Attacked by Carrots

Who knew being healthy would be so dangerous?

Who knew allergies/intolerance to carrots was a thing?

About three years ago I had a scare.  A painful scare.  And I was all alone.  My Mom was working on fixing up my Grandpa's property in Riverside CA.  My Dad was at work.  My Grandpa was still alive and living in an RV next to our house.  For that week I was the sole person taking care of my Grandpa and he was making all these crazy demands, like wanting me to drive to McDonald's at 9 pm in a snow storm to get him hot fries.  I didn't do it.  Driving at night while it's snowing can be pretty scary.  

During that time I would check up on him several times a day, making sure he had everything, and getting him what he needed.  It was late in the day when I was eating carrots and hummus and then, all of a sudden, the most excruciating pain hit just below my heart behind my ribs.  It was scary, and I could barely move.  I wondered if it was the food, but then I surmised that it might have been a panic attack.

Since then I've mainly had carrots cooked, and when they were raw I would get a little pain, but brushed it aside.  Well, today I had another full blown attack, and it happened just after eating a full carrot.  The pain hitting where the esophagus and stomach meet, the pain intensely pulsing from that point up to my mouth. 

My Mom called my brother Michael who has a lot of allergies, and he told my Mom to immediately give me two benadryl and a claritin.  He came over and gave me a blessing, and we talked for a while as my symptoms slowly abated.  He also can't have carrots raw.

I looked it up, and though carrot allergies are on the rare side here, it's more common in Europe.

So mystery solved.  I can't have raw carrots, and whether or not cooked carrots are okay will have to be determined with experiments and trials.

Crazy scary stuff.  Learned a new thing today.  So now I have a new challenge to work through and figure out.  I finished off my Christmas chocolate today, so I'm going on another sweets fast, as sugar causes inflammation and other problems.  My lower esophagus feels a lot better, it just feels really bruised at the moment.

So it's almost 10:30 pm, and I didn't sleep at all this afternoon, even with the two benadryl and claritin.  Didn't want to mess up my sleeping cycle.

I'm not writing this as a complaint.  It is what it is.  More as information.  For three years I've been having on again/off again problems.  Some of the problems are still unsolved, but this mystery is closed. 

There's so much we just don't know, both about ourselves personally and other medical stuff.  How many others out there are having pain and can't figure it out?  Sometimes our problems can be simple things that are overlooked.  For me it was a root vegetable hiding behind the label of good health.

Getting healthy isn't a one size fits all, which is apart of the frustration.  We are all different, and we all have different challenges.  Some obvious and some hidden.

So good luck with whatever you're struggling with.  Don't lose hope.  Don't give up.

And I seriously need to get to sleep.  As frustrating as it is that I have to figure this whole carrot thing out, it's nice knowing I have a problem with them, as the only way to fix a problem is to first be aware of the fact that there is a problem.  Everything will fall into place.  I'll work it out.

Have a good day,

Sarah