My Fatigue Came Back! - Chronic Allergic Inflammation

I had a recent bout of Chronic Allergic Inflammation that caught me completely off guard. I was eating home-raised eggs, grated cheese, and hot sauce daily. Though my allergy panel says I have food sensitivities, specifically to gluten, eggs, and dairy, I don’t normally have a strong reaction, so I assumed this was a safe and healthy meal.

After several weeks allergy symptoms started to surface. My first instinct was to look at the environment. We were in the heart of allergy season, and I had itchy, watery eyes, and continuous sneezing.

My face and skin were itchy and then I started to wake up with my eyes crusty and goopy. It felt as if I had sandpaper under my eyelids. These symptoms were common when I was a young kid, but I've never had this severe of a reaction as an adult.

My symptoms slowly developed and worsened over time. Eventually, they got so bad that I was afraid to leave home without allergy medication and eye drops. I would start sneezing, my nose and eyes would run like a faucet, and everything became itchy. My face would flush and I’d have to run to the bathroom to wash it.

This is when my allergic inflammatory reaction became debilitating.

Not only was my body uncomfortable and agitated, but I felt exhausted and groggy. Furthermore, my vision was blurry for weeks.

In a desperate attempt to stop the reaction, I began to wash my bed every other day, increased the HEPA filters around my home, and mopped and dusted my house like crazy. Nothing helped until my husband brought up my diet. He encouraged me to cut the allergens out entirely, since I had only reduced my consumption of them.

I was desperate and willing to try anything, so I eliminated all gluten, dairy, and eggs at once. I didn’t notice much of a change at first, but by week 3, there was a slight difference. It was so subtle I questioned whether what I was doing was effective.

At this point, we were in the middle of the holiday season and surrounded by delicious meals. I usually let myself “cheat” during this time of year, but instead found myself saying “no” to everything.

Fortunately, it was worth the effort because, by week 4, I woke up without crusty eyes. My vision started to clear, and I realized that the itch and agitation, while still present, were only mild. Along with these changes, the fear of going out without allergy meds eased.

I realized that when changes are made in the body, those effects aren’t always immediately noticeable. Often changes happen at a level almost too imperceptible to discern, but as we move forward on our journey of cleansing, correcting, and restoring, we start to see a more dramatic difference over time.

It’s completely normal and completely human to feel like, “Am I doing this right?”

Just as the road to recovery is a series of subtle shifts towards normal, so the onset of chronic allergic inflammation is a slow progression of symptoms. It’s easy to lose sight of how ridiculous all the accommodations were, but eventually, I realized that my life had become uncomfortably inconvenient!

I am now more aware than ever of how my body reacts when I start to compound stressors, be they food stressors, or environmental stressors, and how they create stress and inflammation in my body, which then transforms into chronic inflammation and fatigue.

If you find yourself experiencing discomfort, you might be having a chronic allergic reaction. Maybe you notice skin discolorations, tiredness, or feelings of overwhelm. The inflammatory response expresses itself in different ways.

My big takeaway message for you is that if you haven't looked into testing your allergy panel, get it done. Ask your doctor for a skin panel and a blood test to get a clear picture of what might be aggravating you.

I have so much empathy for anybody and everybody who doesn’t feel comfortable in their bodies. We experience life through our bodies. They impact the way we think, perceive the world, our emotional intellect, and how we react.

All of this affects our whole health system and the balance of our hormones. If you are not feeling 100%, then do yourself a favor and get it checked out.