When the time comes..

A few days ago, was going through a horrible time with the nose bleeds and all the other symptoms that come with an allergy attack. Thanks to all the cotton type stuff floating around in the air, a bee that decided to sting my leg and the temperature fluctuations in general. 

It was impossible to sleep with all the pain and I definitely did not want to go and get yet another prescription for Amoxycilin 500 and go through a cycle of switching sinus problems to stomach problems which is usually followed by a week long diet of only rice and yogurt to bring back the good bacteria in my stomach. Normally would go do Yoga just when the nose starts getting blocked and things would get back on track.

This time it was past that point and had to suffer through it. With all that pain, was trying the many tricks to just get to sleep. First it was patting myself on the back just like my mother used to do when same thing used to happen as a kid. That didn't work. 

Then suddenly out of the blue, was reminded of a song that my father used to play on a Philips Gramaphone record player to put me to sleep.. did a search on youtube and found one instance of the exact same song by M.S. Subbulakshmi and voila, was dozing off. What a divine voice! Even for someone who did not understand the words as a kid, the imploring voice always used to put me to sleep and calm me down!

Have been listening to this song a few times in the last week just reminiscing about the sound of that player and the needle moving slowly towards the center of the black disk in the glow of the night light when we were little kids. 

I am soo going to go buy a turntable and see if my dad still has those records in the attic and play them for Jr. and the little one!

Yesterday there was a weird dream. I am in bed dying. For some strange reason, everyone is around me and they know I have very little time, but there is a struggle and I am having difficulty letting go.. Then my sister, Jr. and the little one all sing this song in chorus and I let go and die. It was one of those dreams that actually made me sweat and sit up in bed! Funny thing was that I am older but all of them look the way they do today!

It was  a dream.. so whatever! Played that song for the kids today and said "if someday I am lying on my death bed, please sing this song for me and will leave this planet a happy man!" The kids got all pissed off for my mentioning death beds and said "we will never ever sing this song". 

Now I have my work cut out for me.. 

Hair styling..

Photographs on the iPhone taken with a few days..

One was of the kids, just before they went to school with matching hair bands and shirts. It was pure coincidence that they had those flower bands that were an exact match! 

The second was me tying up a towel which had a ziploc bag with crushed ice folded in, to combat a severe migraine that was part of a food poisoning (or allergy) attack last Friday. One targets the forehead and the other one the lower back of the head above the neck. Somehow ice in both these places helps fight the urge to throw up...

Never found the real trigger for the attack, but there was a lot of throwing up, no Yoga for six days and an almost complete system shut down. Yoga has helped make these attacks less frequent, but sometimes there are a few instances where the symptoms hit pretty hard. 

The good news is that things are back to normal again.. but my stylish Head gear has to be documented for posterity, no?!

Wheeeeezeeeee

Wheezing and allergic Rhinitis are not new to me. 2011 saw me skip the allergy season, which was attributed to Bikram Yoga and the regularity with which I did the yoga practice.

This spring season there was a lot of travel and in spite of that did Yoga here and in Austin with reasonable (read that as > 50% average attendance on a daily basis) and there was no hay fever. There was the stomach infection which took me down by another 4 lbs in 10 days and made me weak enough to miss yoga for almost a 10 day stretch. That is behind and have been catching up to the routine.

Something is changed, not with me but with the environs. Why?

Last thursday night, had just gone to bed at 11 and was already deep asleep. Suddenly woke up close to midnight and found myself wheezing pretty badly. No sign of any other symptoms. Just an inability to breathe and the old familiar feeling of drowning in your own bed.

Came out and did the usual remedies and made it to work and couldn't last even half a day on Friday. All precautions went back in place. Scour the kitchen for any accidental introduction of foods I am allergic to, clean the house for dust, etc. etc. as well as some extensive steam inhalation, medication etc.

Friday night comes and I wheeze at 11PM. Go to the hot room on Saturday and felt some relief. The lungs were clear again temporarily and spent a few hours with the kids and visited a temple to offer prayers to thank god for getting this over with. That was shortlived as Saturday night the wheezing started at 9PM.

