Food allergies

[pbheather]

This is just kind of a rant. I'm not real happy with the Mexican restaurant in my town.

Last night, I went to the Mexican restaurant, and with my food allergies, it's a little hard to eat out. With that restaurant, it was the tomato and dairy allergies. Everything is either covered in cheese, tomatoes, or both. So, I decided to get a simple chicken dish with rice.

The guy who took my party's orders seemed to understand that no tomatoes could touch any of the food, and if the salad that came with the dish had tomatoes to please exclude the tomatoes. He came back a few moments later and told me that there is tomato paste in the rice, so I told them I don't want it.

Our actual waiter had with our food, and I saw tomatoes on the salad. I sent it back, explaining no tomatoes can touch ANY of the food, or I will be very sick. He brought the food back a few moments later, and I started eating.

The few pieces of chicken didn't fill me up, so I tried some of my mother's dish, which was some kind of corn tortilla thing around shredded chicken and bell peppers. IT was really, really good. When I felt the usual signs of an anaphalactic reaction (my throat closes up real low, like down by my voice box), I took a few drinks of water to see if it was real, then told my mother I had to go to the ER.

I took my EpiPen along the way. It was then that I remembered noticing something red on the salad, and realized that the waiter had just taken the tomatoes off the food, and had brought the same plate back. Two hours later, sore hips from the steroid and antihistamine injections, and basically high, I was back at my apartment and went to bed.

Has anyone else had this experience? It frustrates me all to hell that people just don't understand at a restaurant that when I say I can't eat it, not that I don't like it, I really can't eat it. They probably just think I'm being picky. I hate it, and I'm seriously thinking of never going out again, or bringing my own food, as I am in the dating field right now. I don't like feeling like crap, or being all out of it and shaky because of medication counteracting the reaction.

 

[katt]

ugh, I am sorry you went through that!

while I don't have any allergies to anything, I work as a nutrition assistant for our local hospital, and trust me, we hear the horror stories all the time.

we also cater to a lot of people with allergies and the biggest one is gluten. It is so bad sometime!

wish I had advise for you, but thought I would offer a hug!

 

[kirbyultra]

I think a lot of people who work in the food service industry just get so tired andjaded from the wacky requests they get from customers that they don't take serious requests due to food allergy as seriously as they should. My father in law goes around making a huge deal wherever we dine about not putting garlic in anything and not cooking with garlic, simply because he does not like the taste and if he catches a whiff of it in the food he goes totally ballistic on the staff. I think it's just childish and overkill for a food preference... but these are the personalities the staff has to deal with daily I think. It's not an excuse at all, but I'm betting a lot of the time they blow people off because they've seen so many unwarranted complaints and oddball requests.

I am purely making a guess at this but I think that food servers could get penalized at work if they end up sending stuff back to the kitchen for a "do-over"... so they might opt to just pick stuff out that can be picked out... I don't know that this is true, though.

So sorry you had to go through this... how scary!

 

[slavetoabunny]

My neice has gluten allergies. She was just here visiting last week for spring break and it was a bit challenging taking her out to eat. We were pleasantly surprised to eat at one restaurant that actually had a gluten-free menu.

 

[Mrs. PBJ]

I personally would take my hospital paper work to the restraint i worked in the fast food industry for years.

Well threee but that enough in fast food. Having a milk and slight wheat allergy myself I harp on employees about throwing food away and remaking.

We had one lady go into shock in the store we had the call 911 and all that employee was fired and the family sued the company.

I would take it back and make a serious request. your health is on the line next time it could be a small child who does not make it to the ER in time.

You need to make the manger aware and if that does not work ask for regional then go up from there it will get someone attention and the restraint should pay for last nights meal and your hospital bills.

Personally I think so.

 

[aurora369]

I agree you should go back to the restaurant and talk to the manager. Allergies are serious and the fact that you went to the hospital is their fault. You gave them very clear directions, and they did not follow them with resulted in your trip to the ER.

The manager needs to be aware of the fact that one of his staff is ignoring warnings about allergies.

In the future if you want to make it super clear to the restaurant staff, pull your epi-pen out when you explain about your allergies. Tell them you carry your epi-pen for a reason, and that if they serve you anything with tomatoes, you will be using it and then going to the hospital.

