What did she just say???

About two weeks before Thanksgiving, in the midst of one of my major migraine attacks with no relief in sight, my dad suggested that I see our family dermatologist/allergist. Maybe she would be able to offer a different point of view on the causes of these hellacious headaches (seriously, calling them headaches is like calling an apple dessert) and perhaps (fingers crossed, prayers said) offer me some relief. After describing my entire medical nightmare, including the lost work days and salary, depression, mood swings, and constantly changing medications, she said, "Have you ever been tested for food allergies?" Why no, no I hadn't. She warned that even if I weren't allergic to anything I still might have to cut certain foods out of my diet. At this point, after two years spent trying new doctors and treatments with no change, I was willing to try anything. My mom took me to get the bloodwork done the next day and I really didn't think anything of it. After eight vials of blood were sucked out of me a giant cheesebuger was in order...little did I know it would be my last one.

Flash forward to a week later...I'm finally feeling up to going back to work and at the end of my first day back I had a message from my doctor telling me to immediately stop eating wheat, casein (cow's milk), soy, almonds, beef, strawberries, coffee, and oats. Ummm...excuse me? What did she just say?

Needless to say, I felt like I had been sucker punched. And at the same time relieved. What if this is what had been causing my headaches all along? I spent the next few hours calling my family and madly searching "gluten free" diets online. And then came the crying in the aisles of Whole Foods...but I'll save that for a later post.