Today it is not yet 8PM and I am gasping for breath already!

Anyways, there will be visiting doctors and more precautions and this will be resovled sooner or later. But the one good thing from this post?

One of my co-workers saw my plight on Friday and told me "I have some Indian Herbal cough drops that really work like a charm. Have some!"

What he gave me was called Zam Zam and I have never heard of it before, but boy did it give me enough of a repreive to be able to drive back home.

Note the formulation, exactly what my grandma used to give me when I was a child with these symptoms and the "Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke" (all praise be to god which was popularized by A. R. Rahman at the Oscars).

Whoever made this thing, a big thank you.

Now we wait for a better tomorrow.

Allergies 'R' us

It was a surprise to see that this was food allergies awareness month!

Why the surprise?

A lot of folks do not know that one can be allergic to certain foods.

One in five kids in California suffers from skin rashes triggered by some form of food allergies, is what I was told by a doctor a few years ago.

This post took a long time to get out, not because I did not want to write about food allergies, but because it brings too many bad memories. With work getting way too busy and the overall concern for the state of the household moving forward into the next six to nine uncertain months, the last thing to do was a deep dive into the brain to go over memories better left repressed!

It is food allergies awareness month and what has to be shared will hopefully make many people open their eyes to this problem.

When baby Sundaram was around four plus years old and was put in first grade at the local school, there was lot of stress. There was also a lot of playing around with balls made of tar(pitch) from the road laying machines, frogs, insects and plants in the backyard. More than anything, there was all those kadalai urundais (Caramelized peanuts) and ellu urundais (sesame seed balls) with a liberal dose of bajjis made using Nallennai (gingelly oil)!

These were days before we had the Palmolein and Sanola in late seventies India and that was precisely the first time, baby Sundaram got what was diagnosed as "Karappan", which in English that we know now is a form of Eczema.

Life takes a different turn as this mild irritation gets complicated by an allergy for Sulpha drugs (which were given to treat the problem) and pus filled blisters appear all over the body, especially where the hair follicles are. White fresh school uniforms worn in the morning come back from school with blood and pus stains all over. There is a fear among other students as well as among other parents and the kid is forced by one and all to stay home.

The sulfa drugs having backfired badly, and the typical soframycin type creams prescribed not doing anything, the family doctor actually suggested some "siddha" medicine which seemed to have better results in cases like this.

So, the parents take the kid to what was (dont know if it still is!) the Raja Rajeshwari Siddha Vaidhya Nilayam and we go meet a 90 year old Siddhar, who is puffing away on his cigarette! He takes one look at the kid and gives him some Thanga baspam (gold powder) to be mixed with honey and taken twice a day and an amazing goop called "neer-adi-muththu" (pearl from the bottom of the water is the translation).

The parents take turns applying this goop over the boils and after two months things take a turn for the better and everything is forgotten. There are a few "porukkus" (scabs) here and there, and once in a while there is a patch of hair from the head that just falls down with a scab, but a five year old doesn't know anything and is happy to get on with life.

Things take a routine and almost every alternate year, there is a mild recurrance of the boils, but they subside after one or two show up. The parents have also figured out by now that putting the kid on a Thayir saadam diet (rice and yogurt) seems to work wonders for his skin problems. They have also learned to let the kid pick his food.

Let's talk about that. If a kid with food allergies instinctively stays away from certain foods, but eats other foods, the parents have a couple of options:

a. force feed the kid, stuff he/she is trying to avoid
b. berate the child for being a picky eater and then force feed the kid
c. understand something funny is going on and check (after all who doesnt like Mangoes? or ellu urundais?)

Well, b. was the default option, till my grandpa defended me. He just told everyone to back off. If the kid did not want it, he did not want it. He ate the bananas and apples didn't he?

Today, there is another option

d. Get the kid allergy tested!

