None But Eagles

I went to the allergist this afternoon, in consequence of several episodes of swelling that occurred around last Christmas. My hypothesis was that these uncomfortable but not serious events were allergic reactions to the raw egg whites in my seasonal homemade eggnog concoctions, since my (memory-driven) food and health diary suggested that each reaction started within a few days of ingestion of said eggnog, except for one instance seemingly related to under-cooked French toast. My internet research indicated that raw egg whites are something people are allergic to, even when cooked egg whites and raw egg yolks pose no problem. Some article somewhere said something about how raw egg white reactions in adults may be delayed by days, which was consistent with my timeline. The main message of my research, however, suggested that doctors would be useless and I would probably never find the source of the swelling and it would never go away and in fact it would only get worse and I would die alone, swollen and unloved.

Nevertheless, I maintain faith in the biomedical establishment, so today I allowed my right forearm to be needle-stuck four times — a raw egg white test, a raw egg yolk test, and two controls. After a 15-minute wait, just as I was called to the consultation room, the electricity went out. When the clinical assistant had first administered the test, she told me that the power had been out for most of the morning, and they had gone out for a long lunch and hoped not to have to return for the afternoon. I was the first appointment after lunch and the only patient in the waiting room when I got there.

A couple of families had joined me in the waiting room since then, and after the whole office went black, without emergency lighting, someone struck a flame with their lighter and someone else opened their cell phone. One of the assistants brought a flashlight to lead me to rooms in the back where some light came in through interior windows looking out onto something of an indoor courtyard.

So I talked with the allergist in the dark. He took a quick look at my arm in what light there was and sat me down on a leather sofa in his office, which was messy with books and papers. He sat in a chair beside his desk, not behind it. The lights came on after I finished telling him most of the history and as I was starting to realize that the answer he was able to give me was not the one I was looking for. I wanted to hear an affirmation of my own diagnosis and to be told simply not to eat raw egg whites if I didn’t want to itch and swell up again. We moved to the consultation room, still talking as we walked down the hallway, and he told me that I do not have a food allergy and that my reactions were likely associated with a virus or infection. I was still trying to figure out what that meant when we sat down again and I looked at my arm in the full light — the spot with the raw egg white test looked perfectly fine; nothing more than a pinprick.

He told me that the spot would likely swell up in the next few days, consistent with the other cases, and to take photos of it when it happened. It makes sense: I didn’t react to raw egg whites on my skin; the reactions didn’t show up until days later, showed up in strange places, and weren’t consistent with food allergy symptoms; and antihistamines didn’t help much. Not a food allergy but something that will surely prove more difficult to figure out.

So what next — back to the doctor, more tests, maybe some controlled eggnog experiments at home? Wait for something more serious to crop up? I hate making a big deal about these minor inconvenience-type health problems — they barely interfere with my daily activities (and when they do it’s because of the drugs I won’t bother with anymore — antihistamines turn me into a zombie), so what do I really have to worry about? Much worse things can (and will, someday) happen to me, so why worry about something as insignificant as this?

But if there is some virus or infection hanging out in my system, keeping a low profile, would it make sense to try to do something equally low-level to get rid of it? Like, oh, get more sleep, eat better, drink less alcohol, imbibe some approved natural health supplements? Do I need to wait until this thing makes a concentrated attack and puts me to bed for a few days or sends me to urgent care (although maybe it already tried to)? Is the fact that I haven’t really been sick a good thing — a sign that I’m healthy overall and able to keep viruses/infections more or less at bay — or an indication that I have actually been sick and should have known that something was going on? Or does this virus/infection have evolutionary smarts and will thereby avoid my attention and its destruction forever? Cannot yet say, but in the meantime, I’ll try to post photos of my arm once it gets clown-size.

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