Allergy 1.
So, turns out the slightly misleading advice that I am allergic to anything that has a smell, given via the phone from a nurse, ain’t that far off from the truth.
I love the smell of stones. A smooth smell; grey and granitey and does not make me sick. And the sea; salt and fresh. And nothing; I love the smell of nothing.
Everyday is a rollercoaster.
Perfume, hairspray, aftershave, deodorant, fabric conditioner, etc – all the things people use day to day make me feel nauseous, light headed, spacey. A little whiff, and I start to feel sick. I can go from articulate to unable to type, spell, think, move. Sometimes I get sleepy, very sleepy, now gonna collapse sleepy. A bit stronger (that means if I stand in an average crowded room as opposed to next to one person one to one who doesn’t wear much scent), and I feel very sick. A lungful of pine cleaner in a shop, or cinnamon and I start to throw up. I feel drugged. I feel weak. I get weepy, or irritated. Conversely, some of these substances have given me insomnia, reversed sleeping patterns or nightmares.
I’m patch tested positively allergic to pine. I am allergic to balsams and perfume. Allergy pine can mean allergy to cinnamon, citrus oils, chilli, etc.
After a years wait (everything in the allergy world happens after a years wait) I saw another doctor who said – ok, your allergic, but I think you are also intolerant of salicylates. So, that might mean there are foods I am both allergic to and intolerant to. It might also mean – there are foods I am not allergic to, but am intolerant to, and which make me ill anyway.
Salicylates increase histamine in the body. They build up over time – meaning you could eat a bit and be fine, but eat a lot or over several days and you are poorly. They can be ingested or breathed in.
It is a natural substance. So; although I am allergic to perfumes that are artificial, I am also going to react to chemicals in food that are natural. I can say from experience that both make me ill – and I can tell which is which sometimes by the reaction.
Aspirin is salicylate It has taken 17 years, two trips to casualty, many inhalers, several chest x-rays, and 17 winters of getting breathless, plus rather a lot of doctors opinions, and finally one test to confirm I have asthma. The asthma was made worse by taking ibuprofen (salicylate again) daily this year. I don’t feel sick taking it, but my chest gets tight, I feel very weepy, and I get wobblier than usual.
It made me suspect I could be sensitive to salicylates too.
I am allergic to chilli. However, I may be allergic to most other spices too – or maybe I’m intolerant or both. It could help explain why tiny amounts of spice make no difference – but mild to strong spice makes me ill. Now, most herbs have salicylates (parsley and saffron are very low in it). Mint is high in it – and I am not allergic to that, but it makes me feel odd, but I thought an allergy doctor would say – a bit odd is not enough if a reaction for me to be interested.
I have been on a low salicylate diet for a month now and I think they possibly make me feel like I have the flu, make my muscles ache more.
Just for laughs – steroid inhalers and antihistamine tablets seem to make me worse. No matter what the doctors say – if it’s a rare side effect, no, sorry it IS likely I’m going to get it.
A low salicylate diet is low in a lot of fruit and vegetables – but it is easier to say to people a doctor is making me do this, rather than – I think I’m sensitive to food chemicals and my proof of that is instinct and internet research.
It is both a relief to find another possible clue to feeling better – and absolute torture. If I go on a bus (perfume, newspaper ink, cigarette smoke), and then cross the road (traffic fumes; petrol contains perfume), and then go to work (aftershave, photocopying, folders, post it notes, computers) – well for a start most of those contain pine, lemon, or mixed perfumes, and they all make me ill.
It is mentally exhausting avoiding what I can and then having awkward conversations (no, allergic to perfume includes what you are wearing, not just what is on me), and coping with choosing between isolation and health every single day.
I am balancing this with the progress I get with acupuncture, and the various trials of medication that usually end with me going – wow, that was a tiny bit of medicine and I still get wheezy/spacey.
Magnet therapy may be helping – but if I wear them for seven days I get hives, and flu feeling. Maybe the hypoallergenic plasters they come with are not so.