When I was in seventh grade, somehow the dormant blisters came out full strength. It was mind boggling. I would have blisters everywhere. Couldnt stand, sit, lie down. To this day, no one knows if food triggered it, or if it was some bacterial infection (along the steph lines) that did not have a cure. Western medicine left me for dead. Anything the local doctors tried only made it worse.

Again, we went to the Siddhar who was now nearing 100 and was still sucking on his cigarette! He looked at the blisters, took my pulse, pulled up my eyelids and looked into my eye and declared "raththa sudhdhi illai!" (blood is not pure!) and gave some instructions to his assistant.

Out came two things, which I will take to my grave. One was a small bottle with seven markings on it. It was some kind of extreme laxative that would make you stay in the bathroom and not even hold water! Within those seven days, it would make any normal person look like a concentration camp survivor. The second thing was a "thailam" that had to be rubbed over my head in an attempt to cool it down.

All said and done I went from

to



in less than one year. The second photo is after the recovery and back to school going days.

The intermediate stages were not worth being photographed! (Now that we have Google, did image searches on skin blisters to show San what it looked like and found the pictures for "folliculitis" , right top picture is a match!)

After that episode in seventh standard (where 3 months were spent in bed), the rest of school went by without any events. By then the family and extended family adjusted to my special eating habits. Almost on a routine basis however, there would be skin rashes, itching, severe headaches and migraines.

That is when my dad came out of the allergy closet and told my mother "when I was a kid I also had similar skin problems". Till my seventh grade he never admitted that he passed on anything negative to me. When little Sundi repeated ten digit numbers from memory, there would be the "that is my boy! He has my genes" speech.

Don't blame my dad though. He probably was suppressing such memories also, only to find them catching up with him thirty odd years later! He taught me the greatest trick though. When the pain hits the lower back of the head right above the neck, he would ask me to dring a lot of hot water (no salt, nothing). Just a lot of hot water! and wait for three to four minutes.

It would make me throw up violently. Drink more water, more vomitting , and keep going for another 15-20 minutes till your eyes water, you have nothing else in your stomach and you feel absolutely fresh. It is almost like the whole world suddenly turned beautiful! Have experienced this so many times that somehow the stigma of throwing up like that is gone.

This was followed by four years of sumptuous feasting in various mess halls in Banaras. Every now and then there would be a throbbing headache and the hot water trick would always work like a charm!

Before I knew it, college was over and it was graduate school in the USA. That is when Sundar discovered "Peanut butter"! A concept that he had never heard of in India. Have peanuts made into a paste, put some crunchy peanut pieces in the paste, and use it to make a sandwich! Two days of peanut butter sandwiches and it was back to drinking hot water.

The only good news was that one did not have to wait in front of the gas stove for an agonizing five ten minutes to get the water hot. Hot water came readily available from the tap in the land of opportunity! Throwing up was never made easier.

That was also the time this body discovered Cheese Pizza. Wholesome food with no allergic side reactions whatever! Life was good between Pizza's and noodles and the sambar, rasam and curries which were all homemade with Saffola oil!

This glorious time is punctuated by the vegetarian's attempt to try some non vegetarian food (thanks to help from local friends!). A piece of salmon from a friends plate was tried only to be followed by two days of sickness. That pretty much ended the non vegetarian experiment! That was also the time when a doctor in the USA suggested that not all people were able to handle certain foods.

Doc: Why try salmon now?
Me : A friend wanted to know what Salmon tastes like?
Doc: ???? but your friend eats salmon
Me : my friend has been eating salmon since childhood. the idea was to get the perpective of a person who had never tasted it in 23 years of life and see the reaction
Doc: Well you have some reaction, alright! Don't go near seafood in general. You seem to be very allergic.
Me : So I should not try to eat any meat. God designed me to be a vegetarian?
Doc: I said seafood. Obviously you are new to the meatscape. You can try to eat chicken? Chances are your body won't handle red meat as well considering how delicate your stomach is.
Me : Thank you!

That was when I realized "Mera Thayir Saadam Mahaan!"

