Routines'R'us

On my recent Asia trip, I had to participate in a business dinner at a Japanese restaurant. In case you don't know my food habits, here is a short summary of what I don't or can't eat:

1. I am Vegetarian (so no meat)

2. Allergic to Peanuts and Sesame seeds (so that rules out certain places like Thai restaurants, select Chinese restaurants that use Sesame oil, etc.)

3. Allergic to shellfish (not that I eat fish, but if they cook using the same utensils or some of that gets transferred, I still get a reaction

4. Allergic to eggplants (that rules out a few dishes in middle eastern , Italian restaurants)

5. Allergic to select fruits/vegetables (simple check is, if it has fine hair on the skin, I can get rashes just by touching them, if I eat them there will be othe side effects)

Usually when I eat things on the allergy list the symptoms are skin eruption, wheezing followed by a throbbing pain in the base of my head behind my left ear followed by extreme light and sound sensitivity which is immediately followed by violent throwing up till my stomach is empty. Then I sleep out of sheer exhaustion and after two or three hours wake up like the world is a rosy place and feel on top of the world. 

This happens periodically. With a lot of food restrictions, I have managed to make these "food poisoning" episodes (as my parents and wife call it) less frequent. The problem though is that when they hit me these days, the magnitude of the episodes is increasing on a Logarithmic scale. It is like I exchanged frequent mild tremors for a Banda Aceh type quake! 

Now given all this, I do NOT carry Epi pens with me because my allergies are not the deadly kind. On the Immunologist scale, most of them are a level 4 or 3 reaction. Severe enough to end up immobilized for the short term. Then again, I have not tempted fate by deliberately exposing myself to high levels of these "toxins".

Recently I am hearing that the reasons for this are :

- that kids who are not exposed to lot of different foods as babies are more prone to getting food allergies (eating street food as kids can help was one idea that was talked about)

- some of these are genetically transmitted triggers (my had had excema as a child)

- some of these are environmentally acquired (dust allergies etc.)

I am also told by friends who read the "news" that :

- reintroduction of these allergens in small quantities helps overcome this as long as it is done at a young age

- one can naturally outgrow allergies to certain foods and develop allergies to new ones, if one is prone to such allergies and that one has to periodically "test" for such changes (a colleague of mine has developed an allergy to almonds close to the age of 50! )

- allergy to peanuts could be allergy only to dry roasted american peanuts vs. boiled Indian peanuts (this I can actually vouch for.. I can eat a few Indian peanuts without getting a severe reaction but the large US peanut gives me rashes within a few hours)

- There are "eastern treatments" that can work for this ranging from :

   - oil pulling (gargling sesame oil in your mouth for 10 minutes and spitting it out for 30 days)

   - going to some place in Andhra where they take a small live fish and push it down your throat 

   - going to kerala where they put a flour dough boundary on your stomach and fill the surface of the stomach with some herbal liquid which absorbs the poison from your insides 

etc. etc. It may not be fair for me to clump all of them under same bucket as some come with more evidence, recommendations, different thumbs up/down ratio on Youtube comments, and other metrics which are equally helpful in evaluating cures. In spite of having a lot of respect of eastern medicine (our elders were wise) but being a product of western HEROS thinking (Hypothesis, Experiment, Result, Original Schedule, Status .. for those who are wondering), have not tried any of the pulling, fish shoving or toxin absorbing stomach swimming pool treatments. 

Instead I have always :

- Watched what I eat

- Mostly eat only home cooked food (take my lunch with me to work every day)

- eat the same thing on trips (after doing trial and error in different restaurants, different dishes, and taking my own food with me for the most part of the trip)

I am also not fun at business dinners because of my abstinence from alcohol, sodas and coffee. So it is either sipping water without ice, orange / apple juice or apple cider or tea!

On this recent dinner, the chef was challenged to know of my Vegetarian status and allergy status. So he got "creative".  I get the "poor guy" looks from people which baffles me. Even if I am allergic to a subset of food, there is still plenty I can eat! 

The restaurant came up with mountain yam cooked and extruded to look like pasta, a funnel of asparagus, cucumbers, and other greens in a yogurt sauce, something called dragons beard leaf, some other stuff that folks had difficulty translating into English.. 

Ate or tasted stuff that was translateable and found it to be tasty after mentally preparing myself for the worst. Then they gave a sauce which had some green wasabi stuff, white stuff and a powder that had to be mixed in the sauce.. (could clearly smell sesame seeds on that powder and avoided it) for the yam to be dipped in and it had a sambar flavor! 

