A Quick Food Update

Let's rewind to March 2013 when I started feeling very sick and started suffering from pain on my head and my neck. After a few months of being in pain I finally listened to my precious husband and made an appointment with my family dr. to see if she could help figure out what was going on. We talked for quite a while and then she checked me out and sent me home with some antibiotics due to the inflammation on my scalp. After a few weeks I experienced no change and went back for blood work to see if that gave us any answers. My dr. started to act pretty concerned about this time, but she was very happy when my blood results came back because when lymph nodes are concerned the first thing they check is for cancer! So after a process of elimination, lots of antibiotics, a few blood draws, and ruling out lymphoma (The scariest day of my life!) my Dr. sent me home to experiment with an elimination diet to see if my recent jump from eating a complete Paleo diet (no wheat, dairy, etc) back into a full blown pasta  and bread everyday habit had anything to do with my issues. Low and behold my head stopped hurting and my neck got better because my lymph nodes were not swollen anymore. I felt great for a while but started experiencing swollen eyes and lips and I was having more stomach issues than I already had. These aren't new issues for me because I have have dealt with this for most of my life, but they were becoming more and more prevalent.It finally took breaking out in hives all over my face and chest for me to finally go see an allergist.
 Here I am icing down my face to try and calm the hives all over my eyes, cheeks, and chest.

Long story short the allergist pricked me 80 times all over my back and his diagnosis after 15 itchy minutes was a black pepper and orange allergy. So I had some answers and stopped eating processed foods all together, because pepper is in EVERYTHING! Fast forward almost a year later and I am still dealing with swollen eyes and lips. I didn't really care for the first dr. I saw so this time I decide a new allergist might give me a few more answers. Fast forward again to another skin test and a blood test to confirm I am actually not allergic to black pepper and oranges, but I still have no clue why food hates me. 

It has been a few months since I was undiagnosed with my pepper and orange allergy and since then I have been pretty lax with my eating especially when it comes to cheese because I freaking love cheese! Sadly cheese and dairy does not like me. I am officially 100% gluten and dairy free and am officially back to my Paleo ways and I already feel better. I was planning on completing another Whole30, but being too restrictive with food has been such a huge part of my life the past 2 years that I just want to focus on being healthy and not focusing on every single bite of food I put in my mouth.

So that's where we are today and hopefully someday soon I will have more answers on my health. For now the focus is on eating healthy and delicious food for myself and my family.