Lactose Allergies

When you are young and you have an allergy, you will usually outgrow it when you hit puberty. One example is my friend Heather, who was severely allergic to peanutbutter. And then when we were twelve she only broke out in hives. She can now eat peanutbutter any time she wants. Another example is one of my elementary school classmates Brian M. who couldn't eat anything, had to take pills all the time, and wear gloves or else he would scratch all of his skin off. As far as I know, he is no longer wearing gloves and he can eat now.

I wish very much that I had been allergic to something when I was little, because now I am allergic to cats and lactose. I'm not lactose intolerant, I am actually allergic to lactose. And as anyone that has known me for more than five minutes understands, I like cheese. So this is a problem.

The first time I realized I had allergies was when I was at my friend Andrea's house. She had a cat named Tom, and he was super cute, and liked to sleep on my head. I didn't really appreciate the sleeping on my head part because he really liked my head and would knead it with his paws and claws. So not only did I have cat scratches all over my head, I was allergic to the scratches and his dander and his saliva. It was not fun waking up to a fat cat on your head scratching the bejesus out of your forehead and ears. It's even less fun to wake up feeling like death the next day.

However, cats are not the be all end all pet for me, so I just figured when I had a place of my own, I wouldn't own cats and I would just steal my little brother's allergy medicine (because he is one of the lucky ones with allergies as a child) whenever I went to Andrea's house.

It was much, much more disappointing to find out I was allergic to dairy. I had always heard stories about lactose intolerance where the kid finds out by pooping his pants when he's ten. I didn't poop my pants, I just became progressively sicker and sicker. Even when I knew in my heart of hearts that I could no longer eat dairy or I would face dire consequences, I still drank milk, and ate ice cream and cheese. It seemed like the worse my allergies became, the more dairy I would eat, just to prove to myself that nothing was wrong, and I just had a cold and the flu and ebola.

I just had a cup of coffee with milk in it and my throat is scratchy and my nose is runny and I'm not 100% on whether or not I'll throw up. The cat doesn't seem to be bothering me, but I have as yet to touch it. Hopefully it does not enjoy sleeping on people's heads.