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A Food Intolerance Had Me Being Tested for Cancer

About 6 years ago a food intolerance had doctors testing me for cancer. I am telling the story now because I am reliving it now. It’s making me remember the whole hell that I went through for months. This is my own story and not intended to diagnose anyone or anything like that. Just sharing an experience of my own. Post sponsored by Nakturnal, but this story is my own.

Just a little history on me, I have always been a notorious yo-yo and fad dieter. I would read health food book after health food book and instantly become obsessed with whatever it was that I read. In my efforts to be healthy, I took it too far and had my plans backfire.

I got sick gradually. It started off with stomach pains and fatigue. Over days it progressed into abdominal cramping so bad I could not stand up straight. It felt like my entire digestive tract was inflamed. Starting with my esophagus, I felt like I could feel the entire journey of a piece or food or the swallow of a drink.

Not only was there pain, but there was an eerie awareness of all of my bodily functions. This trippy and strange feeling is not great for a person who already has extreme anxiety. I wanted to escape my own body. Plus, the pain was just insane.

After a while I finally went to the doctor. I’ve never been a person that runs to the doctor for a stomachache, but this was getting out of control. She ran a series of tests…

App to use to record the doctor at your appointment

This is where it would have been helpful to record my conversation with the doctor. Everything she said was so foreign to me, and I was in too much pain to focus. When it was time to repeat what she said to anyone else, it would have been so helpful to have a record of our conversation.

When hit with the question, “What did the doctor say?” you can easily share the entire recording with loved ones to avoid repeating yourself or saying the wrong thing.

Severe Food Intolerance Had Me Being Tested for Cancer

Food Intolerance Had Me Being Tested for Cancer

My blood work came back with extremely elevated eosinophils. Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that usually only rise during specific occasions: Parasites, allergies, certain auto-immune diseases, or cancer.

The parasite test (oh how fun that is) came back clean. My doctor then referred me to a hematologist (blood specialist). During this time, I started to think back and use a common sense approach, as well. What had I changed? What foods had I recently introduced to my system?

Well, if you refer to the second paragraph, I had read a book about the “raw food diet” and had been giving it a try. Part of that included incorporating almonds and almond milk into my diet. Never had I had an allergy to almonds, but I also had never had them in such mass quantities.

Right before my scheduled bone marrow test to check for cancer(!!!), I convinced my doctor to let me see if the problem could be from the almonds. I explained to her what I had been doing and she agreed that bombarding my system with the almonds could be causing an allergic reaction that would raise the eosinophils. The other problem was that it was a “which came first?” scenario. Meaning that I could have had eosinophilia, which can cause a person to develop new allergies — or, the allergies could have been causing the eosinophilia. What a mess.

Long story short, I got off the almond milk. I had been in so much pain, I had already stopped eating almonds (and most solid foods), but I was still drinking smoothies with almond milk. After a couple of weeks she ran my blood work again and the white cell count was down. I was feeling better and getting back to normal. I have had blood work done throughout the years to make sure, and it’s never been elevated since.

This was a super tricky situation because it’s not like I would eat an almond and break out into hives. There was no immediate allergic response. Just a food intolerance so subtle at first and grew into a monster.

So, hoping that I outgrew this, I decided to give almond milk another try recently. (Never said I was a genius.) I want to be able to drink it so badly. Dairy bothers me, I cannot drink soy, rice milk is not great, and coconut milk is not my favorite. Now, I am sitting here about a week after having almond milk maybe three times and the pain is beginning. It’s all coming back to me now and it’s horrible. At first I thought I must be getting the flu. It still didn’t kick in right away that it was the almond milk (duh!). I just have to accept the fact that I cannot have it.

Moral of the story here is listen to your body. I could have saved myself thousands of dollars in medical bills had I just kept a food journal or realized that all these extreme diet changes were not a smart move. Obviously, always go to the doctor, too, but sometimes common sense can really be the ticket!

Have you ever had an extreme reaction from a food intolerance?

Cole Geiss

Tuesday 28th of January 2020

Sounds like absolute hell for just a few almonds. Hope you are feeling better!

Jennifer

Tuesday 28th of January 2020

Way over dramatic for a few almonds! Not the mystery I needed in my life. LOL Thank you so much!

Connie

Wednesday 15th of January 2020

My worst experience was having an allergic reaction to shrimp when I had eaten it a few times before. It was very freakish but apparently I had grown the allergy to it. Wild!

Jennifer

Wednesday 15th of January 2020

That's terrifying!! Yeah, these "pop up allergies" are not cool at all! Makes me nervous about a lot of foods now.

Tobias Bolno

Sunday 5th of January 2020

Thank you for sharing your story, an article like this could inspire others to get help when they need it most, and end up saving someone.

Jennifer

Monday 6th of January 2020

Thank you! I hope it does help anyone who's been drinking a lot of almond milk and suddenly feeling strange!!

Julie Wood

Sunday 6th of April 2014

I just had to read your story and wow! I found it very interesting that Almonds and almond milk builds up intolerance and you have problems with you while blood cells.This is shocking to me. I will have to keep track of what I eat and see if I have problems with food. I do not drink Almond milk and I eat nuts occasionally, but I have not had an allergic reaction so far to food. I am sorry for what you went through. Your story really helps me to make sure to listen to my body! Thanks for sharing.

Jen Temcio @dapperhouse

Thursday 27th of March 2014

I can not believe this story! It is so weird to think that you had this as an adult! Thank goodness you were insightful about your own health. wow.