Thanksgiving because the last 4 times I ate them, I became violently
ill.  Why 4 times?  Because the first 2 times I really thought it was food
poisoning from some egg salad I bought.

My normal breakfast had been eggs and more recently cottage cheese.  The Dr.
said I might be able to tolerate goat's milk cheese.  I think I'll wait a
while before trying that.  I tried the goat's milk cheese with Angela and
she got sick from it.

I am going to have a problem finding sources of protein now.  I really don't
like most meat.  I do sometimes eat sausage or bacon, but I wouldn't want to
eat this every day.  The only other meat I can really tolerate is ground
beef.  I despise fish and shellfish with the exception of occasional tuna.
I do like peanut butter, but I wouldn't want that every day either.  *sigh*

Now for the bad stuff.  My phosphorous was elevated.  It was 5.1 with normal
range being 2.5-4.9.  And two liver enzymes elevated.  ALT (GPT) was 86 with
a normal range of 24-65, and AST (GOT) was 39 with a normal range of 12-37.
The Dr. has no clue what all this means.  But he doesn't think it's good.  I
see my GP on Monday.  Perhaps he can make something of all this.  The
Naturopath is also consulting with a retired Dr. who is a long time friend
of my family on Wednesday.  So hopefully it will all get sorted out.  At any
rate, these findings would explain why I have felt so rotten these past
months and my well explain why my BG has shot up higher despite my attempts
to bring it down.