Close sesame

So, I've been rather off the "bladar" (blogger radar...is that going too far with abbreviated terminology?) this last week but I have 2 excuses:

1) Blogger was being a SNIT about uploading photos, and since all the posts I want to write include photos, well, I just got disgusted with the whole process and decided to give Blogger the cold treatment.

2) Sesame seed oil. At least, we think it's the culprit. Here's the story:

Wednesday night was Adam's birthday, and I wanted to make a veggie stir-fry recipe I'd found in Real Simple magazine this month. I used ingredients that I bought a while back for a recipe and then haven't had an opportunity to use again, among them being rice wine vinegar and sesame seed oil.

We ate late and then watched a movie and then went straight to bed. I got up yesterday morning and saw very puffy eyes in the mirror and thought, good grief, what have I rubbed into them? I showed them to Adam and he said, take a Benadryl and it'll be okay, so I kissed him goodbye, went to the bathroom, started my shower, pulled my t-shirt off and nearly screamed when I caught a glance of my skin in the mirror. I had hives so thick on my chest that I looked sunburnt. And they were up and down my arms and I also realized, on my face (the puffiness was red upon closer examination). So I called my mom and asked her to please come down to my house immediately. Mom came and looked me over and appeared really befuddled and concerned. She made me take a Benadryl immediately and said, sit on that phone until you get ahold of the doctor. I called and they let me come into the office as an emergency. And then my chest started to feel tight. I told Mom I really didn't think it was anxiety because I was actually quite calm. When Dr. Records came in and heard that my throat was tingly and my chest was feeling heavy and tight, he took one look at my skin and immediately left the room. He came back with an inhaler and made me take 3 puffs to open my airways, just in case. Then they gave me a shot of steroids in my hip to kill the hives. We talked about what could have done this, and we just had to conclude that it was one of those cooking ingredients, since I've used all my other stuff (medicine, detergent, etc.) for YEARS. Dr. Records said he'd go with sesame oil as the culprit. A quick Google today has informed me that sesame seeds are the 4th highest food allergen (HUH? Who knew this???). So now I want to get an EpiPen, because sesame seeds and their oil are used in a ton of things and I don't know how much of a quantity of sesame oil constitutes an allergic reaction in my body??? Is it high, like frying all veggies and rice in it? Or will I break out/stop breathing if I have it in low quantity, like if I have a hamburger on a sesame-seed bun? This is scary!

Anyway, there's my excuses for not blogging lately. Just another chapter in Becky's medical drama book. Sigh.