First Surgeries, Allergies, and Pleasant Eating – Thoughts from November 2, 2024

Before I left for work today, I got a call from Kaiser to schedule the appointment to treat my throat and plan the removal of the polyp on my vocal cord. Honestly, I didn’t know if I was going to be scheduling the procedure itself. I wasn’t. This is the checkup before the procedure. It is on a day I was working so I had to give that day away. We have many new people looking for shifts. They were glad to get it. The whole thing made me nervous. I’m glad I could take care of it easily. After this, the hard part happens. I am having my first surgery ever. As surgeries go, it is minor, but I have nothing else to compare it to.

I’ve made it to age 54 without ever having had surgery, broken a bone, or had any major health problem. This is a rarity in my family. My relatives are full of alcoholics, smokers, and people who did not take their health seriously. To take my health even more seriously, I sent my hair to be analyzed for allergies. They were quick to mention it was a reactivity test. I still say they are things I’m allergic to. Food was my major concern. The results didn’t surprise me, mostly. I knew dairy did me wrong. This includes milk, milk chocolate, yogurt, cheese, and most of the things I used to love. I had avoided dairy already because of my vegan diet, but this was an even more important reason to avoid it.

There were a few things I was reactive to that surprised me. The biggest one was pecans. Nothing else among the mixed nuts I’ve been eating for years. Pecans were the only ones mentioned in the high reactivity part of the results. Wheat, coconut, eggs, and tomatoes were also in the high reactivity list. I had already taken tomatoes out of my diet because of my throat. Now they’re permanently out. I started looking at the things I’ve been eating on my days off from work. Wheat was a major ingredient in many of them. More than missing them, I’m just glad to know to avoid them. I tired of eating things and feeling bad afterward while not knowing exactly what I was reacting to.

Dairy appeared in the moderate reactivity list. They specified milk chocolate, milk from cows, milk from goats, milk from sheep, buttermilk, condensed milk, and oat milk as separate items. Luckily, they did not mention almond milk. Oranges, lemons, and duck were the surprises in this list. I’ve only had duck a few times in my life, but now it’s gone for good from my eating future. Even though they listed these as moderately reactive, I’m still going to avoid them. I’ve had milkshakes before that restricted my breathing. That sounds more than moderate to me, but maybe it was the dairy with some other ingredient that triggered it.

Just so I don’t end up on a negative note, I should mention the huge list of foods that have no reactivity for me. Pretty much if I didn’t mention it, I could eat it with no problem. Some things I wish weren’t okay for me to eat, but I don’t have a reactivity problem with them. I wouldn’t miss beer, kale, mustard, veal, or beef. (Future note: If I made this list today, I would not include mustard. You’ll have to wait a while to hear why that is in a future entry.) My being able to have them doesn’t change my wanting them. As with everyone who eats food, I eat things that taste good to me. With all the restrictions on my diet, I’m always satisfied when I’m done eating. Eating is even more pleasurable for me because I know I will not have an unpleasant surprise afterward.