May. 21st, 2005
(no subject)
May. 21st, 2005 10:56 amI forget that not everyone knows about this thing I have since I haven't had a hard time with it since I left Personic. It was first diagnosed when I worked there because I was constantly exposed to new carpeting, solvents, glues, paints and other industrial chemicals. Then I went to work in an office that was right above an upholsters shop and had new carpet and paint and I was setting up the network there so was constantly exposed to the building materials. I was really sick for a few years.
I've since learned to not use too many cleaning chemicals, be around paint, let vinyl and carpet air out for up to a month before it comes in the house--things like that. I've also heard this called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity--my docs in SF seemed to use these interchangeably.
So, the thing is we've had pizza night on Fridays for the last few months. And Bean is allergic to basil (as best we can tell) so we can't eat pizzaria pizza, so horror, we've been eating pizza hut pizza. I hadn't had that in 20 years until a few months ago. The last few weeks I've been feeling weird on Saturdays and started getting the telltale rash, and becoming really sensitive to all my usual allergans (cats, nutmeg, and suddenly silver ). We couldn't figure it out. Then Thursday, when the fire alarm went off, my adrenalin hit the roof (stress/adrenaline is also a causal factor) and as it does with me, stayed there for hours. So last night we had pizza. And this morning I'm really sick and covered in a rash. Even my eyeballs itch. And I've got all the rest of the symptoms. So I looked up the ingrediants and
PRESTO--PH pizza --well some things contain MSG and the rest of the stuff they make comes in contact with MSG if it isn't actually made with it. Usually when I get a dose of it, say on Chinese food, I end up in the emergency room in anaphylaxis (as matt and James can testify). But this was low enough that it had to build up in my system until a nice shot of Fear sent my body into the reaction.
Oh joy. So I have to double dose antihistimines and hope it calms the hell down or I'm going to the hospital .
If you are interested here's a good explanation:
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/masto.htm
I've since learned to not use too many cleaning chemicals, be around paint, let vinyl and carpet air out for up to a month before it comes in the house--things like that. I've also heard this called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity--my docs in SF seemed to use these interchangeably.
So, the thing is we've had pizza night on Fridays for the last few months. And Bean is allergic to basil (as best we can tell) so we can't eat pizzaria pizza, so horror, we've been eating pizza hut pizza. I hadn't had that in 20 years until a few months ago. The last few weeks I've been feeling weird on Saturdays and started getting the telltale rash, and becoming really sensitive to all my usual allergans (cats, nutmeg, and suddenly silver ). We couldn't figure it out. Then Thursday, when the fire alarm went off, my adrenalin hit the roof (stress/adrenaline is also a causal factor) and as it does with me, stayed there for hours. So last night we had pizza. And this morning I'm really sick and covered in a rash. Even my eyeballs itch. And I've got all the rest of the symptoms. So I looked up the ingrediants and
PRESTO--PH pizza --well some things contain MSG and the rest of the stuff they make comes in contact with MSG if it isn't actually made with it. Usually when I get a dose of it, say on Chinese food, I end up in the emergency room in anaphylaxis (as matt and James can testify). But this was low enough that it had to build up in my system until a nice shot of Fear sent my body into the reaction.
Oh joy. So I have to double dose antihistimines and hope it calms the hell down or I'm going to the hospital .
If you are interested here's a good explanation:
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/masto.htm