Being allergic to stuff SUCKS! (and other allergy observations)

You know those times when you've just eaten a great meal and you feel completely satisfied and ready for a nap? How about afterwards when you're blindsided by excessive bouts of diarrhea and vomiting, or when your throat closes up and you can't breath? I didn't think so. There are millions of people who have experienced this, and no matter how great the meal is, the consequences are never worth it. Trust me, I've thought it over. 3 hours in the bathroom does not make that piece of chocolate lava cake worth it.

My mom has Celiac disease, and it sucks. It's very likely that I will also get it later in life, and due to some of the symptoms I've been experiencing of late, it may be sooner than I'd like. This basically means that I can't eat normal sandwiches, which is my main concern. I mean, what about Erbert's & Gerbert's? The best part of eating one of their sandwiches is that you get the chunk of dough along with your sub, in all it's wheaty goodness. Well, with Celiac disease you can't eat that dough, or the sub itself because if you do, it will tear apart your small intestine. Lovely.

The worst part is that most people don't understand how to accomodate a person with allergies. I'll give you an example. (To dumb down Celiac, I'll say it's basically an allergy to wheat, barley, rye - all the best parts of a sandwich.) When my mom goes out to eat she has to tell the server that she's allergic to wheat, therefore cannot have any toast. Some of the responses we've gotten are, "Would you like a bagel? How about some cream of wheat?" No thanks waitress, I'd rather not barf on you today. Crutons are a whole other story - people never understand that my mom can't eat them. Even worse, restaurants often just pick the crutons right of the salad instead of making a whole new salad. This leaves crumbs that will still get my mom sick.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming restaurants or servers. It's not their fault that no one teaches them how to deal with the very common condition of food allergies. That's really the problem in a nutshell. When there are 12 million people in the U.S. suffering from food allergies, you would think we'd want everyone else in the world to understand what to serve someone with an allergy to nuts, wheat, eggs, milk, etc. I mean, these are really common foods! There must be a better way for a person with an allergy to feel normal when they go out to eat instead of constantly wondering if they're going to get sick after. Not to mention the 125,000 people that end up in the ER after eating something they probably thought tasted really good. What a downer. I personally find that eating a good meal is the equivalent to how a dog feels when you scratch just the right spot so his leg starts going crazy - it just hits the spot. Landing in the ER afterwards does NOT hit the spot.

This is getting lengthy so I'll leave you with this last story. When my mom got diagnosed we learned that Celiac disease is extremely common in Europe and that you can eat gluten-free without problems in places like Norway and Ireland. This news came after years of my mother being malnurished and sick because no one could figure out what was wrong with her. Are you kidding me?! How is that even possible?! I thought the medical community talked to each other - to learn that a disease is so common one place and rarely diagnosed here in America was a little disheartening. Times are a-changing though. It seems that scientists are actually speaking to each other now and are close to finding cures/aids for many food allergies. There are predictions that some allergies will have cures within 10 years. This is AWESOME because I want to be able to eat a nice slice of wheat bread when I'm 50! (Have you ever seen the potato bread? It's almost purple and crumbles apart in your hand. Don't even get me started on rice cakes.)

Thanks for listening to this rant. I'm a little bitter about the whole Celiac thing that's looming over my head, but I should quit bitching since I can't even imagine worrying about the whole peanut thing. That seems WAY worse. They can just smell a peanut and worry about going into shock! Or my friend Becky whose mouth just randomly blows up to the size of a small cantaloupe. It's funny to watch, but not so great when her throat starts closing. And she doesn't even know which foods are causing it. I digress. My main point is, YOU CAN HELP!

Listen up Wisconsinites, this is for you: Please call/write/email/send flares to Senators Kohl and Feingold to encourage them to support the food allergy cause. And you Minnesotans, I'm looking at you Favre, you can worry about Senator Franken. (Senator Klobuchar is already helping support the cause, woohoo!) The senators can help with things like labeling, helping kids in school actually eat lunch, continue research for cures, etc. It's really simple to get involved, visit http://www.faiusa.org/ to learn more.

Adolescence is hard enough, don't let this kid get beat up as a

teen just cuz someone HAD to have a peanut butter sandwich at lunch.