I am kind of excited right now because I am not going through the misery of seasonal allergies. Yep, they’re pretty much gone. The hay fever symptoms started in 2000 when I turned forty years old. Welcome to middle age. The onset was undeniable. My torment correlated precisely with the pollen count.
That was twelve years ago, before doing a couple hundred rounds of the Andy Cutler safe oral chelation protocol for mercury and other heavy metals.
This year, spring came very early and I wondered how that would affect hay fever victims. About a month ago, I started hearing reports of allergy problems from friends and aquaintances. Seasonal allergies in March in the upper Midwest seemed kind of impossible to me, so I waited and watched the local pollen counts, certain that it was a matter of time before I too was smacked with the symptoms.
Nothing.
Then, a week or so ago, when the pollen numbers started to climbing higher, I started playing with fire. I decided to try consuming significant quantities of milk and gluten products. This somewhat risky diet venture facilitated plenty of flashbacks of my very early days as a computer programmer. Truth: there was a time when I survived on donuts, milk, M&Ms, and writing and testing code.
Now this experiment was not that unusual given the fact that I just finished up my studies at Code Academy where I worked 7 days a week a) learning and, b) building an app, c) neglecting the rest of my life, and c) getting less than optimal sleep. With the development goals and time constraints I placed on myself, it’s no surprise that regressing back into a diet primarily consisting of junk food became my choice of sustenance.
Yeah, it was an unfortunate option that I kept going back to again and again and again.
So here I am now finished with my formal Code Academy classes, but not finished with Code Academy forever, because I now see that Code Academy never really ends, it just takes on a new form. Along with that happy news, I am also looking forward to my next big adventure which will involve tech start up software development as well as continued monitoring of the pollen count.
It really is thrilling that I have no stuffy head, itchy throat, watery eyes, or runny nose. So thrilling that I had to write an entire blog post about it.
I did sneeze a couple of time in the last 72 hours. Does that mean I’m barely out of the weeds?
Today is Easter, the count is 10.7 out of 12. That’s high. This morning, my kids divided and conquered the stash of candy that I accumulated and fortunately for me, they split things four ways instead of three. I love my kids. That gave the opportunity for one last test:
A cupful of malted milk candy eggs, artificially flavored coconut M&Ms, Nerds, and mini-Reese’s peanut butter cups. I skipped the jelly beans, because, well, I’m not a big fan of them and I figured the first four were enough. Then I downed a giant glass of milk. My nose felt a little ticklish and that’s all. I didn’t even sneeze.
I think maybe if I went really crazy with the wheat, dairy and candy I could overload my system and get all stuffy and icky feeling. I think. I’m not sure. I’m not going to try. I’ve pushed myself close enough to the edge that I know when to stop. I’m stopping now.
Overall, in the past few days I have tried eggs, corn, hazelnut butter, pork, chicken, soy, provolone cheese, cinnamon rolls, and peanut butter with nothing to write home about.
The only other thing besides the candy overload that I am curious about is cheddar cheese sticks. I ate one yesterday and started feeling a little stuffy in the head. So naturally, I waited several hours, had another one and low and behold, I noticed the same thing.
I’m not sure if it’s anything conclusive, but I won’t be eating anymore cheddar cheese sticks for awhile. And I’ll still limit my wheat and dairy intake. I’ll go easy on the candy too, until the pollen count comes down and I’m back working seven days a week collaborating, learning, coding and testing.
Happy Spring.
