A Farewell to Cheese
My primary care doctor sent me to an allergy specialist this week. Both doctors immediately had suspicion of something I’d never heard about… Alpha Gal syndrome. Before I left the allergy appointment, I’d been issued an EpiPen and taught how to use it. She gave me a stack of handouts. One of the handouts is titled “Mammalian Meat Free Diet Guidelines.” Basically, if it walks on four feet and nurses it’s young with its own milk, I can’t eat it; beef, pork, lamb, etc, (interestingly whale is on the list). This includes dairy products.
It's been a process and layers of wrapping my head around this. Silliness of silliness, my first thought was, “No, not cheese!!” I can’t have cheese on my burger?
Wait… I can’t have a burger, or anything cooked in the same pan as a burger.
Hold on… I can’t eat a bun (allergy to wheat).
I can’t eat the mayonnaise on a burger.
This requires huge adjustment. Today I’m just feeling tired and overwhelmed by it. I don’t even understand it yet.
The Back Story
The best that I understand it so far is that it is a tick-borne illness. You get bit by a tick carrying a certain substance and BAM, just like that you’re allergic to red meat and all red meat products. Some people recover from it in three to five years. Some people do not.
Last Fall, I was walking at Wilson’s Creek as I love to do on nice days. It’s a small National Park with numerous wooded trails to explore. While walking the trails, I started to have what I assumed was an asthma attack. I took myself to the ER. They treated me for what they labeled “allergic bronchitis” and sent me home feeling better.
Over the next few months, I continued to have recurring asthma symptoms. I was so sick from the pollens of Fall that I had to go in for a steroid shot. I was having horrific stomach aches but couldn’t isolate what was causing them. I was tick bitten several times last year and never thought much of it.
For several years now, I have been ordering from restaurants with the phrase “I am gluten (wheat) sensitive”. I gave up gluten a number of years ago when I discovered it gives me migraines. The doctor was very clear that these allergies are not “intolerance” or “sensitivity”. This is allergy that requires me to carry the EpiPen everywhere.
What Now?
Good question.
I’m trying to break it down into bite size segments. At the moment, it feels like I’ve been asked to summit Mount Everest. I know that even a trek up to the top of Everest isn’t done in one day.
My first concern this morning was how do I have a morning cup of coffee that I enjoy? I love my morning coffee. My coffee tends to be half milk and half coffee. I came to my usual coffee shop today. He let me read the backs of labels of the drink that I have been ordering for years. We made some adjustments, and I can check that off the list.
I can still enjoy a morning cup of coffee.
Placing my next grocery order will be a huge next step. There are so many things to think about now. Gelcaps on vitamins and pills are made with alphagal. It’s in margarines and gravy and soup mixes. The meat products used in various foods have numerous names to watch for like rennet and casein.
Reading ingredient labels is my new superpower.
As I think all of this through, I have to make a gratitude list. One night a few weeks ago, my stomach was hurting so bad that I couldn’t sleep. I laid in bed praying that God would send me to a doctor that could help. Done.
In our WebMD generation, it is easy to imagine the worst-case scenario. I knew that an actual diagnosis would be a relief. So, I prayed for one. Done.
As I look to all of these adjustments that seem daunting, I am asking God for wisdom and a dose of courage to live a new way. I look forward to checking that off as “done”.
So, this is my heartfelt farewell to cheese (and ice cream and lattes and sour cream). This is a fond, but tearful, goodbye to hamburgers and steaks on the grill and brats and breakfast sausage. Just as I stand in the bake shop and lovingly take in the wafting scent of the baking bread that I can not eat, I will stand at the next fourth of July cookout and wistfully take in the aroma hot dogs and burgers on the grill.
This is a blow to the American way of life. But, life is a good and beautiful gift. I will do the hard work of finding new ways to enjoy it.
If I cross your mind, please say a prayer that I will keep a good mindset and find the courage to follow through!
Blessings to you, Traci
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” ( Philippians 4: 6-7).
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