If only it were that easy.......

Here's a fun game! Go to your kitchen and start reading nutritional labels. Can you spot the milk and artificial sweetener?

Bet you think you can. But think again. Sure - there are the obvious ones but lactose -is milk sugar. Anything that ends in "tol" - an artificial sweetener. Whey, whey protein isolate, butter, butter fats, milk solids.......

Non fat powdered milk is even in granola bars!

Malitol, Xylitol, sorbitol - all fake stuff. Even in most commercial toothpaste!

Be honest - you always seem to swallow at least a bit when brushing - don't you?

I know what you're thinking - C'mon - it can't be that bad. But it's TRUE! And in my case - it's gotten that bad.

After earning of the "cause" of my troubles I made the rec./necessary changes to my diet. Feeling pretty good I grilled some fish, and sauteed some mushrooms, spinach, onions, zucc and cherry tomatoes. Seasoned with the balsamic "vinaigrette" I make myself - and use on my salads.

Half way through dinner - I was "on fire" again - WTF?! Tossed what was left and jumped in the shower. Not the fish - I had the same kind the same way the night before - no troubles. Not the dressing - use it everyday - no troubles. The night before I had a tossed salad with zucc. and tomatos on it. Could it be spinach?! Onions?! Mushrooms?

Thinking back - at the Japanese rest. where I ate the night before the last flare up I had sauteed mushrooms. And onions. We thought it was just MSG that triggered this - but maybe.......

I have onions a lot - but then up until Monday I had cottage cheese daily too. Don't often have mushrooms as they turn too quickly and they usually go to waste. But at the restaurant I ate a lot of them as no one else wanted them - and I (thought) I love them!

Mushroom = fungus = mold = known trigger........

GREAT! Now my veggies are poisonous?! What am I going to do?!
I decide to avoid mushrooms for the short term. The rash keeps progressing - think I'm healing - follow up sched. for Friday - life is going well.

I'm running errands on Wed. I find myself hungry - no food - no fruits veggies for sale. I read the labels and chose a soy based granola bar no chocolate coating, no sugar alcohols.

Not the best tasting - so I only eat 1/3 and toss the rest. This will hold me until I get home.
I wake up Thursday on FIRE again!!!!! Like I was in a tanning bed for 14 days - yet I no longer tan as I'm fearful of skin cancer!! What is going on?!@

Back to the Dr. on my lunch hour. Help - I'm begging. Please.
I explain everything I just did in more detail of course. They want to send me to a dermatologist. Wrong. I can "feel" that this is from it the inside coming out. Creams on the outside won't/'don't help. I feel "polluted". "Toxic". Even if I sit around and do nothing I still feel "grimy" a couple of hours later and need a shower - as if my body has "produced" something.

I explain the mushroom thing, the granola thing. I suggest that I know from my asthma once it's been triggered into a full on attack it takes very little "trigger" to set it off again - and the next attack comes on faster with equal if not more severity.

Could this be what is going on now? Could mushrooms be a trigger? Could I be that sensitive? I had stopped and bought the same type of granola bar that I ate a bite of the day before to show her. Sure enough - lactose is on the label - waaayyyy at the end of the list.

It's possible she agrees - and now I'm going to a food allergy specialist in two weeks. For now I record EVERYTHING I eat - times, amount, any body response. I will beat this - and in time - I will be able to eat a granola bar - but for now - I don't dare even eat at a restaurant for fear that they might cook something with or near butter/mushrooms - or something yet to be determined.

Lucky I like eating this way - clean, healthy, fresh - and that I truly enjoy cooking!