I've been thinking a lot about nuts lately. Nuts and nut allergies. I am probably one of the lucky few people who has a nut allergy that is not life threatening (yet). Sure my esophagus swells and my tongue gets really tingly, but I have plenty of time to take Benedryl and wait for the discomfort to end. On the flipside, my little brother has just enough time to take his epi-pen before his throat completely swells shut. He has a severe allergy to peanuts, and I am allergic to tree nuts. In some respects I'm lucky because peanuts are not quite as often cross-contaminated with tree nuts, whereas tree nuts are next to impossible to find without trace amounts of peanut on them. Not sure why that is, but perhaps I'm wrong and misreading the labels because my allergy is not life threatening (yet).
Then there are the even more severe cases. My friend's daughter can't even touch someone who's even thought about touching/eating a nut of any kind in the last 24 hours. Immediate anaphylaxis. Recently, my friend, who just discovered her daughter's nut allergy this summer, asked her family to go "nut" free for Thanksgiving so they could join the party. I was completely surprised and shocked to hear that her family was unwilling to do so and stated that food allergies were, basically, a hoax. Now my poor friend must spend the holidays alone for the sake of her daughter's health and well-being because family refuses to acknowledge said nut allergy is being real. It got me thinking...
My little brother grew up around nuts all the time. My mother refused to give up her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Refused to remove nuts from the home entirely. Sure, she made sure he didn't eat anything with peanut butter and separate utensils/bowls were used when nuts were present. Well, at least the peanuts. My mother was convinced that it was okay for my little bro to eat tree nuts and he would be just fine. Being ever the cautious allergy suffer, my brother wouldn't touch anything near those nuts at the holidays and sometimes would flat out refuse to eat if there was a potential of cross contamination. Smart kid, now that I look back. After listening to the horrifying tale of my friend, it hit me how tough the holidays had to be for my little brother. No cookies eaten straight off of a plate- he always had to get the still segregated cookies for the tins- no grazing on hors d'eovres at his leisure, no carefree enjoyment of the holidays. And all because we were unwilling to give things up for his sake. For our own enjoyment, at the cost of his. The selfishness of it is truly bewildering. And it wasn't until my friend told me she was willing to forgo the holidays with family for the sake of her daughter's safety and enjoyment that it began to hit me what we had done to my brother all those years.
Simple pleasures for us, were anything but for him.
On a less serious angle to that, I, now a nut allergy suffer, have become a "special case" at work for massages. We have just revamped our massage services to be more spa oriented, and with that came new massage oils. Oils made with almond oil. Creams made with shea nut. Granted, I don't believe shea nut is as common of a nut allergy, but nonetheless... it's in there. What really gets me is that almond oil is now used for every massage. In order for me to get a massage at work (I do get a fabulous discount) I have to make the massage therapists use a cream, which doesn't work well for certain types of massages, or bring in my own allergy and nut free oil. In a lot of ways, I have to scratch my head that they would have decided to use an oil made primarily of a nut of any kind, but it seems to be a popular choice for massage therapists. So, for me, I have lost the simple pleasure of being able to get a massage. How can you relax when you are wondering if the massage therapist is annoyed with you for not being able to use their normal oil, and how can you relax when you are wondering if they have washed the almond oil off of themselves enough that you won't inadvertently have an allergic reaction? I might have to actually go somewhere else to get massages, which makes no sense at all!
How quickly the simple pleasures in life become not anything but when you are an food allergy suffer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment