Watch What Stores You Enter . . . !

So, I have tons and I mean tons of food related issues.  Sometimes they seem unreal to me and I think that they cannot actually be a problem and that I am just odd.  When I hear that someone else has the same issue, is it wrong that I feel a bit relieved to hear it?  Do not get me wrong, I feel terrible for them because this is just not fun, pleasant, easy to deal with or anything at all! I hate it for them, but yet it seems to be some sort of confirmation for me that I am not totally nuts and losing it!

I have a gluten intolerance, salicylates, night shades and soy.  I have diverticulitis and have had surgeries on my stomach and my colon. I feel like I am forgetting others here, but that is enough for now.   Basically, eating is a chore.  There is a store here in town that has always seemed to be an issue for me.  When you walk in the front door, to the left is the bakery and to the right is the deli.  Right across from each other they are baking and deep frying breaded items.  Gluten is definitely in the air.  The bread aisle there is one of the worst in any store.  My husband, who has no issues, can barely stand the smell going down that aisle.  With those three things alone, we feel that they need a better ventilation system or something.  They have an organic/gluten free area/specialty food section.  I find some goodies there. Well, a Hyvee or Meijer would be better, but for our town, it seems to be nice.  It is really a small section, but at least we have it for some things. It probably should be on the complete other side of the store, though.

At one point, while I was shopping, I ran into someone I knew so I was in the store longer than anticipated.  I was at the very back of the store and became so weak and had breathing issues that I almost went to the ground.  I was holding on to my cart and trying to get my cell phone to call someone as there was no one in sight.  I do not know how I managed to get out of there, but I finally did.  I had to remain in my car for awhile before driving home.  It is a good thing I do not live too far away. I have a flight of stairs to go up before getting to the kitchen.  I just put the groceries on the counter and went to sleep immediately.  There was no way to stay awake.  How scary. I call these events a coma sleep.  I do not know what they are really, but I just become so weak and go to sleep and wake up whenever.  When you wake up, you are in such a fog and it feels like you are awake while sleeping. I am not really aware of any of my surroundings and hear nothing as you can when you are in a normal sleep and I am hard to wake up.  My family always worries and tries to wake me to be certain I am okay. I always leave the store feeling very weak and it takes me awhile to recover.  I absolutely hate going there, but there are some things you need that you have to go there for.

However, I will never go there again.  If I need anything, I will have to ask someone to get it for me.  The reason being, I heard a story of a little girl who was in the store with her mother.  The little girl had such a reaction that her mother had to immediately take her to the emergency room.  The little girl is okay.  After the event, the mother called the store and voiced her concerns.  The store, at that time, seemed to be a bit insensitive.  I heard that the mother then asked that at least a sign be posted warning of the food issue and such.  The store did not respond to that request.  Of course, I only heard this and do not know the actual outcome firsthand.  I do believe it though since I have had issues in there. I do feel so terrible for this little girl.  I am praying for her.  However, it made me realize how stupid I was to continue entering the store when it clearly affected me. I feel like this incident was an additional warning for me.

All of these gluten issues and other food issues popping up lately are unreal.  I hope they can figure this out soon. I feel so certain that it is additives and such. So, so many people are being affected and so suddenly.  It is not pleasant at all.  It is so hard to be diligent about avoiding products with no actual help, or any way that this can be avoided.  It is almost better to just stay home. It is frustrating as you begin to feel like you need to be in a bubble.  Society is into cookouts, eating out and social events involving food.  It is hard to have what is considered a normal life and hard to attend the family events.

I am not being an Eeyore here, just stating the facts.  I do not mean to be bringing anyone down, I am fine, just a little frustrated as at times I feel like I am sleeping my life away.  It is even worse to sleep your life away when you feel like there is nothing that you have done wrong or have had the wrong thing to eat.  You follow what you think you are supposed to and you still are sick.  The actual point of this was that I never realized what could actually happen by entering the store and I would like to sort of warn others to please be careful!!!

My daughter has an issue to strawberries that has sent her to the emergency room several times.  She is as careful as can be, but insensitive people do things that cause her to have the reactions.  At a store in her town, she was getting some potatoes.  How in the world would this action give her a reaction?  Well, someone, being lazy, threw some sort of strawberries with their sauce in the potato bin.  She evidently, unknown to her, was picking out some potatoes and some of this strawberry concoction got on her arm.  She was going down an aisle and started having breathing issues and itching and hives developed.  She was fortunate to have her Prednisone with her and was able to get some down along with Benadryl.

The point here is, the stores and customers are not being careful so we need to be extra, extra careful.  Hopefully this story will help others to be more sensitive to our issues and to be more careful with the cross contamination.  Thank you all!  I am sorry for this post and for not making you smile today!  Well, smile anyway, life is short!!!!