Allergy Update

My family likes to be allergic to things.  It's sort of a past time for us.  We're all allergic to those "normal" things: dogs, cats, horses, things that pollinate.  You know, the usual.  My oldest sister seems to have won the "normal" allergy lottery.  As near as I can tell she is allergic to every plant on earth.  While that's certainly no fun for her, I think it's generally manageable, and certainly easy for people to understand.

My 3rd sister, she's the one that got lucky in the "deadly allergy" category.  She's allergic to aspirin.  (Or, as the people who made her medical alert bracelet like to call it: "aspirn".  The last time she took aspirin, it landed her in the emergency room, and, from what I understand, that wasn't any fun.  So, I guess she gets to live her life reminding her family and close friends that she has a serious allergy that medical professionals would need to be aware of, and she needs to check medications carefully to see if they have aspirin (or aspirin-like) substances in them.  I get the impression that includes more drugs than you'd think.

If you're wondering about sister #2, she seems to have avoided the worst of the allergy-curse, but she did get Dad's crazy eye condition.  I'd like to thank her for diving on that genetic hand grenade in order to save the rest of us.

So, this clearly brings us to me.  I've documented before about my allergies to various foods: peas, kiwi, fish, refried beans, canned chili, and garbanzo beans.  (Pretty much, I'm wary of all beans these days.  Black beans seem to be holding out, which seems to make some sense, since I ate them every day for 2 consecutive years and all . . . but I keep waiting for those to join their beany friends on the list of foods trying to kill me.)  As I've progressed through my 20s (and into my 30s), the slowly increasing list of food allergies has been partially offset by decreasing allergies in the "classic" category.  Dogs and cats aren't instant disasters of red, puffy eyes and runny noses anymore.  And I haven't dealt with seasonal allergies for years.  I can say all of this without feeling a need to "knock on wood," because life keeps finding other things to keep me all histamined-up.

As of this week, I am apparently allergic to . . . . drum roll please . . . . exercise!  Ta da!  Now, I'm sure the majority of you are already clicking on that comment button to make a joke ("OMG! I'm so allergic, too!") I want both of you to hold on for a minute.  This is no metaphorical allergy.  This is a red, itchy, skin with swelling lip and what-the-heck-I-can-tell-from-across-the-room-that-something-is-up-with-your-eyelid, all too depressingly literal allergic reaction.

Let me explain.  Last Friday, I went for a run.  It was 3.76 miles in a bit over 27 minutes.  Neither of those numbers are in any way abnormal for me.  (Don't make me produce a graph to prove that.  Please.  For all of our sakes.)  I wore nothing that I hadn't worn before.  I ate nothing that I hadn't eaten before.  I didn't run anywhere that I hadn't run before.  And about the time I got home, various parts of me were swelling up or turning red and itchy.  It got to the point that I could see my eyelid out of the corner of my eye.  Symptoms lasted perhaps close to an hour before gradually fading away.  Awesome.  Now I'm allergic to exercise.  Because, you know, it's not like I've ever exercised before.  It's not like I've run 700 miles in the last 30 months.  Or played basketball once or twice a week for the last 2 years.  But apparently, last Friday, I had to be allergic.

Upon consulting with both the internet and a doctor, it seems I have exercise-induced urticaria.  It may pop up again, but who knows when.  It can be treated with antihistamines.  It could be serious, but has only caused one death.  Or, I suppose, it might never come back again.  It can be diet related, and foods that have been implicated include "seafood, celery, wheat and cheese,"* as well as aspirin.  (Seriously?!?!  Another 10 years of this and I'll be living on rice and vitamin pills.)  I'm personally suspicious of my legume allergy that might have contributed to the outbreak.  You remember my list of mis-matched allergens? We don't commonly group them together, but peas and beans are both legumes, and on the day of outbreak, an hour or so before going running, I had an unusual (for me) quantity of another legume: peanuts.

Ever the soul of caution, I went for a run the very next day.  Did about 6.5 miles this time.  Don't worry, I at least made sure my route passed several friends houses, as well as my consulting physician (not my physician, but I did consult with him . . . after this run).  The result: no problems at all.  Everyone inspected my skin and eyelids when I got home with nary a speck of swelling.  So, that's life now.  Shannon points out that I'm the ultimate nerd now.  Does this seem like a condition that Dr. Sheldon Cooper would have?

* Warning, this link has all sorts of doctor-y words, such as: erythematous, leukotrienes, dyspnea, pruritus, and many others.