There were some dishes that were simply shutting down my nose with the smell and those I passed on to my fellow diners. The tea was great as was the conversation and I loved the fact that everyone in the table at least respected my "sensitivities" in a literal sense. Everyone else in that table had a penchant for fine wine, high proof alcohol, exotic dishes of every kind from everywhere in the world. In short, I was feeling like Buddha dining with the Anthony Bourdain family! 

After that dinner, I did not go through the usual throw up routine. There was mild rashes and a stomach upset for 48 hours, but the rashes are gone now and the stomach is well set after a day of dieting only on bananas, oranges, grapes, almonds and coconut water. 

This weekend, I plan to start eating one sesame seed and one peanut on saturday, increase it to two each two days later, four four days later and see how far it goes. I have to see what the breaking point is. Worse case I will drink salt water and throw up.  Was inspired by one person at the table who drank like a fish who could not handle alcohol at all as a young man but he told me he conditioned himself to it over time as his job involved a lot of wining and dining! 

Will post the results HEROS table style and let you know if shocking the system on a non linear scale helps condition it better. Somehow my initial "gut feel" is that a linear increase my condition it less. While my experiement is still not as agressive when it comes to the max, it is still a lot less than eating a full ellu urundai! 

Routines may be good for me, but I think those periodic throw up sessions after "food poisoning" were actually doing me some good in a self regulating way. 

Yoga has definitely helped with getting back to normal post such attacks, but even doing yoga 200 times a year for more than six years has not eliminated the food related triggers. There are other triggers like dust, old library books, certain incense sticks, perfumes etc. that I have improved with respect to tolerance levels.

(these topics have all been broached before in various forms.. here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here..   but going for the experiment this time).

Will come back with data!

The backrash

It has been some time since I posted anything. It has been a busy week, trying to recover at home, at work, trying to claw my way back to a new normal.

The doctors realized that without antibiotics, my situation was not going to improve but there was the allergic reactions to deal with. So they gave me a different antibiotic and that helped take out all other problems except the rash.

For the first time in three weeks, went to work Monday through Friday and made it ! Also did the usual daddy stuff at home without dozing off in the evenings! So it has been a good week. 

The only thing that bugs me is that my skin which was the envy of Jr. and the little one is now unrecognizable. They used to touch my shoulder or forearms and say "daddy, your skin is so smooth and shiny!" and my response used to be "hey, do you know how much I have sweat through that skin to get it so smooth and shiny? you know what to do if you want to have the same thing!"  

Right now, the front and sides are past the itch and have scabed over. The lower back and all around the belt area is still in bad shape. 

Apparently rubbing your hand over this area feels like petting a lizard or a baby crocodile.  The doctors tell me that this might take another MONTH to get over. I am just praying that it stops itching. Croc skin, no problem. I don't see crocs itching and scratching themselves all day long.

On the bright side, I went to BYSJ and asked my teacher "do you think people will object if I come to yoga class looking like this?" and the response was "It is so sweet of you to check. Folks come here with all kinds of tattoos.. think of this as a tattoo and just come and do your best. worse case just sit down in the room for 90 minutes"

Planning to start from scratch, again, tomorrow.

"It's never too late, it's never too bad and you're never too old or too sick to start from scratch once again."

What bugs me is that after being so fresh and healthy and doing a 60 day challenge and feeling like a well oiled piece of machinery, a few sick folks on a plane and a few small micro organisms can reduce me to this and I have to start from scratch.

Take a deep breath in, deep breath out.. repeat a few times.. 

Now time to move on.

Perspectives

Another hospital visit, this time with San chauffering me. We go to the reception desk and the lady gives me a mask to wear. I give her a look and she goes "don't you have rashes?" 

Did not respond to her. She wet wiped the pen I used to sign the credit card bill. I smiled inside. Then came the kicker. Please go to that railing and stand there.

Me : I am very tired and drowsy. Can I just sit in one of these chairs? The doc told me day before yesterday that this is not contagious

Rec: The folks here don't know that. Also because you have rashes a nurse will be right out to get you to a room. 

After waiting near the rails for a good 5 minutes and watching two more people go in, I just sit cross legged on the floor near the railing. Realizing my trouble the receptionist was nice. She got out of her pen and took me inside and said "sorry. I thought they will be faster". 