After staying far away from meat, got married and San came to make my apartment a home. As is customary with any new Indian bride, she went to the local grocery store to buy oil to "eththufy the kudumba vilakku" (light the family lamp) and needless to say she choose "Idhayam Nallennai" (gingelly oil) and she got a large bottle. It was not even close to Deepavali and that meant she was switching over from the Saffola and slightly bitter vegetable oils to the desi Gingelly!

Wham! The migraines hit and they hit hard. The skin also started acting up. The new bride was literally scared. She could not handle her hubby throwing up every alternate day. She knew that the throwing up made him feel better instantly and he used the word "food poisoning" once or twice. She was also tired of the implication of her poisoning him somehow (you know those pesky India phone calls on Sunday morning?).

So we go to a doctor and he pokes ... let's see... a batch of 64 needles in an 8x8 grid dipped in various allergens on my back. Then follows up with injecting 8 little drops into the right hand and 9 into the left hand.

An hour or two later, they read the needle points one by one on a scale of 1 to 4 (4 being severely allergic and 1 being a non issue). Some of the needle prick points have now swollen to the size of grapes! We are scared. The doctor triumphantly declares that Sundar Narayanan , Age 27 has severe food allergies and has been living with it all his life without knowing it! He also suggests that the tests he did were for american plants, american foods, drugs, etc. and considering my diet was Indian food, we should make a trip to India and get tested for Indian food allergens!

On our next trip to Madras, we go to Anna Nagar to a certain "Mahathi" clinic and a doctor there tests me similarly for Indian foods. She gives me a different list..

After cross referencing the American and Indian doctors diagnosis, San and me figure out that Sundar Narayanan, Age 28 can pretty much eat Air without falling sick.. and yes, maybe he can also eat Thayir saadam!

There are apparently ways to get rid of some of these allergies. One includes completely eliminating those foods from the diet and a slow and gradual introduction of that item into the diet to check severity.

When things like Brinjal, Pumpkin (poosanikkai) and Potatoes get cut from a Madrasi's diet, one gets very very irritable (if you dont know what we are talking about here, go read PGW's "The Nodder" , a small story in Blandings Castle and you need no more explaining).

Finally after this purgatory period (which was a more dignified version of the liquid from 7th standard), it was found that the only two allergies that mattered or which stayed were

a. sesame seeds
b. peanuts

There were others like Seafood (which were taboo and we didn't care) Mango, strawberries etc. (which were disliked instinctively) that didn't make a difference.

For the last 8 years, this house has not had peanut oil or sesame oil in the house. If it is used, it is done on separate vessels.

All near and dear ones know this at home and at work. People who come back from Europe or even Israel (with candy labels in Hebrew) tell me if there is peanuts on the candy and ask me to stay away!

One good thing is, the hot water treatments are now few and far between!
Another good thing is that in the US, the ingredients are always nicely labeled and there is no risk of buying something from a store and eating it by mistake. The only risk is when going to some restaurant and they use sesame oil to cook but dont tell the customers when you ask them what oil they use!

There have also been two new additions to this house over the last eight years and that goes back to "what it means to live with food allergies".

When I heard the MIL pray out loud after Jr. got a skin rash "please god, let not Jr. take after her dad", it sent me to pieces. Turned out that the chlorine in the swimming pool had irritated her skin (this was shortly after her first swimming lessons). So far she is not allergic to any foods or medicines.

Again when the Little one developed dry skin, the same prayers (this time from San and her mom)! The little one does take after me a lot and so far she is not allergic to food, but has very weak skin. So she is being watched for the food she picks.

So far, she has not developed any strong recurring dislike for any food. That is also a good sign.

A lot of friends ask "how do you live with this?" and the answer is quite simple

"Carefully"

With a little watchfulness on the ingredient list and some practice, peanuts and sesame seeds are dealt with!

At least I was lucky enough to find out what caused problems. A lot of people have to spend years to find out!

So, a final piece of advice to parents out there. Food allergies are very common and are usually not severe. However, if you suspect something, give your kid the benefit of doubt and let him/her avoid certain foods. If in their adult life they outgrow those allergies, they might start eating those foods anyways, but you will spare them the sickness!

