I've been having these weird allergic reactions since moving back to Seattle. Basically the reactions are caused by eating, then going outside to do some kind of physical activity like walking my puppy. Then for some inexplicable reason I start getting really itchy and break out in HUGE hives all over my body. There is no rhyme or reason as to why this keeps happening.
At first I thought I was allergic to hummus but it didn't happen every time I ate hummus, in fact it often DIDN'T happen when I ate hummus. Then it happened when I had a PB&J. Then it happened again when I had a chicken sandwich. The only commanality was the eating then doing something "active."
But yesterday I had the WORST episode I have ever had. I went to breakfast with the boy, we ate at Glo's, I had a ton of food and then to repent for my gluttonous behavior, I went to the gym. An hour later I started to feel a little itchy so I took a benadryl. Then on my walk from the car to the gym, about five blocks, my ENTIRE body breaks out in the biggest hives I've ever seen. MY!ENTIRE!BODY! My mouth and face started swelling for the first time and my tongue started swelling too.
That's when I got worried. If I collapsed on Capital Hill would all the hipster kids just walk by and take pictures of me on their cell phones to post on their myspace blog? Would the homeless guy on the corner of Summit and Olive be the one to give me mouth to mouth?
I drove home and stripped down only to find that all of the individual hives had merged into one giant hive colony that covered my body, I looked like I had elephantitis or something. It was GROSS! But after some more benadryl and an allergy pill, I got better, though my skin felt like it was crawling all night at work. Not fun.
So I did a little research. It seems that I have exercise induced anaphylaxia. Basically EIA is an allergic reaction with a triggering factor, often food or anti-inflammatory drugs. People eat or take ibuprofen or something, then they go exercise and their bodies have an allergic response.
It's totally random, you can do the same thing forty times and then the forty-first you'll have the reaction, then you can do it another forty times and nothing. The foods commonly associated with EIA are some fruits, wheat, cheese, chick peas...healthy shit.
So to wrap all this up...I mean seriously...how can I be allergic to something that's good for me like exercise? Can't I be allergic to chocolate and sitting on my ass all day? I swear, my body is like a fucking bear getting ready for hiberation. All it wants is to hoard and store fat and then be lazy.
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