-Dawn

 

[pbheather]

I've explained at so many places, and some of them are just like 'well, it's in the dish, so you have to eat it'. Before when I could have dairy, I would go to dairy queen, and ask for them to even wipe down the machine between mine and another's order, but they said they can't do that. I've had a few mishaps there and at Steak & Shake with peanuts just magically making their way into my stuff. I'm deathly allergic to peanuts as well, and try to order something completely opposite of peanuts. But they just don't seem to care.

In my experience, if they have never had a loved one with allergies, and have never seen a reaction first hand, they don't really know what it all entails. Even doctors don't understand. I've had doctors tell me I'm not having a reaction, when I'm having a reaction, and then my stats go down to 80% within a few minutes, and then they believe me. My allergist is the only one who believes me (other than my family and friends), and that's only because she's seen me go into a reaction, and she's seen my IGE numbers. I have an IGE of 1600, where a normal person has below 100. An IGE, by the way, is basically the amount of allergens your body has.

People just don't understand, and they don't seem to care, and if they don't have a chronic disorder like allergies, asthma, diabetes, etc, they just brush if all off like it's nothing. I've had PE teachers not understand that when I run, I can possibly go into an asthma attack. They just don't see it everyday, so they don't think about it. It's insane, with the amount of chronic/life threatening disorders in our world, but people can be ignorant.

 

[degrassi]

Unfortunately if you have that severe of food allergies you probably shouldn't be eating out. I would never trust a restaurant enough to eat out if I had allergies that could send me into anaphylactic shock. There is just no way you can control whether they are following your instructions, or contamination could even happen by accident.

I'm allergic to Scallops(weirdly not other shellfish tho) and gluten and i'm also doing dairy free right now.Thankfully my allergies aren't severe(aka life or death) and I dont' have an anaphylaytic reaction, they just make me very sick.

I know in my city there are a few "gluten free" restaurants or restaurants that offers "dairy free" or "gluten free" options. If you need to go out for dinner i'd suggest looking for those kinds of restaurants in your area as they will be more sensitive to your allergy and will understand better that you can't have anything bad touch your meal.

But if your allergies are that bad that you go into full anaphylactic shock just by the food touching your food, I wouldn't recommend eating out at all. You never know what kind of cross contamination is going on in the kitchen. A "contaminated" utensil would come into contact with your food and is that worth risking your health?

It sucks but you can always just bring your own food. I've done it, its no big deal.

 

[slavetoabunny]

pbheather wrote:

People just don't understand, and they don't seem to care

I totally agree that most people don't understand.When my gluten-challenged neice was here we frustrated some servers, but most were very accommodating. Im so sorry you had a horrible experience.

 

[Mrs. PBJ]

degrassi wrote:

.

I'm allergic to Scallops(weirdly not other shellfish tho) and gluten and i'm also doing dairy free right now.Thankfully my allergies aren't severe(aka life or death) and I dont' have an anaphylaytic reaction, they just make me very sick.

.

My six year old niece is also only allergic to scallops, but can eat other shell fish. She had a reaction in a restraint and Shena just pick Fizz up and ran out the door drove her to wal green and got her benadryl (sp). She was looking for the right one and throwing things and the pharmacies walked over and look at fizz and said here you need this one, and gave it to fizz. Because Nana could not calm down enough to get the bottle open. She was fine and Shena went back to the restrain to pay and they gave her the meal for free.

Shena did not know that she was allergic so it was not the restraints fault. They still gave it for free.

 

[pbheather]

Even in Springfield, there aren't a lot of gluten free menus and if there are, they basically say bring your own bread, and ask for no bread on the food. I have to go to St. Louis to get an actual gluten free menu, but that's an hour and a half away. I don't want to drive that far for a meal.

Within the last year or so, I developed the gluten, dairy, and tomato allergies. The ones I have had my entire life are peanut, fish/shellfish, green pea, melon, and strawberry (outgrew that one). I developed a shellfish allergy within the last five years. The only allergies that caused life-threatening reactions were peanut and fish. Those were really easy to avoid, no big deal. My smaller ones are really easy to avoid as well.