Then comes a nurse. I go to get my blood pressure checked and remove my jacket. She gets a look at my arm and starts scratching her face. 

Me : What happened?

Nurse : Sorry. Just looking at your arm makes me itch! I don't know why!

For a second my mind just went ballistic on her. Do you have any freaking idea woman that the only thing I want to do right now is to remove my shirt and go rub myself against that opposite textured wall that looks like sand paper? Do you have any idea that I am using all those years of shavasana training just to sit still here? I actually "want".. NO NO NO "need" to itch right now and you are doing it just by looking at me?

How will this woman ever survive J's class is she were to take it, without getting a lecture on "want" vs. "need" when it comes to itching and scratching? the mind was wandering off. 

I took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. The world was not fair and hey, it never claimed to be, so what the hell?

She found a way to carefully place the blood pressure monitor sensor out of a rash and took my pressure. Was expecting to see a reading of zillion / zero. It actually read 104/60. Somehow all those things that were going on in the head, I had not taken to heart. It was nice to know.

Again, she said sorry as she meticulously wet wiped the sensor they put in your fingertip and the pressure equipment. I mumbled something to the effect of "it is okay" and "you know they tell me it is not contagious, but everything you guys keep doing tells me otherwise" . She said "we do it as a habit when we see rashes"

Then while sitting in the room the thought of what these nurses and receptionists and doctors go through in their line of work just hit me. 

Here I am thinking of becoming an anti social simply to avoid contact with strangers in planes and airport lounges to minimize picking up new germs when they go in the exact opposite direction knowing the risks? Can I blame them for wiping everything?

These people put their lives at risk day in and day out dealing with body fluids that are known contaminated for the most part and one mistake could cost them and the odds of that mistake happening are much higher in a hospital than in an United flight. (okay, maybe that last one needs to be really investigated, but let's assume United planes have less sick individuals than hospitals for now, okay?)

One thing that made it through my thick head was that my tendency to judge quickly based on what I saw has not changed or improved. I still judge.. but 9/10 times these days I go back and re-evaluate my stand and am okay to stand corrected within a few seconds or minutes. It would be nice to not judge instantly, but that has been me for 40+ years, so it will take time to change that habbit. 

On the way out, did make it a point to thank each and everyone of the folks who helped me. That was a few days ago.

The last few days have been muddling through work, taking phone calls at home and no driving. Walking in the backyard with no shirt on exposing the glorious rashes to Ra for him to do the rest. Seriously they told me that 5-10 minutes of direct sunlight will help. 

This morning was tough. I had chills all last night and my body was aching so bad that I took a day off of work and went back to bed. When I woke up, it was almost 3PM. Had slept through the entire day from 10PM to 3PM skipping breakfast and lunch. 

Took a shower, did the sunlight thing and put on some more ointments and checked my mail.. and that brings to the second perspective. There were four people who were suggesting that this was an insect bite and six suggesting that I should stop doing Bikram Yoga immediately as it was probably the root cause of all problems. These are all people who are family and very close friends.

The doctors are saying that this is most likely a case of "pityreasis rosea" where the cause is a virus or it is an amoxycillin reaction. They told me that heat will make the rashes more obvious and it is good to not overheat and take warm water showers instead of hot water showers. But they also tell me that Bikram yoga cannot cause this. It can only make the rashes look more purple.

Telling my family and friends that "Bikram yoga is good for you" (exception is wife, MIL and kids)  is like going to a Fox news show and saying "Islam is a peaceful religion"!  Recently in one of those United lounge conversations a guy tells me "Terrorism is in the muslim religion itself!". I was just taken aback. Simply did not know how to react to it. Here is a devout Christian telling a not so devout Hindu that Islam is synonymous with terrorism and I don't have a witty comeback.

Most of the folks who have never set foot in a hot room have an opinion on Bikram Yoga from the media? It is usually opinions, not facts. "If this is what I perceive and I am in the media, it has to be true.. because I am on TV and you are on your couch".. well that seems to be the trend these days.

Have never been a Muslim so I have no right to make a judgement call on the religion, but we do have muslim friends and families who are just like us. Hardworking, sincere, family men and women who go about their day. Some go pray every friday and some don't. Their kids are as normal as ours from every view point. There are definitely data points that tell me that the "all muslims are violent" statement is false.  

Incidentally, it was my 4 year anniversary and I was "itching" to go do Yoga to commemorate, but all I ended up doing was itch. It was depressing. Have written so many posts on my experience with Bikram Yoga over the last 4 years. 

