Over the course of the past 3 years, my dietary choices have become polar opposites. Previously, I will admit, I didn’t care. I honestly didn’t give a shit what went in my body and how much. Anything and everything. The perception being food is food.
WRONG
After moving to Denver in 2016, that changed for the better. With the wife’s “help”, I started to eat better. Cleaner. My addiction to fast food came to a close.
During 2017, at work, we were always busy. Going out for lunch was basically impossible. I would frequently buy the team lunch. Pizza, Jimmy John’s, standard office junk food. More towards mid 2017, that’s when I started to notice feeling sick after eating. Sparing you the details, I noticed a pattern. If I didn’t eat lunch, I felt ok for the day. The constant business of work always interfered. I started to “thin” down my intake, and became more “selective” in what I ate. To this day my weakness is still, and always will be Dr. Pepper.
At the beginning of 2018, however, the craziness started. Between the strange rashes, cysts, and oral thrush, I started to realize that “something” has got to be causing this. The first thing I eliminated was gluten. Then dairy, then sugar.
After my 2 first septic episodes were in the books at Swedish, I started to think it was just an infection causing my symptoms, and that whatever I had, was gone. I started to allow things back in. Of course the first thing is gluten. I mean. It’s bread right? After being gluten-free for almost 3 months, I made a huge mistake. After about 3 days of bread, soy sauce, amongst other things, the sick-to-my-stomach feelings returned. I continued eating gluten for about another 2 weeks. During this time, had found a food allergy test. I thought to myself, maybe this will give a clue as to why. So I bit the bullet, and ordered the test, you can get yours here.
So the simple basics of this test, is that you simply provide 4 drops of blood in a lab kit, and mail it in. They then run a battery of funny enough IgG tests against different foods, and look at the reactivity to it. In about a week, I received back my results and surprisingly, I was on the right track.
Results:
Moderate Reactivity:
- Yogurt
Mild Reactivity:
- Cow’s Milk
- Barley
- Wheat
- Gluten
- Cheddar Cheese
- Cocoa
- Bran
- Cola
- Sweet Potato
- Green Peas
- Malt
- Mushrooms
- Egg Yolk
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Baker’s Yeast
- Almond
The recurring theme from the results was Gluten, and Dairy. The two foods that I had previously eliminated. Thus began my elimination diet. Maybe it was something I was eating causing this. At this time I had started to reach out to my mother’s side of the family. I then learned my uncle was diagnosed with Crohn’s. So this puzzle started to look more like whats on the outside of the box. Could this be Crohns? Celiac?
My elimination diet was set in place. I began avoiding anything I reacted to in the test, and sure enough, I started to feel better. The rashes weren’t as frequent, the stomach issues started to cease. I felt, “Hey, I think I figured it out”.
Summer came, my alternative life partner was getting married. We set aside a gluten-free meal for me for the wedding. Being in the wedding, and running around like a madman all day long to make sure as least as possible would go wrong, was exhausting. As the day progressed, I didn’t eat. I was hungry. I was stressed out making sure that the wedding went ok. The ceremony came & went. Everything went awesome! I was really happy to be apart of it. Then came time for food. I was absolutely starving at this point. I got my food, sat down, and just started to destroy it. Fuck it felt good to eat. Roughly about an hour after eating into the reception, something wasn’t right. I was itching all over. Felt like 500 fire ants were crawling on me biting me every chance they could get. 30 minutes after those feelings started, my throat started to feel weird, and the swallowing issues returned. “I’ll be back”. I ran to the nearest gas station and got Benedryl. I returned shortly after, popped 50mg, and just waited for it to kick in.
After 30 minutes past, the feelings were not going away. I dipped into the dressing room, and there it was again. The rash. However, this time, it was EVERYWHERE. Legs, chest, arms, feet, hands. No discrimination. I then made the decision that we needed to go. I told the wife what was going on, and had to say my goodbyes early to the newlyweds. Once we got into the car, I really started to decline. My heart started to race. Sweating. Not good. Wife sped us to Porter (which was about 50 minutes away). When we arrived, they called the allergic reaction alarm, got me into a room, but at this point I’m starting to choke on air. My throat was starting to close. The ER team jumped into action giving me more Benedryl, Prednisone, and Epinephrine. I laid there for 2 hours, and the symptoms subsided. What the fuck just happened.
After this incident, my allergic reactions became more frequent, and scary. I started getting them at home. At work. It didn’t matter. Something was seriously wrong. I ended up throwing out every piece of cookware we owned. Maybe I was truly allergic to gluten, and I’m getting affected via cross-contamination. I was starting to get desperate. My elimination diet became more strict. I was down to eating 6 things, however, the random reactions still happened.
Now with all that out of the way, that brings me to nutrition, and CVID. From what I have learned the hard way, is that my body definitely didn’t like certain things, with no explanation. For anyone who is healthy, and has a functional immune system, nutrition seems to take a back seat. As for me, its front & center now. With that being said, since my diagnosis of CVID, there are quite a few caveats to nutrition and being immunocompromised. Between my real experience, nutritionists, and reliable online resources, I’ve put together a list of foods/things that I have to avoid for the rest of my life.
Dairy
- Unpasteurized dairy products including raw milk, cheese, and yogurt
- Cheeses from the deli
- Cheese containing chili peppers or other uncooked vegetables (pepper jack cheese)
- Cheeses with molds (blue cheese, stilton, Roquefort, gorgonzola)
- Sharp cheddar, brie, camembert, feta cheese, farmer’s cheese
Meats
- All raw or under cooked meats, seafood and eggs
- Products containing raw or under cooked meats, seafood and eggs, such as sushi and homemade Caesar dressing
- Raw or under cooked tofu sold in the refrigerated section
- Refrigerated smoked seafood and pickled fish
- Eggs with a runny yolk, such as over easy and poached eggs
- Deli meats, both pre-packaged and deli counter sliced meats, as well as hotdogs or sausages, unless heated to steaming before eating
Vegetables
- Unwashed fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs
- Raw fruit with a rough texture, such as raspberries and strawberries
- Unpasteurized fruit and vegetable juice
- Restaurant or deli foods that contain raw fruits or vegetables. Pre-cut fresh fruits and vegetables should also be avoided unless you rewash them before eating
- Uncooked, raw nuts and roasted nuts in the shell
- All vegetable sprouts
Breads
- Absolutely NO GLUTEN
- Products with uncooked brewer’s yeast, like unpasteurized beer.
- Avoid contact with raw yeast. You can eat any foods made with it. You just do not want to knead or mix dough with raw yeast due to the risk of breathing in the raw yeast
Water
- Well water
- Fountain Drinks
- Limit HCFS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) products
Other
- Raw/unpasteurized Honey
- No more buffet food
- No Miso Products
As you can see above, the list is quite extensive. Now what really makes this come full circle, is go back to my food allergy IgG test results. See anything that matches? Fucking crazy. It truly is amazing what the human body tells you. As the old saying goes “What you put in, you get out”. I will have to abide by that going forward.
Denver, CO, USA
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