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…
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
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?
Wow. What a nightmare for you …and an interesting story. Funny how things like this drop out of nowhere with a message we might be needing. Just this morning I talked with an old friend who described very similar symptoms …and she is convinced it’s diet-related but is scheduled to see a doc monday to start on the path you were on. I will definitely be passing along your anecdotal account of your own experience.
Oh wow, I hope she’s okay. I remember googling things as I was going through it and everything I found was horrifying. I hope my story can provide a non-scary ending that can help someone! Very funny timing, too. I felt compelled to write this as I took a shower today!!
Wow, that is crazy! I can’t imagine all you went through. Hubby scares me at times because he will do all the fad diets but in the forms of shakes and pills. I am not talking about just regular slim-fast, etc… I mean he goes to GNC and buys whatever is new. It is crazy to see the hoops he jumps through and the changes in his attitude and body when he does it. I guess you just never know what can hurt you. I am so glad you listened to your body, that it wasn’t cancer, of course, and that you were able to get to the bottom of it. Hugs
Thank you for sharing your story! I had this exact same thing happen to me last year! I had started to eat more healthy, and with that I started drinking almond milk, using it for smoothies, and eating raw almonds every day. I started having horrible pain in my abdomen, bloating, fatigue, and not feeling well overall. I was even having chest pain, which is scary. I went to the doctor, and she found that I had raised eosinophils in my blood. She didn’t understand why they would be raised, so I went through a ton of blood testing for two weeks. After she told me the causes of raised eosinophils, I stopped eating almonds in case it was an allergy, although I have never been allergic to any foods in my life. But the almonds were the biggest change in my diet – so it was the only food I thought could be causing an allergy reaction. She tested me for everything, and found nothing. My eosinophil count slowly returned to normal. All I could think was that it must have been the almonds, but I was never sure because I never had an actual allergic reaction to them. Now hearing your story, which sounds exactly like mine, I am sure it must have been the almonds!
Your story makes me feel so much better. I was never actually sure what the cause was, and I have not eaten almonds since that time because I just don’t want to feel that way again – so I never tested it out. It was so crazy to read your story. Thank you.
WOW! I seriously just got the chills because I have never heard of anyone having the exact same issue. It must be the case and was really the only thing that made sense in my situation. Sounds like that for yours, too. Thank you so much for commenting. Your comment helped validate my thoughts as well!
I had to do this too! If I would’ve kept a food journal I would’ve seen myself it was pork my body doesn’t like. I’m glad it was just an allergy tans wasn’t anything more.
We just went through this with my oldest daughter. The start of December, she started getting really terrible stomach pains. The pains were constant but was more painful at times. We went to the dr. after about 2 wks of this. They did blood work that came back ok. They thought it could be reflux so they gave her meds for that. She took that for a month and had no change. When we went back they her to a pediatric gastroenterologis. She too thought it could be reflux also so upped the dose. We did this for 2 more weeks and did nothing. She still had the pain daily. They finally sent her for an endoscopy which came back with the high levels of eosinophils. We were then sent to an allergist and he did all of his test and it came back that she is allergic to milk, eggs and corn. We have 2 treatment options for us, we can take all foods with with milk, eggs and corn away or treat her with medicine. We have tried the first option but it’s just not a good fit for us. She plays travel softball so there are times that we eat out 3 times a day and it would be impossible to know what is in all the food that a place serves. We have decided to do the medicine and it has already helped. She uses a Flovent inhaler but swallows it instead of inhaling it. We are still working on remembering to use it twice daily as we are suppose to but when she does it works perfectly. Thanks for sharing your story.
Yikes, those are three things that have to be very hard to avoid!! Poor girl. Glad they found something to help her, though. I forgot to mention that I had an endoscopy, too. It showed several small ulcers and lots of inflammation. I hope she continues to feel better and finds a good long term solution!!!
WOW.. glad to hear that you are “OK”… and I hear ya, we spend $$$ to find out that my son is allergic to every meat product from Pork to Turkey and chicken the only think he can eat is Beef. he is severely allergic to it.. So I’m glad I spend the $$ but know how you feel… thanks for sharing and YES.. Common sense goes a long way!!!!
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.
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.
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.
Thank you! I hope it does help anyone who’s been drinking a lot of almond milk and suddenly feeling strange!!
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!
That’s terrifying!! Yeah, these “pop up allergies” are not cool at all! Makes me nervous about a lot of foods now.
Sounds like absolute hell for just a few almonds. Hope you are feeling better!
Way over dramatic for a few almonds! Not the mystery I needed in my life. LOL Thank you so much!