Having a massage is great – but if they burn oils or there is citrus oil in particular in the pillows on the towels you lie on – well, then I feel sick.
Most organic minded stores – use pine, lemon, cumin or cinnamon – and I can’t go inside.
The lengths people go to feed me are so much appreciated. But, if they are wearing any scent at all, then it has just as much effect as eating certain foods but politeness means I often hide my reaction.
A friend kindly gave me a table recently, and sitting in the van with the table, I discovered a van that has been lined with pine internally is a scarf over the mouth home time, gosh couldn’t have prepared for that at all.
I will no longer go to people’s houses that are freshly painted, until the fumes have gone – because it costs me too long in bed. Ditto, being places that are smoky. I want to be as well as possible – and this means having to be more open and honest about the effect these things have.
I will continue the diet till December, mainly at home. If I eat out, then small amounts of salicylate I ignore; but this is why I may not eat as many fruits and vegetables as I used to.
The thing that keeps me going in this partly, is the amusement that it is the NHS that has given me the most controversial diet – even in the alternative world it’s controversial.
Happy for any queries – apologies in advance if my answer is complicated. As soon as I can find a use for all this knowledge; well that would be great : ).
I love the smell of stones. A smooth smell; grey and granitey and does not make me sick. And the sea; salt and fresh. And nothing; I love the smell of nothing.
Everyday is a rollercoaster.
Perfume, hairspray, aftershave, deodorant, fabric conditioner, etc – all the things people use day to day make me feel nauseous, light headed, spacey. A little whiff, and I start to feel sick. I can go from articulate to unable to type, spell, think, move. Sometimes I get sleepy, very sleepy, now gonna collapse sleepy. A bit stronger (that means if I stand in an average crowded room as opposed to next to one person one to one who doesn’t wear much scent), and I feel very sick. A lungful of pine cleaner in a shop, or cinnamon and I start to throw up. I feel drugged. I feel weak. I get weepy, or irritated. Conversely, some of these substances have given me insomnia, reversed sleeping patterns or nightmares.
I’m patch tested positively allergic to pine. I am allergic to balsams and perfume. Allergy pine can mean allergy to cinnamon, citrus oils, chilli, etc.
After a years wait (everything in the allergy world happens after a years wait) I saw another doctor who said – ok, your allergic, but I think you are also intolerant of salicylates. So, that might mean there are foods I am both allergic to and intolerant to. It might also mean – there are foods I am not allergic to, but am intolerant to, and which make me ill anyway.
Salicylates increase histamine in the body. They build up over time – meaning you could eat a bit and be fine, but eat a lot or over several days and you are poorly. They can be ingested or breathed in.
It is a natural substance. So; although I am allergic to perfumes that are artificial, I am also going to react to chemicals in food that are natural. I can say from experience that both make me ill – and I can tell which is which sometimes by the reaction.
Aspirin is salicylate It has taken 17 years, two trips to casualty, many inhalers, several chest x-rays, and 17 winters of getting breathless, plus rather a lot of doctors opinions, and finally one test to confirm I have asthma. The asthma was made worse by taking ibuprofen (salicylate again) daily this year. I don’t feel sick taking it, but my chest gets tight, I feel very weepy, and I get wobblier than usual.
It made me suspect I could be sensitive to salicylates too.
I am allergic to chilli. However, I may be allergic to most other spices too – or maybe I’m intolerant or both. It could help explain why tiny amounts of spice make no difference – but mild to strong spice makes me ill. Now, most herbs have salicylates (parsley and saffron are very low in it). Mint is high in it – and I am not allergic to that, but it makes me feel odd, but I thought an allergy doctor would say – a bit odd is not enough if a reaction for me to be interested.
I have been on a low salicylate diet for a month now and I think they possibly make me feel like I have the flu, make my muscles ache more.
Just for laughs – steroid inhalers and antihistamine tablets seem to make me worse. No matter what the doctors say – if it’s a rare side effect, no, sorry it IS likely I’m going to get it.
