My Life with Food 2: The Dark Days

During my second year at UCB, I started having weird neurological problems. Sometimes it was so difficult to move that I was almost paralyzed. I had periods of synethesia when I couldn't feel anything touching my skin. I stopped being able to trust my senses and had trouble even crossing the street, let alone finishing school assignments.

I saw a neurologist who took an EEG, diagnosed me as epileptic and prescribed an anti-seizure medication called tegretol. My symptoms didn't improve, they got worse and I started getting really sick. I always had a cold or stomach virus and the slightest cut would get a raging infection. I couldn't remember even the simplest words, like "door" or understand others' speech or writing. My stress was compounded by finding out I had "cervical squamous cell dysplasia" which necessitated a cervical biopsy to remove the cancerous cells. I was pretty sure that I was crazy and/or dying.

The Berkeley Public Library saved my life. (Probably a large part of the reason I became a librarian. I would stop on my way home from UCB and use their Merck Manual and PDR.

I found out that the neurologist failed to follow guidelines in prescribing Tegretol and I was suffering three well-known side-effects: leuco-anemia (all my white blood cells died and I couldn't fight any infections), aphasia (language impairment) and depression, including suicidal thoughts. I also read everything I could on epilepsy and realized I had none of the associated symptoms and the symptoms I did have were not connected to epilepsy.

I went back to my regular doctor who helped wean me from tegretol and told me I probably had Multiple Sclerosis. I read that MS was being treated with a gluten-free diet and, although not convinced of the diagnosis, I began to track my diet in relation to my illness. I realized that attacks often occurred after I had sausage or bacon for breakfast. I was referred to an allegerist who gave me the bad (but not as bad as MS) news: I was allergic to pork, coffee, chocolate, barley, rye, duck, lamb, oranges, grapefruits and a lot of trees and grasses. When I stopped eating those foods, I stopped having attacks. I tried taking a benedryl before and after trying something on the list but it wasn't completely effective. Giving up coffee was hard and I would accommodate the occasional cup by spending the following day in bed.

A few of my original allergens