Gesundheit!
Lived Experience
7/24/20262 min read
I have been very fortunate when it comes to allergies. I never had them until about 15 years ago. Then the seasonal allergies kicked in.
Okay – not too bad. I can live with them.
Then I bought a beautiful ring of moonstone and copper wire. Simple. Mystical.
And not kind to my skin. After a couple of days of wearing this ring, I noticed some small darker patches of color on the back of my hand. They looked kind of like small age spots – but there were A LOT of them. Where on earth did they come from? And they were only on that one hand.
I went down the list of possibilities in my head – no new hand soap or lotion; no new dish soap or cleaning products; no new laundry detergent or dryer sheets; no new perfume.
So, I took the ring off, and a couple of days later, the spots were gone. That was weird. So, apparently I am now allergic to copper at the age of 45.
Next, I had a sinus infection and needed to start on antibiotics. In the past I had successfully taken all the usuals – amoxicillin, erythromycin, Augmentin, Keflex – no issues. My PA prescribed Bactrim this time. I took the first two doses and lo and behold, I broke out in a rash from my head to my hips that looked like I fell asleep in the sun with no sunscreen…WTH??
Incident #3 – I started taking bupropion to help me quit smoking. One week in, I break out in hives the size of saucers…really? What was going on?
Next up, I decided to buy some oranges to take to work for an afternoon snack. On the fourth day of eating them, late in the afternoon, my throat started to feel scratchy. On the way home, I was feeling progressively worse, so I called my husband and told him I was going to stop at urgent care on the way home. I walked into the facility; they took one look at me and took me back to an examination room immediately. They administered a shot of Benadryl and a steroid shot. Turns out I now had Oral Allergy Syndrome. Yeah, where did THAT come from?
Well, it turns out that new allergies are common among women going through the menopausal transition. Geez! Thanks for the heads up!