A low salicylate diet is low in a lot of fruit and vegetables – but it is easier to say to people a doctor is making me do this, rather than – I think I’m sensitive to food chemicals and my proof of that is instinct and internet research.
It is both a relief to find another possible clue to feeling better – and absolute torture. If I go on a bus (perfume, newspaper ink, cigarette smoke), and then cross the road (traffic fumes; petrol contains perfume), and then go to work (aftershave, photocopying, folders, post it notes, computers) – well for a start most of those contain pine, lemon, or mixed perfumes, and they all make me ill.
It is mentally exhausting avoiding what I can and then having awkward conversations (no, allergic to perfume includes what you are wearing, not just what is on me), and coping with choosing between isolation and health every single day.
I am balancing this with the progress I get with acupuncture, and the various trials of medication that usually end with me going – wow, that was a tiny bit of medicine and I still get wheezy/spacey.
Magnet therapy may be helping – but if I wear them for seven days I get hives, and flu feeling. Maybe the hypoallergenic plasters they come with are not so.
Having a massage is great – but if they burn oils or there is citrus oil in particular in the pillows on the towels you lie on – well, then I feel sick.
Most organic minded stores – use pine, lemon, cumin or cinnamon – and I can’t go inside.
The lengths people go to feed me are so much appreciated. But, if they are wearing any scent at all, then it has just as much effect as eating certain foods but politeness means I often hide my reaction.
A friend kindly gave me a table recently, and sitting in the van with the table, I discovered a van that has been lined with pine internally is a scarf over the mouth home time, gosh couldn’t have prepared for that at all.
I will no longer go to people’s houses that are freshly painted, until the fumes have gone – because it costs me too long in bed. Ditto, being places that are smoky. I want to be as well as possible – and this means having to be more open and honest about the effect these things have.
I will continue the diet till December, mainly at home. If I eat out, then small amounts of salicylate I ignore; but this is why I may not eat as many fruits and vegetables as I used to.
The thing that keeps me going in this partly, is the amusement that it is the NHS that has given me the most controversial diet – even in the alternative world it’s controversial.
Happy for any queries – apologies in advance if my answer is complicated. As soon as I can find a use for all this knowledge; well that would be great : ).
Labels: allergy, cinnamon, collapsing, cumin, lemon, perfume, pine
posted by Miss Fairy Sparkle at
12:56 PM
2 Comments:
Well, I am glad that you are able to identify some things that are causing you problems. I used to be able to go to conventions or theatre and go to an allergy balcony for those requiring no scents or other products. That acceptance seems to have past and now aromatherapy is a rage (which must drive you insane, when not in bed or vomiting).
I do try to ensure that all postcards sent (are you on the list, have you sent me your address - I hope so, and if you haven't got one lately - please let me know) are scent free, which we have a special section to take odors out and that takes two weeks because I am not sending postcards to people or children who have sensative immune systems or other issues that have scent on them. Once they entire the postal system, I have less control.
I guess what I am saying is that maybe it helps to know that I am trying, and aware of this problem for you and others. I can't do much but I do what I can. I'm sorry that I can't do more. Thank you for narrating your struggles as I am sure others are going through them as well.
I love the smell of stones. A smooth smell; grey and granitey and does not make me sick.
Completely off topic and apropos of nothing, did you know that different types of rocks actually have different smells? For example, sedimentary rocks smell sort of 'muddy'.
I discovered this through work when I was talking to John about finding specimens for handling sessions for VI people - as well as rocks that feel interesting, we use ones that smell interesting.
Sadly some of the most interesting smelling rocks are also the toxic ones - arsenic smells of garlic! Couldn't get those out for handling, for obvious reasons...
A fun one to try is to look for ordinary quartz pebbles on the beach (they're the smooth white ones) - if you rub them together, they give off a sort of burning smell, several people have said it reminds them of the dentist for some reason.
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