Day 153: Alcohol allergy mysteriously comes...and goes?

About 5 or 6 years ago I developed an allergy to alcohol out of the blue. After a couple of decades of normal social drinking without incident, suddenly alcohol (any alcohol) would give me hives and splotches and turn my face bright red and hot, along with making it feel tight...which i guess indicated swelling. each time I drank, trying a different kind of alcohol to see if it was a particular type or just all alcohol, the reaction would escalate. Thhe last drink I had (a Midori Sour) my hands and forearms also got itchy and red. The S.O. convinced me that ti was time to stop experimenting and just give it up.

I went to an allergist who somehow couldn't believe I was actually allergic to alcohol as a substance. He theorized that all of my other allergies were so out of whack that alcohol must simply be acting as a trigger. He did a scratch test of about 100 items on my back and I discovered I was allergic to many things (most of which I knew about) but there is no scratch test for alcohol. He told me to get on daily Claritin and thought tis would eventually mitigate the symptoms I was having.

Meanwhile I noticed more allergic reactions to foods too...anything with cilantro, basil and other herbs typically found in ethnic cuisines would make my nose itch insanely, and would often give me a more reduced, but basically similar, reaction as the alcohol...tight, hot face, plus I'd get sinus symptoms...sneezing like I was experiencing hay fever.

Somehow i never brought myself to forego said cuisines, although I did start asking for cilantro to be left off my plate or out of any guacamole that was actually being made at the table.

But, as I said, it's been a few years, so I thought recently that I would experiment a little again. So, twice in the last few weeks I've had a beer while at home. I haven't drunk the whole thing, but most of it, and I really don't think it affected me. not in the allergic way anyway. On Day 153 I had a Corona, and while it's true that toward the end of it I started sneezing a bit I didn't get the hives or splotches or hot, tight face.

I was never much of a drinker, so I'm not sure what I'll do with this new-found room to drink, but It's kind of interesting to me.

Breakfast:

Coffee

Organic Corn Flakes

Organic Rice Milk

Organic banana

Lunch (leftover golden Wok):

Veggie Spring Roll

Vegetarian fried Rice (No egg)

Braised Tofu

Tofutti Cutie

Snack:

Sunflower Seeds

Veggie "Chips" with Spicy Guacamole

Pita with garlic Hummus

Beer

Dinner:

1 slice of Sourdough Bread

Tofutti Cream Cheese and Trader joe's eggless Egg Salad

Coconut Sorbet