Trust Your Gut

Here we are ladies and gents, I have survived the last high school spring break of my life. Now, in silence, I sit in class rethinking my past week. There is quite the story behind this article idea. Over spring break I signed up for a gym membership; I was eating very very healthy. I was giving my body the nutrients it needed, or so I thought it needed. I was doing amazing, I was thriving. Every morning, I’d wake up and walk myself downstairs to make myself a fancy breakfast smoothie. I REALLY love smoothies, so it was heaven whenever I made one. I savored every single drop of these smoothies. Now, I would fill these smoothies up with lots of nutrients.

I guess I should give you a background to this story and to the purpose for this story you are reading. When I was younger, I had a banana allergy. Now that I am 18 and haven’t had an reaction since I was around 5, you would think after thirteen years I would be completely fine. Let me tell you, I was not fine. I was at work on Wednesday which is typical for me, and my stomach started to itch terribly. Every moment I had a free hand, I was digging into my skin trying to get the awful sensation to go away. My manager took me to the back room so we could decipher what was happening to my skin. I lifted my shirt up, and there were red lines in my stomach. The marks were welted, and not only red but purple. My jaw dropped and we both looked at each other like what is happening? Before I had even realized what I had done to myself, my mom went back and forth about how this rash could have been a result of tanning for the little amount a body could take. The day after this odd itching sensation began, I was walking to my bathroom and eyed the bananas sitting on the counter. I pondered for a few minutes and came to the realization that I was having an allergic reaction, and it was a bad one. My skin burned so badly that’s how much it itched. It was turning red, and I sweating every second I moved in my house or at work.

Now you are probably wondering, how in the heck do you forget you are allergic to a food? Sometimes the guidelines of our youth fades away only to return a reminder that we are still the same person. It had only affected me when I was younger, so not that I am 18 and 15 years or so had passed without anything happening to me, it went directly over my head. Moral of the story, if you had a food allergy diagnosed when you were younger DO NOT forget that it was discovered. If you do, you will be in for a long ride of misery.