Of Allergies and Men

I hesitate to write this post. Simply because I don't want to sound like I am complaining or whining. While I may be known to do both of those things in my everyday life, occasionally, I really want this blog to be a positive place. But also a place to share our struggles. So today I am going to share a struggle of mine, while trying to be positive. OK?

Thanks.

When I married Jeff, I knew that he was allergic to chicken and turkey. Like, will die kind of allergic. You don't hear of too many chicken related deaths, but oh yeah, it's possible.

I signed on knowing that cooking for him would be a new adventure. I only ate chicken and turkey. And here I was planning all my meals around beef and pork.

We've gotten used to it though, and from time to time I will make a separate chicken meal for me and the kids, but they actually don't like chicken much after years of hardly eating it.

It's surprising what chicken dishes you can still make but substitute pork. So I never really felt like we were missing out on a ton. Perhaps we suffered from a lack of huge variety, since to add a lot of variety to beef and pork it can get expensive. But we were fine for years.

Then we learned some new things about the freakishness of my husband's body. On top of the weird chicken and turkey allergy, we learned that he has an autoimmune disease called ankylosing spondylitis. Don't try and pronounce it, it will make your tongue hurt.

In his case, this is an inherited autoimmune disease. His father and one of his sister's have it also.
We knew that he would face certain hurdles with it, as it has a tendency to cause a lot of pain in the joints and can eventually fuse your spine together in worst cases.

What we didn't know was that there was a way to make it better. Not get rid of it, since there is no cure, but a way to alleviate some of his constant, chronic pain. It came in the form of a diet.

Jeff's sister discovered a book about AS and starch. She began to experiment and passed the info onto Jeff.

Well, both fortunately, and unfortunately (for me) this diet worked for them.

By eliminating starch from their diets, the inflammation that causes the pain, reduce dramatically.

But this now meant no potatoes, no bread, no rice, no pasta, no corn, peas or beans. Nothing carbohydrate related at all.

So now, I have a husband who can't eat chicken, turkey or anything cheap or easy. It's meat, dairy and veggies for us.

So, along with trying to curb my own appetite for tasty carbs, sugar and fat, throw in the challenge of cooking for this family. No chicken and potatoes for us.

So although probably healthier, it just became a chore to cook and still have just one meal for the whole family to enjoy. It's become easier, and he feels so much better, so all around I'm grateful.

But then, oh yes, there is a but then, I found out I have a corn allergy. Yup, allergic to corn.
It explained the years of being able to read complete novels in the bathroom. I'll just leave it at that.

And while it didn't really affect how I made dinners, since corn was already on the do not make list, it has added quiet an interesting twist to the things I can eat.

For instance, my go to snack food in the evening, especially when I am trying to lose weight, has always been popcorn. It's low in calories, it's tasty and you can eat a ton of it. No more.

And did you know that corn and it's by products are in everything? Yes, everything.

I honestly don't know why, and it really doesn't matter why we have this as a challenge in our household. It is our challenge and we do our best. I know it's hard for Jeff to smell my homemade bread and not be able to eat it. And it's tough for me to go to the movies and not be able to have popcorn or most of the candy selection.

But you know what? So what.

There are much bigger challenges in life. There are people who suffer in ways I can't imagine.
So I will take our itty bitty food difficulties and run with it.

Cuz you know what?

I carried and gave birth to six babies. What's a little food allergy when compared to that?

Oh, and in case you have some really great starch free, chicken, turkey and corn free recipes, would you kindly pass them along to me? Thank you very much.

And when you're eating your lovely grilled chicken with lemony sauce, mushroom risotto and garlic bread, will you think of me?

I would appreciate it.