My family and friends sometimes don't see why I love it so much. It is not possible for everyone to experience every religion before making statements on it. One can only hope that all good religions teach the message of understanding and eventually transcending religion to see the god within oneself and others is the final step for religious graduation. 

Same thing for Yoga. I cannot make everyone go experience the hot room and then make up their mind. Tried that and realized that not everyone can see the value of sweating it out for 90 minutes with a bunch of strangers in front of a mirror.

San did try it after my MIL and me repeatedly asked her to try and after 30 classes she said "It is a great feeling after the class finishes, but I simply cannot handle the smell Sundar! I have no idea how you do it, but it is not for me. You go as much as you want, but don't ask me to join you!"  Now that is a sense of realism that I can handle. She is a better person than me for cutting to the chase and saying "if it works for you great. go for it"

The kids used to come for the family class (warm room instead of hot) and loved it. The minute Jr. came to the adult class she stopped after 4 classes. Her reason? "Daddy, I am practically on the floor after the warm up. The teacher told me that my blood pressure is not same as adults so I will feel dizzy. I feel bad sitting down when others are trying so hard all around me. Don't want to be a spoil sport". When she comes up with something like that in all sincereity, I said "fine, do your one mile run every day. maybe you can come try with me in a few years"

The little one nonchalantly states "you know I can TOTALLY do it if I want to.. I really CAN! It is just that I DON'T want to do it!" . Personally the little one is ready for everything and nothing at the same time. She is going to kill me sooner or later in just trying to figure her out.

In all this drowsiness, I read a message that said "by the way, the guy who started the yoga you do, is being arrested for something or other. maybe you should seriously rethink going to this yoga". That is when I closed one browser window, opened another and started typing this post. 

Having never met Bikram and knowing him only though the Yoga routine he has passed on, if someday I meet him, the only words I will have for him are "THANK YOU!" and it will be in a much bigger font than that.

There is no way I can judge him for anything else other than this routine, which is sheer brilliance. 

The short straw

A friend recently told me "It seems like you picked the short straw when God was handing out health blessings"

Another friend told San this weekend "Next time Sundar comes back from traveling, you should have all the doctors on standby in the tarmac!"

As soon as I come into the house from the airport the little one asks "Daddy, are you sick?" and she sees my facial expression and goes "was just guessing!"

Given all the innuendoes at home and around that go to my face and sometimes behind my back, it is time to take a hard look at the statement "I am normally healthy". Given there is an army of people who wish and pray for my health, must be pretty bad at straws for me to be this way.

It is time to face that statement head on and go "Nope, I am not". I have bent that statement to mean "Normal" equals eating only home cooked food, severe diet restrictions, interacting only with known people and a minimum people set at that which are by default healthy (read that as no travel)  and getting regular exercise (Yoga has become like rehab for me and if I stay away for a few weeks things get bad very fast very soon).

It is also true that I pushed myself a lot towards end of February. However all said and done, was not prepared for what was to come this weekend. 

Came back from Asia, took a shower and took a good look at myself in the mirror and was shocked to find my body covered in rashes. They must have been there in Asia but given the night time showers and funky hotel bathroom lighting, somehow did not notice them. They were also not itching till I was on the flight.

The last 72 hours has been quite an ordeal, trying to lie down in any position, avoiding itching or being on drowsy medication, praying that this is not something contagious. 

The good part is that is this not pox, measles or herpes. We waited impatiently for 48 hours to get those results. The root cause is not known. The docs are guessing that this is my body having a delayed reaction to the antibiotics taken last month! Apparently when they give you multiple antibiotics at the same time, the body can fight it and cause this problem. Wish we had known that then! Would have skipped all the pills completely

Anyways, right now I am not a pretty sight and the wife and kids were not happy given I wander around the house without a shirt.

Some of these are large and growing.. wonder how big they will grow before it stops! 

Hey, I am a technology guy who is known for anal retentive documentation.. So had to put that Quarter there for a size comparison. Also trying to still keep a sense of humor given the situation!

This thing is not contagious, but if something can spread within "one body" and grow, the default thought is "this has to be contagious if it grows that fast".. again, we are not doctors and that is where Fact trumps Opinion. 

Right now I am on drowsy anti itch medication after painting ointment on the dots carefully and selectively, and sitting in my underwear in a closed bedroom.

Soon I will attain nirvana, with all this sitting meditation!

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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