Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bye, bye beaters.

I took a course in college dealing with communication and the medical field.  We studied a lot about how doctors spend SO much time in school with books and cadavers, they forget about their people skills and in turn have no clue how to talk to patients, give them bad news, dig for answers, etc (no offense to my MD buddies.  I know you rock, I'm just talking about the "other guys").  In the same case, you can argue that patients are idiots and tend not to listen to their doctors while taking medical history and leave out important things (like, "Are you on any medication?"  Nope.  Dr. finds out later the patient is on bc pills "I thought you said you weren't on any medication?!"  Oh!  That's birth control!  Not medication.  DOH!).

I have been pretty lucky to have overall good doctors in my life (with the exception of one nephrologist in North Carolina, but I think she was about an hour and a half out of med school and I made her nervous).  Anyway, I go for the big follow-up allergy appointment today.  I've done all the "standard" q&a so many times, that I really don't even need them to ask, I just start talking.  And I don't.stop.at.all.  So after the verbal diarrhea that is my medical history, we get to the testing!  Woo hoo!

The nerd in me was really kind of excited about the thought of having the allergy testing done (again).  I have not-so-fond memories of being stabbed up and down both arms and my back when I was little.  One testing session, I actually kicked the nurse who was poking me!  Oops, but she sooo hurt me first.  But, good news for anyone out there afraid of needles but in need of allergy testing.  The nice nurse came in with a little plastic thingy that looked almost like a back massager, stabbed me in the back with it, rubbed it around and that was it!  Until the intense swelling and itching set it.

Looks like I was right!  MAJOR egg allergy.  Dr. looked at me and said, "I'm not really sure you should be eating anything that contains egg AT ALL," to which my good-patient-verbal-diarrhea kicks back in again, and I go on to list EVERYthing I've ever eaten containing egg including cake batter and cookie dough (it was then that I thought it was probably better to just say, "Oh!  Wow!  Thanks" and stop the list before he recommended I see a nutritionalist).

So, I am now the proud new owner of an epi pen and am waving goodbye to anything containing eggs.  No more beater-licking for me.  Strip will be thrilled, though :-)


5 comments:

Lianne said...

Whoa! Does that mean you shouldn't eat anything with cooked eggs in it too? Like *gasp* cookies? If that's the case, you will have to do some SERIOUS label reading.

mommychick said...

Yup. I was the kid in the bubble when I was little, so I'm just getting back into my old stomping grounds. My "pancakes" were just water and bisquick (couldn't eat egg or milk). Bleh. Looks like I might be ready for that bikini this summer after all!

Lianne said...

Bless your heart! I'm glad you have a good attitude about it. When I went on my wheat-less diet, I was not a nice person at ALL. I figured bread was worth the allergies.

Temple said...

No cookies? WTF?!?!?

Knocked Up in Bama said...

Get the F out! No cookies? Cakes? funnel cakes? donuts???

Man, I'd just get like 50 epi pens and take my chances. :)