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Normal People Food Kills Me

posted 30th July 2009    Written by: Marisa    CATEGORY: All Posts, Marisa, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 1

In three days I will no longer have health insurance.

…WHAT?!!!…

It’s true; in three days I will be joining the other uninsured 47 million United States citizens.  The available COBRA option given to people in my situation is still too expensive for this funemployment gal and I have no choice but to be uninsured.   And I know I’m freaking out more so than most people in this situation.

Yes, I am young and for the most part healthy, but I am sadly unique when compared to the health needs for the average person.

I have severe food allergies.  And by severe I mean I’ve been to the ER twice due to anaphylactic shock.  I am unique all right.

In fact, I’m actually part of a very small percentage of adults who have severe food allergies past the age of 25.  I’m part of a percentage of only 250,000 in this country who have a severe food allergy to one or all of the seven major food allergies: milk, eggs, soy, peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts/nuts and wheat.  Yay for me, I have four out of the seven.

I didn’t grow up with these food allergies though.  It started at 16 with a reaction to clams while attending a formal, and then when I was 20 to a granola peanut butter bar during one of my English Lit. classes.  Both times I was saved at the ER.  Both times I had health insurance.  Then most recently after some extensive testing, soy and tree nuts came up as positives.

With these results and finding out exactly what was in processed food, I had to basically teach myself how to eat again.

My last visit to the ER was in February of this year.  My eye started to swell while I was at a Jazz club with some of my friends and I knew exactly then what I had to do.  My ER visits record had been swept clean since I moved to Portland, almost three years without a visit.  Luckily this visit wasn’t as life threatening as the past two but nonetheless, just as stressful and scary at times.

I don’t know what to do now.  I can panic I suppose.  Well, I know I will here and there but I don’t want this worry to consume my every day life.  I have my Benadryl, I have my epi-pen and I have some sanity about me whenever I get a reaction.  However, rationality and logic are not always present.  I’m scared shitless when I really think about it. I live alone, I AM alone.  And I don’t think my cat Sophie will be able to dial 911 from my cell phone.

I guess the point of this post was to expunge some of my worries and stress that involve such a huge part of my life.  My current journey to live a happy life has bumps and this large bump will never go away.  It’s the permanent speed bump that slows me down here.

I do have hope though. On the news a few weeks ago I witnessed President Obama hug a woman who had cancer of the kidneys and who was also unemployed and uninsured.  This gesture and his speech had such an impact, I actually have hope that somehow or someway I will be able to afford healthcare soon.

But for now it’s like any other day, pursuing and living a happy life, one free of ER visits and one that will always miss peanut butter like crazy.


photo credit: Bob.Fornal

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