Sallyacious

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January 19, 2007

Swelling Up Like a Balloon

So we had Chinese food the other night, at one of the FOUR Chinese restaurants here in town. (Honestly, we have four Mexican restaurants, three coffee shops, one sit down pizza joint, one Italian place, one southwest fusion-y place, one really nice slow food house of yumminess, one Hawaiian plate lunch, a bagel shop, two bakeries, a whole bunch of fast food and FOUR Chinese restaurants. I don't see how they stay in business. I mean, FOUR.)

I don't have anything against Chinese food in general--I lied just now. There are FIVE Chinese restaurants in this town of 18,000. Anyway, I like Chinese food. A lot. But I don't know how you support more than two. Unless everybody in town eats Chinese at least once a week. And I don't think they do. Dave and I don't. The one we go to is never even close to halfway full.

(Which reminds me. Another sidetracked moment in a post apparently devoted to sidetracks. Sidetrackings? Side--Never mind. Not important. This is the important part: There was a table of four white boys across the aisle from us, and as I came back from the buffet, I realized that one was talking on his cell phone in a parody of a Chinese accent, making fun of the restaurant as he did so. I wanted to break my plate over his head.)

But now to the purpose of this post. A couple of hours after the food, I started feeling odd. And then I noticed that I had a couple of swollen lymph nodes in a place they'd never appeared before. In front of both ears. It was a relief to discover that there was a matched set, which suggests something more benign than, "Holy cow, how did I never notice this tumor before?" I immediately assumed that it was allergies. Because, well, I have a delayed food allergy to dairy products, and I have begun to recognize the way they work. In the case of dairy, it's asthma. So I assumed the lymph nodes were a reaction to MSG in the food.

I did some checking online, just in case, because that's the kind of person I am, googling " 'lymph nodes,' head swollen allergy." Figuring that I'd be able to get a good link quickly. And I did, sort of.

I now know far more about the lymphatic system than I ever knew before.

And that swollen lymph nodes could indicate a mono relapse (ruled out, I don't feel like I do when I have mono); an allergic reaction to various vaccinations, including typhoid; an STD; leukemia; Hodgkins lymphoma or non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I determined pretty early that it wasn't any of those since it was behaving like a delayed food allergy, coming on quickly some time after eating. But after getting that information? I couldn't find anything more. Every site said the same damn thing. So I gave it up and went to bed.

Dammit, though, I wanted answers. I wanted to know if my hunch was right or if I really was coming down with mono again. So this morning, I searched again, this time leaving out the word "head." And I'll be damned if the first link to come up wasn't about delayed food allergies in children that manifest as tonsilitis and swollen lymph nodes. Just as I suspected. Unfortunately, I also learned that the allergy skin tests don't work to find delayed food allergies. The only sure way to identify those is an elimination diet, which is how I figured out the dairy allergy.

For the record? Elimination diets suck. Unless, of course, I do the really fast one an actor I knew in Portland did and just eat white rice and drink pear juice for two weeks to clear the system. Boring, but quickly detoxifying. And slimming. Very slimming...

Oh. Because my mother reads this blog, I should probably also reassure everybody that one of the nodes is unswollen now and the other seems to be going down as well. I did not actually swell up like a balloon. I'm fine, Mom. I promise.

Posted by sally at January 19, 2007 08:10 PM

Comments

Posted by: David Eames-Harlan at January 19, 2007 09:10 PM

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