Ugh

Well it has been just over a month since I was diagnosed with allergies. A seems to not be growing out of hers, which is very frustrating, since I had some hope she was. She had a reaction that seemed out of the blue right after I had one of those "what else could go wrong with this breakfast making" episodes that involved eggs. I can only assume she got exposed to something that wasn't cleaned off well enough in the aftermath. She also seems to break out from wheat, which I gave her with her allergist's permission. I have given up on milk, soy, and peanuts, although I am still struggling to figure out how to balance that with real life. It isn't a problem at home really, I mean, I was already making 3 different meals each mealtime to accommodate our needs, so what is one more. But eating at other people's homes is a problem. We have to pretty much refuse everything offered and I feel like I am so rude. People use food to show feelings - whether it is welcoming you, loving you, showing off to you, whatever. I have to reject these offers of emotion and it doesn't always go over well. I feel bad about it, and I am an emotional eater, but now I can only eat vegetables (because I have oral allergy syndrome to fruit associated with the protein from birch trees - apples, pears, nectarines, etc) To make it worse, people are enthusiastically asking me if I am losing weight. Do I seem to need that really bad? Anyway, I have seriously considered forgetting it, at least the milk allergy, and just dealing with the unpleasant side effects, but not only is that unpleasant, but what kind of an example is that for A? How can I tell her to take care of herself and avoid things that her body rejects, and not do the same myself? Putting off what I want now (peanut butter cream pie), in order to bring about something good later (not feeling sick, better health), seems to be a good thing. But man it is hard to give up the immediate gratification. I think I will come out of this a much more disciplined person. Except I will not come out of this at all. Maybe I should consider some of those miracle health supplements - oh, yeah, everything contains soy, so doing so could kill me. I guess I will just have to live with it.