Your allergic to fruit and veg?

OAS what is it?  

How on earth can you become allergic to healthy, nutritious food that you haven't been allergic to before? Well I had no idea before 2012 and I quickly found out most people didn't know, even general practitioners. Hay fever is a common allergy.  My sister and most of my mothers side of the family have it, including me. So most summers we spent inside with swollen eyes, itchy throats and running noses.  Having a ritual of nose spray, eye drops and antihistamine. As I got older my hay fever got easier and thought maybe that it would eventually disappear.  Wishful thinking, I would never have guessed that this common nasty would create an allergy to fruit, vegetables, nuts and spices.  I didn't really know anything about allergies.  Yes I had come across individuals who were allergic to nuts or to dairy etc but in my ignorant head I thought you were born with an allergy, that it was in your genetic make up.  I did not know that anyone of us can develop an allergy to anything, at any point in your lifetime.  

So when I developed OAS I had no idea what it was and didn't see the connection between what I was eating and why I was feeling so unwell.  Its weird, you eat fruit and veg your whole life then all of a sudden, no you can't!  I had brushed off times for example when eating melon my mouth would start to itch, nothing severe just a little bit.  With no reactions to anything else, so I must be fine?

 I'm in my early twenties and I have started to react to coleslaw, a tingling in the mouth but now I started to get little sores. Strange never had an issue with coleslaw before?  Fast forward a little to my Dads birthday and it falls on Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee.  We have a afternoon tea party in joint celebration with homemade lemonade and lots of lovely cake.  My husband and I make two fresh cream and strawberry sponge cakes in competition, I won!  Any hoo, I tuck in to this delicious strawberry cake only to end up with the biggest trout pout that would rival any celeb botched up lip enhancement you have ever seen.  Now I'm starting to think woooooooh,  this is not good, you have to do something.  But I love strawberry's, coleslaw and melon and never seem to have this issue before.  Maybe i'm getting sensitive to pesticides?



So while I'm currently being an idiot and living in my ignorant world of bliss I carry on, not eating them all the time but if a buffet or cake is going I can't resist!  Look I'm also at this point unaware that you can develop allergies so I don't want to beat myself up to badly but really looking back I should have taken more haste and bothered my GP.  When I did go and kept going back they really didn't know about OAS, It was only when I had a severe reaction to sulphites from drinking red wine and describing the  symptoms of anaphylaxis that I was referred to an allergy clinic, in July 2012 I was diagnosed with Oral Allergy Syndrome. Shocked When I found out, how much I was allergic to and for how long I had been consuming my allergens, I was relieved that I new what was making me so unwell but annoyed with myself for not taking the warning signs seriously.

So my trip to the allergy clinic was an itchy experience!  I arrived not knowing what they were going to do or if anything at all.  My name is called and I am taken to a clinic room and have my weight, height and general health information is taken.  Then off I go to see a nurse who talks about my symptoms, current allergies and he begins the skin prick test.  

At first i'm fine but then it starts.  Hives and itchy arms and a feeling very hot. The nurse told me my worst allergins were cabbage and walnut. Blood samples were also taken for IgE tesing.  I couldn't believe how many I had reacted to. With having a terrible memory I asked the nurse to jot my allergies down. 

 

Changing old habits at the beginning is hard

No longer did I have the freedom of going out to eat, picking up a ready made sandwich or just tucking into cakes without checking the ingredients first.  In the first month I did have a couple of frustration fits.  Spending so much time checking labels on sandwiches by the time I had found something to eat my lunch break was over.  On the drive back to work I cried, feeling sorry for myself.  Now I just make myself something and over time have learnt what to stay clear from. 

Eating out is a whole new experience.  After scrutinising the life out of the menu only to find there are a possible two options (if they don't put what you can't have in). When explaining to the waitress that you have allergies to a, y and z and it comes on or in your dish anyway?! You get fed up of the hassle for a while but then you bounce back.  Now I contact the restaurant before I arrive, generally this has worked really well and they are happy for you to order in advance.  No scary surprises for me  and no unexpected requests for the restaurant. Most of all I can relax and enjoy the meal. 

There are lots of people out there with allergies, a lot more severe than mine.  

The issue with OAS?  Fruit, veg, nuts and spices are also cross pollenated.  So your allergies can be made up from one, two or three pollen groups. You can develop more over time or you can in some cases be allergic to all of them.  Some OAS suffers cannot even go into a fruit and veg department in a supermarket without triggering severe reactions.

It can be quite easy to manage for some, others it can be a lot more complicated.  If your new to OAS there are certain things you can do to help.

Getting to know your cross reactors

                                                                                                                     Allergic Living

Having a good knowledge of the food groups that are related to tree, grass and weed pollens can give you a better idea of what could potentially be a issue.

    Get pollen season on your calendar

All grass, trees and weeds have a peak period when they release the most pollen.  You can find your allergies worsen and reactions become more severe.

University of Worcester

So I am continuing to keep on the look out for new allergies but so far managing them well, making sure my epi pen is to hand.  March is not far off and my allergies will go like haywire until the end of Autumn but I have my weapon antihistamine, pollen calendar, lotions and potions! 

Please feel free to share you experiences, you never know who you may help and we can all support each other.