Reflections of Stories Pt.1

I've decided it might be fun to do a series of blogs where I tell interesting stories from my life.

Some stories may be funny, some scary, and others are completely random. I hope that this series will help you to learn more about me. Let's get started!

~ A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE AND A VERY RARE ALLERGY

I was about six or seven years old and we were having supper at a friend's house.

I don't remember everything we ate that night, but I remember the one thing I ate that almost killed me, green beans. But not just any green beans, green beans with onions.

Now I have enjoyed spicy foods most of my life, so of course, that didn't bother me.

I loved the green beans so much that I had seconds.

Shortly after eating them, I began to feel the worst I have ever felt in my life. Suddenly my chest and throat became very itchy and tight. I felt weird all over. Thankfully my Mama had some Benadryl. After she gave it to me I just lay down on our friend's couch. We would find out later that I was having a severe allergic reaction.

At the time, we were visiting with our grandparents, so once we left our friends and got back to their house, I was feeling pretty exhausted. Mama thought it would be a good idea for me to take a shower and that maybe that would help the itching to go away. As she was helping me take off my clothes we realized something we hadn't seen in the dark. I had hives all over my body. At this point, we knew I had an allergic reaction, we just didn't know what to.

I began to feel a little better after showering, so we all went to bed and prayed the worst was over.

The next morning, I was still a little itchy but most of the hives had gone away.

We didn't think much more about it until lunchtime came. Since we didn't know what food had caused it in the first place, we couldn't avoid what would happen next. We were having sandwiches and chips for lunch. Some of us were eating french onion dip with our chips.

If you haven't already guessed, yes, I had another allergic reaction. It was the onions. This time it was worse than the night before. Not only was starting to break out and itch again, but my throat was getting extremely tight and beginning to close up. When we realized what was happening we rushed to the hospital. Mama gave me more Benadryl and I was able to breathe enough that I could make it to the hospital without taking an ambulance.

Once we got to the hospital they administered the proper medication and told us I was allergic to onions. the doctors said if Mama hadn't given me that Benadryl my throat would have completely closed and I would have died.

I had never before heard of someone being allergic to onions but sure enough, I was. In the years that have followed, I've met many people with this allergy. It affects each person differently.

It took several years to learn how to avoid certain foods that may or may not have onions in it.

We also found that even onion powder affects me, only not in such a severe way.

It's amazing how many foods, chips, and recipes have onions, onion powder, or dehydrated onions.

We thought it would be an allergy that went away with age but, the older I've become the worse the allergy has gotten. It is now so bad that if someone is cooking them and I inhale the smoke then I start to get sick. It is the most interesting allergy.

And.... that's the story of how I found out I was severely allergic to onions.