I’m Joining the Blogging from A to Z Challenge

If you’ve followed along for awhile on the site, you’ll know that the  main drive behind this blog has been my desire to become a better writer and share my experiences and adventures as an expat in New York. I’ve taken up NaBloPoMo challenges in the past without too much success. Today, I am taking up the Blogging from A to Z Challenge – meaning everyday this month, I will blog about a letter of the alphabet, starting with A and ending with Z (26 days in total, you get it?). Some of my posts will be random, but for the most part I am going to either write a bit about myself or New York! I thought this would be a good way for you to get to know me, especially if you are new to the blog.

Without further ado, welcome to A for Apples and Allergies. I have had a deathly allergy to peanuts since the age of about 5. It sprung up on me suddenly one day when I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as I had so many times before. This time my tongue started swelling and itching. My older sister thought I was being crazy. I’ve been told that allergies come and go in 7 year cycles and that you can keep retrying foods and you just might no longer be allergic. I’m not willing to chance it with peanuts, but I am also allergic to heaps of other foods and the allergies have come and gone.

Just 5 months ago I gave birth to my beautiful little girl. If you have given birth, you know that your first meal after childbirth you feel ravenous. For me, my tastebuds had returned after 9 months and that queasy feeling that left me unable to keep food down for nearly 6 months of my pregnancy was gone. I knoew that whatever the nurse put in front of me for breakfast, I was likely to devour.

That morning, besides the regular breakfast eggs, toast, tea was a huge round red apple. Ugh. For about the past 10 years I haven’t been able to eat apples without my gums itching and my lips swelling up. I have a theory that it has something to do with pesticides. I use to be able to peel the skin and still eat apples, but even that resulted in nausea for the last 4-5 years. Back to the big post partum breaksfast at hand, I was staaaaaarving! So, I bit into the apple, thinking of all places a hospital was probably the best place I could indulge and see if my allergy was gone.

Hallelujah! It was gone. I devoured and enjoyed a big juicy red apple and have been every since for the last 5 months. I’m hoping the 7 year cycle never comes back around so that they cause allergic reactions again.

New York has soooo many apple choices to choose from. My favorite are Fuji Apples!

Do you have any food allergies? How does it impact your life?