Oh my gosh.. I'm allergic to milk.

So you've all known that I've thought for some time now that I'm probably casein intolerant and I've been trying to be dairy free as well as gluten free. I was told a few years ago by a gastro that I should cut out dairy because I was probably lactose intolerant. Which I did for a little while, and it helped, but I became more focused on gluten and put the dairy issue last. Honestly, I don't consume that much dairy. In fact, all I've ever really kept in my house is milk, I switched to lactaid when that doc said lactose intolerance which definitely was better. I only drink about one cup per day or less. I stopped buying american cheese at that time too. The only time I eat cheese is on the holidays, which now I know is why on Thanksgiving, despite the fact that I made absolutely sure everything was gluten free, I still got very sick. I ate cheese and GF crackers all morning and I spent the entire afternoon in the bathroom. I kind of made the connection, but not really. I thought it had to do with my medication...

Anyway, so all this time I've been horrible about being gluten free, but lately I've been paying very careful attention to my reactions. The rash is back. It's been coming back slowly and over the past couple of weeks it's come on full force. I've been miserable. Even when I've been carefully gluten free, still the symptoms persist. What's changed? I've been eating a lot more cheese and ice cream. Last sunday I had cheese and ice cream (dinner and desert) and I noticed the next morning that my lips were irritated. I didn't connect the two. I thought it was the food that was too hot had burned my lips. But it was the corners, which was weird, I've never had that before. And the rash.. oh the rash was horribly itchy. The dairy connection has been kinda itching at the back of my mind (and my skin eh hem). Tonight I ate some ice cream. And before I finished my mouth started to get irritated again! Then I noticed that my nose was running and I sneezed. All of a sudden it was like a dope slap to the face. I always thought that casein intolerance symptoms were the same as gluten, the gastrointestinal symptoms only, but somehow I knew that my runny nose was not just a random thing, nor was the sneeze, or the irritated lips. I googled "runny nose after eating dairy" just to see what came up and sure enough, pages and pages of milk allergy results popped up. I don't have a cold, I'm not sick at all, and 20 minutes after eating the ice cream the runny nose is totally gone. But right after I ate it, it was like my sinuses had turned on a faucet. I've had this before when eating ice cream but always just thought it was due to the cold, now I think otherwise. It's funny because right around the time I started complaining about stomach issues, I also started complaining about respiratory issues, and was diagnosed with acute asthma. The symptoms of milk allergies are respiratory (runny nose, coughing/wheezing), gastrointestinal (diarrhea, etc) and skin issues (rashes). Check, Check, annnd Check. Can't wait to go back to The Doc in two weeks and make him test me!!

Comments

Jennifer said…
This sounds like a triumph waiting to happen! Hope you get to feelin' better.

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