Dairy Allergy: In Case You Were Curious

When we decided to try cutting out dairy from my/our diet

6 months ago we had no idea what we were in for.

We have learned SO much,

but other than mentioning "I'm having a reaction"

here or there I haven't really talked about it here.

So if you're curious,

here we go (:

So far we have found that I have a "reaction" to 

Milk

Butter

Cream

Whey

Caseinate

Any milk derivative

What a "reaction" entails for me has taken awhile for us to fully figure out.

We immediately noticed the intense arthritic pain that comes within

45 min - 3 hours of me consuming dairy,

but it took us awhile to pinpoint the length and other particulars of my reactions.

As I mentioned, the first thing that happens after I have any dairy

is the pain. Swiftly and intensely it comes and stays that way for about a week.

Pain deep in my muscles and spine from where my skull meets my spine

to where my spine and hip bones meet together. 

After that first week it lessens a bit, but the pain as a whole lasts about a month.

We order Thai about 3 times this week.

The second week of a reaction Josh describes as my "bite everyone's head off" week

and he's pretty right on, sadly.

I am extremely on edge, shaky, have a very hard time thinking,

sleep very very little, and have crazy wild emotional/hormonal swings.

We order Thai once or twice this week as I'm really not that hungry

and husband's busy hiding from my unpredictable wrath.

The third week is when the depression comes in.

I was reluctant to acknowledge this until recently, I felt silly and trite 

admitting that depression was part of my struggle with dairy allergies.

But it is a very real and hard part of the reaction.

There is a dark sadness that settles into my thoughts and daily tasks

that is a moment by moment battle not to submit to.

I could sleep all day,

I hurt all over every moment,

I desire to crawl into a hole and hide,

and generally desire to avoid all people.

Even husband.

Its horrible.

We order Thai every night this week.

The 4th/5th week I get sick.

It varies as to what specific illness I get,

but I do get sick and usually pretty sick at that.

I think my immune system just gets so beat up

that it throws it hands up in disgust and lets

 the first virus I meet come in and stay for awhile.

This week its a raging cold/cough.

Yippe ki yay.

So far we've ordered Thai twice this week.

 We have also found lots of substitutes that we enjoy,

such as homemade almond milk (so good!) and coconut oil.

We substitute coconut oil or olive in a lot of recipes that call for butter

and we are also growing our repertoire of dairy free recipes.

 This has been such a painful and wonderful growing experience.

We had no idea when we first began how much we would have

to change the way we eat,

but I cannot say enough how grateful we are for the way

we have grown and changed which in a run around way 

makes us grateful for the allergy itself.

So, yep, there you go.

My allergy and allergy reactions (and addiction to Thai food!) in a nut shell (:

We are still learning and documenting in order to learn more,

hoping and praying that my body will heal.

xoxo,

lyss

P.S. I feel like the unsung hero here is Husband.

He helps SO MUCH with this and is so very patient with me.

I mean, can you imagine loving and living with someone who this is your life

for the next month if they have the tiniest bit of dairy??

Oy.