Also people who are allergic to plants, chemicals may also be highly succeptible to food allergies (a doc told me this). So if your kid's eyes start watering when they play with a dog or cat, they are probably allergic and that means there is a chance they are allergic to certain foods also and is worth checking out.

Links to previous posts here, here and here!

ps. thanks to Tharini for staring this thread and to Boo for reminding me to write!

pps. for those of you who wonder why a guy so deep rooted in Western science has a healthy love for eastern science, the "daadi" saamiyaar (bearded ascetic) as he is rememebered in our familiy, was one of the best doctors we have met! He just sat there in padmasana in his loin cloth, chain smoking at 90+ years old... but he was one hell of a doctor!

ppps. When writing about something this close to my heart, there is no proof reading and I type as fast as one can think. So this post was corrected for typos today!

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Sudafed anyone ?

This is a follow up post on Guns anyone?

That post was targeting the ease of availability of Guns in the USA. This post is not about the Gun part. It is about the ease of availability part!

Recently I went to the local grocery store, which is where we usually pick up over the counter medicines. With two little kids attending two different daycares, our home can give the Germ labs of the Center for Disease control a run for their money in terms of the quality and quantity of microbes! It takes me eight to ten snaps to get one good photo with both Jr. and the little having no fingers inside their nose, mouth or ears. I ramble as usual (it is high time blogger has a feature which prompts me saying "you are way off the post title! Would you like to return to original topic?).

Anyways, the grocery store had little pieces of paper which resembled the cover of Sudafed, Tylenol allergy Sinus, Albertsons brand Allergy Sinus (compare to ingredients of Tylenol allergy Sinus), and every other brand of medication which had Psudoephedrine in it!

I went to the counter and said "How do I actually see the box with the tablets inside instead of the cover art ?", to which the dude promptly responded "We do not carry these medications out here Sir. They have been moved inside the Pharmacy. You take this paper to the Pharmacy and they will give you the tablet"

Me : But the pharmacy in your store closed at 7:00. It is 10:00 now!! What do I do ?
Dude : You have to come back during Pharmacy hours or go to a Rite Aid, Walgreens or Longs drugs..
Me : But this medication is "over the counter". I should not have to go to a pharmacy for this !!
Dude : Recently they changed policy because Meth (Methamphetamine) addicts are using drugs with ephedrine in them to make the drugs. So we are moving these inside!!

So, poor me trudges along to the nearest drug store and when I am at the pharmacy :

Dude 2 : Sir, are these tablets for you ?
Me : No
Dude 2 : Who are they for ?
Me : My mother in law
Dude 2 : Why is she not here ?
Me : She is sick with a bad cold and a congested nose. Also she is from India. I am the one buying the tablets for her.
Dude 2 : Can you show some ID ?
Me : Sure. Can I know why we are going through all this for a box of Tylenol Allergy Sinus ?
Dude 2 : There have been a lot of purchases of these type of drugs in our local stores and it has been linked to a Meth gang. So we have to take precautions!!
Me : ?????!!!!!!!?????

Mind you this happened just after our return from India (which is a few months ago)!
I am sure the drug gangs are still getting their supply from some online store in a different country which is probably shipping them Sudafed by the truckloads at discount prices, while I have to go through crap to get some "over the counter" medication for our home!!

The irony of this is that in the time it took me to talk to Dude or Dude 2, I could have purchased several guns, waved them at the dudes and got all the medication I need!!

The other irony is that if only all those allergy and cold suffering people had an association like the NRA, say they called it NSuA (National Sudafed Association) and spent enough money lobbying for the free and easy access to Sudafed or raised a hue and cry about their 'n'th amendment rights to carry their antihistamines and had slogans like "meth doesnt kill people. people who use meth kill people!" etc.. etc. maybe I could go and get allergy medication and nasal decongestants without the hassle!!

Why would anyone apply more rigor to allergy medication than guns ?

Beats me!!

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