Salicylate Intolerance

While I'm here and writing I need a vehicle to vent my frustration about my supposed food intolerance...

In 2001 I began having reactions wher my lip, face, feet or hands would swell from a gathering of fluid and become very itchy, later my tongue also swelled every so often and usually I'd be woken up just as the reactions kicked in... they seemed delayed if related to food and were a bit confusing.

Then ensued specialist and dietician tests, suspected but never quite confirmed salicylate intolerance. It's a naturally occuring food chemical [a kind of insecticide against bacteria] and is high in fruit and veggies, sauces, herbs, cured products, beer etc... leaving some potatoes and other veggies, pears, golden delicious apples, fresh meats etc as staple diet.

My 'challenges' weren't conclusive but possibly confirmed this and no matter what I did I always struggled to go failsafe so whever a reaction ha[pened there was always something in my diary that could be linked...

One type of antibiotics seemed to make it worse... but not others. It was linked to tiredness and stress and fitted the timing but it's always been a struggle for someone not fussy about food with a few exceptions.

When I was on steroids to blunt the reactions, consequently tore both kneecap tendons playing rugby and then spent 7 weeks in hospital I had a period after that where the allergies disappeared. I wasn't complaining but could never quite figure why... they seemed to come back in small doses months later and then this year they're back with a vengeance!! At Easter though I was unwell and virtualy ate potato chips and bread and water for four days but still had major reactions... worst ever in some ways... blaming IV antiobiotics...

There was however another possibility... my seretide inhaler propellent... fluticasone!! While resting and seeking answers to try to summon the energy to recover I came across a few articles naming exactly my reactions as confusingly being caused by seretide the inhaler... I had wondered this before but hadn't been in a place to test it...

It does match with the time of being on prednisone because I didn't need my inhalers and this was the period of supposed absence of the allergy, whereas recently attempting to get on top of my asthma I reinstated the inhaler and it roughly fits the return of the reactions...

It's early days but I can contrast Easter on failsafe food with reactions galore and since then introducing wrong foods [in small quantity so far] while not using seretide and blow me down if I haven't had a week of no reactions including [3] days of definitely risky foods... it's not conclusive but I guess I'll keep plugging away with moderate salicylate foods and no inhaler. I have a chance to catch my doctor next week and I'll be seeking an alternative puffer and asking him when I started seretide in his records... I'm betting on 2000/1 but we'll see...

It's too early yet to relax but with adrenaline as the reaction treatment... early on a puffer and more recently through self drawn up injections... there was a long period of not even needing to have them with me as opposed to the last few weeks of needing them in my bag, not just the car or desk...

The other thing is that I've often had a throat bug and bad reactions together... I suspect it's been the increased inhaler because of throat stress bringing on the reactions!!

Either way this has cost me the end of my footy career due to weakened knees and it being too risky to play even Golden Oldies now so I didn't finish on my own terms... this has just been a sad end to something I've always enjoyed... had to end sometime, but I wanted to choose and I'd have given anything for one more trot on to No2 Sportsground to wave farewell and walk off on my terms!! Albeit at the end of a Fourth Grade season!!