When I developed the tomato allergy, it has become increasingly difficult to eat out. The gluten allergy has really gotten me away from burgers/sandwiches at restaurants like Chiles, Fridays. I really like those restaurants, and if I don't want a steak, there really aren't a lot of options. Dairy has taken me away from most deserts, and I love desert.

The good thing is dairy only gives me intense tension headaches, and if I don't eat it for months, then have a small bowel of ice cream, I'm absolutely fine. My gluten allergy is not severe, it gives me some acne, and if I eat more than a sandwich worth of bread, my asthma does act up a little, so I just avoid it as much as I can because of my like for bread.

There is an injection that lowers the IGE levels, and would take away most of my allergies. That is, if I could take it. Within a few doses, I started having breathing problems. Allergy shots have not proven to be effective, and I have been on them for more than a year. I know they won't fix the food allergies, but they haven't done anything for my seasonal/environment allergies. I reacted earlier this week to those, and I'm about ready to tell my allergist to either stop the injections, or to keep me at a lower level as my maintenance dose. I'm tired of reacting to the shots every few weeks when we get up to the full strength. They're doing nothing but hurting me.

Yes, most servers are very accommodating, and even chefs have been that way. But the Mexican restaurant is run by a Hispanic family, which I have no problem with, but it is highly possible they have hired waiters/chefs that speak little to no English, and really don't care about how their customers fair with their food. There are a lot of illegal workers in the Springfield area, mostly in Beardstown/Jacksonville, and they do not speak English. So, I just won't eat there again. There are other restaurants that have plain meat dishes with plain vegetables that I can have, and people in my party try not to order things I can't have. My family loves fish, but when we eat at home, they always make my food before their food so there is no contamination, and they do not order food that I cannot have at a restaurant so there is no contamination between plates, or on the grill.

 

[pbheather]

I have heard of people being allergic to only certain things, but not others. It's because the other foods are not in the same food family as the allergen. Like I'm only allergic to wheat-gluten, but not any other kind of gluten. I have an actual allergy, and I have no digestive issues with it. Or I can't eat green peas because they are closely related to peanuts.

The odd thing, though, is that with my more severe allergies, I do not have any outward signs that I am reacting. No hives, no swelling. Just my throat closing up and my breathing getting worse. When I get into my lesser allergies, my lips swell, but that's about it. Most doctors are baffled by it.

 

[slavetoabunny]

The restaurants we went to were very accomodating to my neice's allergy. One place fixed her a piece of grilled fish and plain veggies, and it was not even on their menu.

 

[pbheather]

It may not be on their menu, but if they accommodate to the allergies, they will gain more business. Maybe people may not go to a place because they're not so sure the place will accommodate to certain allergies, but if they find out the restaurant will accommodate, they may frequent there when they go out.

 

[AEPaul]

I don't mean to make this a commercial, but what I've got to say is very relevant with the comments posted so far.

I've started a site for those with food allergies and intolerances called AllergyEats (http://www.allergyeats.com), your online guide to allergy-friendly restaurants. You can rate any restaurant in the US (the database has over 600,000 and it's easy to find the one your looking for) by just answering 3 simple questions. All the individual ratings of a specific restaurant are combined into an overall "allergy-friendliness rating" so that others might make a more informed choice regarding where they'd like to dine. The whole database is searchable geographically.AllergyEats also includes restaurant menus, allergin lists, gluten-free menus, nutrition info, and certifications, all where available.

AllergyEatsis only 1 month old, so ratings are scarce in many areas of the country (thoughthe sitehas already begun to go viral in Boston, with other pockets beginning to follow as word gets out). This makes everyone's support even more important. Getting momentum going is the hard part. However, realize that every single rating increases the value of AllergyEats as a tool for all of us!

I would love for you to rate this Mexican restaurant experience for the benefit of all future users. That said, I'd love for everyone here to visit AllergyEats andconsider ratingtheir restaurant experiences. I truly believe that this site is going to be an extremely powerful tool not only to help food allergic diners, but also to pressure "unfriendly" restaurants.

My apologies if this sounded like a commercial, but I created this site to benefit all of us. Thank you.

 

[pbheather]

My family has never coddled me in my condition. And my philosophy is that why should anyone else not be able to eat it if I can't eat it, when it's safe for me, of course. We go out to eat, and I just make sure I find a dish that I can eat. There's always steak and chicken dishes, and if anything, I just ask for all of it to be plain.

