Benedryl Haze

Well, it happened again. Another allergic reaction to God only knows what. The day started out great with a tasty breakfast of turkey sausage and flax seed waffles (neither of which are on my approved foods list, but everyone needs a day off, right), and I took the new supplements I got for my gallbladder. I first noticed a funny sensation in my mouth and throat towards the end of breakfast, most notably right after I took two of the digestive supplements: Beet concentrate, and Mega Acid. I thought nothing of it, and went to work. The gallbladder pills worked awesome, as I had no digestive complaints or nausea, so I felt amazing otherwise.

About 15 minutes after I got to work I noticed a tightening and drying out of my throat, again, thinking nothing of it and assuming it was just a mild side affect from the acid supplement I took. About 30 minutes after that I started to feel a lot of pressure behind my eyes like I would when having an allergic reaction and it caused some problems with my vision. Still being the idiot that I am, I thought nothing of it and kept going with my day. About an hour later, I noticed that it felt like something was stuck in my throat and it was kind of itchy, too, real high in the back of my throat. I kept going for a little while longer and then went home for my lunch break so I could make my Cucumber Fuzz juice. That's when it got really bad...

I started making the cucumber fuzz juice and decided to add a nectarine in for flavor because the ones I have are super ripe and ready to be eaten (and I LOVE nectarines). I took a small bite of the nectarine while I was depitting it and that itchy sensation in my throat went from mild to awful in about 10 seconds. I went to the mirror to see if there really was something in my throat, and sure enough, there was one hive that looked like a good sized pimple in the back of my throat. I immediately took one benedryl to slow down the reaction thinking that would do the trick. Not even close. As I was drinking my tasty lunch, it went from bad to worse as the itching sensation intensified and spread across the right side of my mouth. Not sure why it was only the right side, but it was. Popped a second benedryl, finished my lunch and started running through my head all of the possible things that could have caused the reaction. Guesses, at best. By the time I was on my way back to work my lips were in full force tingle and felt like they would have swollen right up if it weren't for the benedryl already starting to kick in. Back in the day, when my food allergies were new and I didn't know to take Benedryl at the first sign of tingling, my lips would swell up super bad and my manager at the time used to always tell me that a lot of people pay good money to have lips like that. I ensured him that their lips probably didn't ooze and itch with hives all over.

Anyway, I spent the day in a benedryl haze. Can I tell you how hard it is to sell stuff and carry on intelligent conversations when you are ready to fall asleep standing up? It was rough, but at least the hive was going away and the tingling, itchy feelings subsiding. This reaction was bad. It took almost eight hours for the swelling and tingling to completely go away after I took the Benedryl.

So what caused this allergic reaction? It felt as though I was having an allergic reaction to apples, but nothing I ate contained anything remotely related to apples, so that's not possible. Here are my theories as to what might have caused the allergic reaction:

1. The beet supplement contains 4mg of sulfur. Perhaps I am allergic to sulfur? What bursts this theory is that beets, that I have been eating all week, have sulfur naturally occurring in them and I have yet to have a problem with them in their natural, non-pill, state.
2. The Mega Acid supplement was too strong for my stomach. Not sure on this one... not quite as plausible but I'm not ruling it out either until I see what happens that next time I take it.
3. The nectarine was not organic and I didn't wash it well enough. Believe or not, this may have been the straw that broke the camels back. It's happened before, so it's definitely in the realm of possibility. This however would have had to be simply exacerbating something that had started earlier in the day. Which, I think, has also happened in the past.
4. The new cranberry blossom honey that I just bought is made from a pollen that I still have an allergy to, despite my allergy shots. I am putting this one as a very strong contender for what started it all because I had put it on my waffles in the morning, and when I put it on some biscuits that I ate tonight (again, I wasn't being very strict on my diet today, biscuits are definitely not on the approved list) I felt that tingling in my mouth again. I switched to regular clover honey after that and the tingling started to subside.
5. A combination of all of these things put together.

Long story short, I'm lost. I wish I could just eat and digest normally like everyone else. Spending your day in a Benedryl haze is no fun whatsoever, especially if you can't just sleep it off.