July 14, 1998

I must have lost that extra paragraph in the saving and uploading process. I had a nice little paragraph about my sister and I speeding off to Southhold on Friday and Darryl bouncing my car. The big deal was that he was pulling up and down on the door and bouncing the whole car, and the alarm didn't go off. Good alarm, eh?

But anyway...I'm really really sleepy. I'm going to the dermatologist tomorrow...he's going to yell at me for being so very tan. But honestly, it's made my skin so much better. And the stuff on my forehead hurts less too.

Okay...you impatient little punks...I'll explain the quote. But then I have to sleep. I'm going skiing tomorrow after my class.

On the way home from Southhold on Friday after dropping Ann off, I stopped at one of those little farm stands and bought peaches and blueberries...the two fruits they had that I both like and can eat without adverse side effects. So I get them home and pop them in the fridge. Saturday after the boat Mom made blueberry pancakes...yummy.

Sunday night I'm watching TV...I have a choice of snacks...peaches or Spicy Doritos. I go for healthy. I chop up a peach and eat the whole thing.

Then I got this funny feeling in my throat. And I found I was biting the side of my tongue. And my eyes started tearing. A lot. It got to the point where I was coughing and I could swallow properly...I went up to the bathroom and washed my face.

My eyes were swollen. Not my eyelids, mind you. My EYES. There was that pus-like blister stuff over the whites of my eyes. "Mom? I'm having an allergic reaction to something. Do we have benedryl?" I called down the stairs around my swelled tongue.

Let me pause a moment to let you imagine how fabulous I must look all swollen and puffy like that.

So Mom got her shoes on and went out to CVS at 10:30 at night to buy benedryl for me. Then she asked me how I was doing every ten minutes until she went to bed. She made sure I knew to wake her up if I thought I had to go to the hospital. I assured her I would...and thought silently to myself that this wasn't THAT bad. My dad kept looking at me sitting on the couch with the pity face. He had 'rosey-o-la', and that's why mom is so sure I have it. He says that the same thing happened to his eyes when he was being treated for it. Shellfish got him. I'm glad I don't like seafood.

The next morning she says to me "Well, your father can never eat peaches..."

This is where that quote comes in.

So I'm allergic to peaches. I still don't feel better from it though. Probably because I ate ALL of the peach before I started beginning to get sick. Got a bunch of it running through me, whatever it is in a peach that gets me to swell up. But I'll live. My eyes are still watering, my head is killing me every two seconds, but I'll live.

The more different foods I eat, the more allergies I find. I was safer as a super-picky eater.

But I'm NOT lactose intolerant. I can drink gallons of the stuff with no ill effects. Go me.

Stuff Kathy's Allergic to Thus Far Peaches Apples Almonds Raspberries Plums Peas Detergent with anything Adhesive on some band-aids Some yeast-infection medications etc.... Conclusion? Sucks to be me.

Ah...the family. Small but loving. Left to right. Ann, Mom, Dad, Grandma, and l'il o' me in front.