There are certain restaurants I cannot eat because their dishes have what I cannot eat, mostly Asian, but they go when I'm not with them.

 

[wabbitmom12]

pbheather wrote:

There is an injection that lowers the IGE levels, and would take away most of my allergies. That is, if I could take it. Within a few doses, I started having breathing problems. Allergy shots have not proven to be effective, and I have been on them for more than a year. I know they won't fix the food allergies, but they haven't done anything for my seasonal/environment allergies. I reacted earlier this week to those, and I'm about ready to tell my allergist to either stop the injections, or to keep me at a lower level as my maintenance dose. I'm tired of reacting to the shots every few weeks when we get up to the full strength. They're doing nothing but hurting me.

I know I am jumping into this discussion way late, but just wanted to add a couple of points that I hope are relevant. Almost 20 years ago when I had allergy tests, I tested positive for 45 out of 47 items. Pollens, molds, nitrates, dust mites, corn, tomatoes, yeast, msg,....on and on. Everything except - get this - cats and dogs. My allergies were so bad that my sinuses were constantly congested and I had acute, chronic sinus infections. I'd finish one dose of antibiotics andwould literally be back in the doctor's office within 10 dayswith another full-blown infection. So not fun.

Anyway, I wanted you to know that I took allergy shots for almost 15 years. Much like you, I had to insist that theystop increasing my dosages because I just could not tolerate them. My head would feel like it was going to explode, the sinuses throbbed, I ached from head to toe, was dizzy, and there would be a kiwi-sized bump on my arm at the injection site. And then I got to do it all over again a week later! I had to maintain at very low dosages for a year or more at a time. I literally had to just creep along for years, and for a while I wondered if it was even worth it. But, by the time I had been taking them for 10 years, I was almost at the "desired" maintainence level, very rarely had a site reaction, and could see a big difference in my allergies, especially the environmental ones. So, I just want to encourage you....it may seem to take forever for the shots to actually help you....but it will be SO worth it when they do. I finally stopped the shots a few years ago and don't have much trouble these days. I know which foods I have to limit intake of, and which times of each season I have to keep the doors shut and the a/c on. Overall, my health is 75% better.

Another thing that helped me was having them inject each serum seperately. The nurses tended to draw them into one syringe, but if you have a reaction, you don't really know which serum is doing it - or if it's both. My insurance made me pay a little extra because the allergist charged for two shots (one in each arm). It was a god-send, though. If the arm that got injected with the dust mites/mold serum had a reaction, I knew that cheese, vinegar, grapes, tomatoes, corn, and other "high mold" items were absolutely off-limits that week, and I changed my pillows and sheets every day. If it was the pollen serum arm that reacted, no outdoor activity - period.

I am sure your allergist has discussed with you the inter-connectedness of certain environmental allergies, withfood allergies. For example, with a corn allergy, you probably also have dust and mold sensitivities (corn, by nature, has both). Corn syrup can also be a problem. With pollen sensitivities, I have to be SO careful about any "herbal" treatments...because most of them are made from...WEEDS. Sounds wacky, but it's true...think about echinacea, st john's wort, etc. Talk about your recipe for anaphylaxis. And these things are supposed to make you HEALTHY, or FEEL BETTER? I don't think so! Not if you have pollen allergies!

I hope you are able to come out the other side, so to speak, in a few years, and find that you are much improved.

 

[pbheather]

Thank you for that support. It seems like I will never get to the maintenance dose, and I just keep reacting and we go down to the bottom and go back up.

I have 3 different vials, thus 3 different injections. But when I react, there aren't any swelling or redness at the site, so we don't know what one I've reacted to. It's probably the one with cat dander. I am 100% allergic to cats. It's insane.

When we did the arm tests, she did peanut, fish, horse, cat, and others that I know I'm allergic to, and she wanted to see how bad. I had no problem, really, other than my arms were so red there was no way to see what was what. They gave me an antihistimine and sent me home. Later that night, I was at dinner, and eating my first plain meal, since I had to take all foods that were processed and I was avoiding the allergens that surfaced from my blood work. Near the end of the meal, my throat was closing up, and that was the first time I'd used the Epipen.

My doctor tells me to use it even if I think I'm reacting. She doesn't want me admitted to the hospital because of a bad reaction. And I can change in seconds. It was that night that my stats were normal, and the doctor saw them drop to 80% within seconds. They immediately oxygen going and a breathing treatment and put an IV in. It was crazy. They never really believe me until they witness it.

Luckily, I have no soy, corn or rice allergies. That would limit my food choices so much. Soy has been a god-send, because it can do so much and taste like so many things.

I can't take some of the vitamins because it's made from fish oil, and that is one of my severe food allergies. That was a big issue when I went to a local nutritionist, since I'm not getting some of the vitamins I need and those vitamins come mostly from fish.

I went to my gynocologist this last tuesday, and I'm on the depo bc shot. He said there was new studies saying that women on the depo for a long time could have bone issues when they hit menopause. Which means I need more calcium and vit. d than normal people. But the soy milk I drink is fortified with the calcium and vit. d, so I'm good. And he said I can take some other supplements, and there's a list of food, some of them which I can eat, that are filled with calcium and vit. d.

What's weird, with what you said, is I have severe dust allergies, but no corn allergy. Also, you're so lucky you have no cat or dog allergies. You probably aren't allergic to any other animals, are you? It sucks to be allergic to animals. I had a friend who had 3 cats, 2 dogs, and dozens of birds. I'd take my meds and within an hour of being there, I'd be taking my inhaler and having someone to drive me home because my eyes have swollen shut.

I'm hoping the shots will help. My doctor wants me to keep at it because tho they may not be working now, they may work in a few years. She's been really patient and really good about trusting me when I say something is happening and getting what I need. Right now, we're staying at the same strength that I have tolerated well for a few weeks to see if that'll help. We'll probably move up a little and stay at that one place for a while too.

 

[wabbitmom12]

A really good allergist can make all the difference! Glad you have one you can trust.

It seems to be a strange fact that, when treating allergies - they shoot you full of everything that makes you sick. So why should anyone be surprised when you GET SICK? That has never made sense to me. But anyway, it also explains why your shots will make you pretty miserable...until they make you better. A long time from now. What's the saying? If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. OOPS - foot in mouth!! That is a very real concern, especially early in the process, as you know. But hopefully you will see very real improvements by the time you finish.

Yeah, I don't have too many allergies to animals. Birds bother me some. And I absolutely CANNOT do anything with down feathers or wool. Otherwise I will be fighting with you over your epipen. And stumbling around blind because my eyes are swollen.

Hey, I blame this whole thing on my mom...MRS. SUPER CLEANNY MOM. Still keeps the most disgustingly clean house on the planet. Allergist said I probably developed the allergies because my body never had to deal with the normal allergens as a kid. But guess what? We did have.......a dog and a cat!

My own children have nothing to worry about. My housekeeping skills aren't that hot. (Actually, they all have pollen allergies...but not DUST!!)

 

[BethM]

wabbitmom12 wrote:

Hey, I blame this whole thing on my mom...MRS. SUPER CLEANNY MOM. Still keeps the most disgustingly clean house on the planet. Allergist said I probably developed the allergies because my body never had to deal with the normal allergens as a kid. But guess what? We did have.......a dog and a cat!

I know that theory sounds logical and good, but I am not convinced: I always had a dog growing up. And now I am severely allergic to dogs. The house I grew up in was also pretty nasty as far as not being clean, and I played outside in the dirt a lot. (Seriously, my grandma dusted at Christmas, SOME years. I can't remember her ever vacuuming. There was usually some sort of food out in the kitchen, not always in a state of freshness. Kitchen/bathrooms, countertops, etc., were rarely cleaned. Mice, roaches, and other pests.) I am now allergic to dust; pretty much all tree/grass/flower pollen; mold; leaf mold; hay; dogs; and cats (my eyes swelled shut the first time I touched a cat when I was 6, and it's been downhill from there.) I am also allergic to cigarette smoke (it triggers my asthma), despite growing up in the house of a 2-pack a day smoker.

My body had to deal with a LOT of normal allergens, and I still now have SEVERE allergies and chronic sinusitus, with recurring polyps in my sinus cavities. *shrug*