A honeybee sting nearly killed me when I was eight. It happened as I was running barefoot across a clover-scattered lawn to a neighbor’s house for a swim. I don’t recall much else – apparently I soon went into anaphylactic shock, passed out in the pool and woke up the next day at the same hospital where my dad worked as a surgeon. I had been drifting in and out of consciousness for over twenty four hours and my body was a mass of hives. I was exquisitely lucky to be alive.

When I recovered, I began receiving regular injections of bee venom from an allergist to build up desensitization in my body, and when that series was finished – maybe sometime during high school – I always carried an Epi-pen, JUST IN CASE.

After the bee sting episode, lingering physical contact, ingestion or inhalation of various matter triggered different levels of histamine reactions in my body. I could go months, perhaps a year and then, bingo, a wool sweater or blanket would bring symptoms. Penicillin and latex gave me hives. Morphine, caused anaphylaxis (I discovered this while on a drip immediately following my c-section I had to deliver my son). Sustained hand contact with citrus or tomatoes, or the eating of penicillin mold-inoculated cheeses, and drinking fine red wines resulted in painful weeping eczema. Various mold exposure, synthetic fragrance (over-sprayed Abercrombie and Hollister stores are the WORST perpetrators – just strolling past one makes me wheeze), and many cleaning supplies made my lungs and eyes itchy and constricted breathing. However, none of this occurred with any rhyme or regularity or reason – sometimes the triggers, um, triggered, and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes food didn’t feel good to me when I ate, and other times it did – I wasn’t truly paying close attention to what I was eating and how it affected me specifically until maybe the last ten-fifteen years when I ate what I believed to be a “healthy” diet all of the time. All whole foods, which, of course,  included plenty of whole grains. Frequent episodes of irritating eczema, occasional histamine reactions and tweaky problems with respiration were simply a fact of life. I did notice that I felt most optimally nourished and well on days when I went grain free.

A couple of years ago after catering a party with Karen, my dear friend and colleague, I sat down and enjoyed a big bowl of an irresistibly tasty farro salad we had prepared. I remember how good it was, dappled with sweet roasted baby root vegetables, loads of fresh mint, pops of heat from slivers of fresh chiles, and hardy olive oil. A welcome bowl of heavenly comfort after  long days spent working on our feet. Sometime after falling asleep, I awoke in the middle of the night with both arms covered in blistering welts – pain so intense that I showed up at the dermatologist begging for a shot of cortisone as soon as the office opened the next day.

I stopped eating farro (because, I reasoned, I must only be allergic to farro), but continued to ingest wheat and other  grains, whole and refined. Grains always made my belly feel tight or bloated and my mind lethargic, but hey – they were whole, which supposedly best for you, and carbs made everyone bloated and sleepy – right?

Spring of ’10 brought the onset of constant, fiery pain in many of my joints. There was a debilitating frozen shoulder on one side. Knee and hip pain on the other. The shoulder was treated accordingly and thankfully, fully recovered, but the knee and hip pain remained. I chalked it up to wear and tear from decades of working in the restaurant and catering business, and age. I lived with nagging stiffness and pain and daily doses of Alleve as a pre-breakfast appetizer.

Earlier this summer I was stung by a wasp which had been hiding out inside the sleeve of a dress in my bedroom. Without hesitation I swallowed a benadry capsule. My Epi-pen was in hand, poised and ready. I sat and waited (which you absolutely should not do if you believe that you are allergic – immediately call 911). Was a wasp sting the same as a honeybee? I didn’t know. My breathing was steady and I remained calm. There weren’t any hives. I drove myself to an Urgent Care and thankfully, I was fine and promptly made an appointment to see an allergist – it had been years and it was long overdue to discover whether or not I had outgrown my known and potentially lethal allergies.

My doctor drew blood to check for the big culprits of honeybee (a wasp bite is not equivalent, I discovered), penicillin, and latex . He inquired about other things going on in my body and I started to both joke and complain about the joint pain. I think I’d better give you a series of scratch tests, just to check on some other hunches and possibilities. Sixty scratches and twenty minutes later we discovered that I am very allergic to wheat, particularly whole wheat. Very allergic to barley. *Corn, rye and hops, are not really my friends (it makes complete sense now why I was never much fun at keggers). He believed the joint pain to be attributed to those foods, that they cause inflammation in my body and result in an allergic arthritis. My entire history of allergies are interwoven, systemic, but it is now abundantly clear that my ingestion of particular grains are the foundation of the bulk of my allergic issues.

The great news? The pain quickly disappears with the removal of those grain culprits from my diet (it also reappears as soon as I tempt fate and eat them). I don’t require medication. Sleep is rich and breathing is deep. There is no postprandial lethargy or headache. My concentration is sustained and clear. Anxiety has abated. A side perk is that I’m most definitely leaner. The usual battery of triggers don’t fire as frequently, if much at all. This isn’t Celiac Disease – I am allergic to certain foods and eating them negatively affects my quality of life. It feels a bit insecure not to be carrying an Epi-pen, but the blood test results indicate that I am no longer allergic to honeybees, penicillin, morphine or latex.

Tonight I was craving pasta as a vehicle for lovely summer tomatoes, amazing Thaxton’s garlic, and a bit of creamy robiola cheese I found lurking in the cheese drawer. I opened a package of **corn spaghetti and set that boiling that while I sauteed the garlic in butter and olive oil, followed by the tomatoes, diced, just until the tomatoes began to soften, with a good pinch of salt. I tossed the pasta with some of it’s cooking water in the simple sauce, added plenty of snipped chives and tore the cheese into nubbins – better to melt, lush and tangy into the hot pasta. Tomatoes, butter and corn. Simple, and summer-satisfying. My belly and knees feel happy and I didn’t crash the way I always did after eating a pasta meal.

I tried a little bit of a gluten-free beer crafted by Green’s which was on the sweet side, but was not compelled to sip on more than a small glassful. My friend, Carol Blymire, has Celiac Disease. In addition to her acclaimed, Alinea at Home, she has started a wonderfully informative new blog, Gluten For Punishment, and recently gave a shout out to Bard’s Gluten-free beer. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy the Bard’s a bit more. If not, there’s always tequila-la-la. The 100% blue agave IS my friend.

*I don’t seem to get much reaction from cooked corn, only raw.

**The pasta was from BioNaturae, which I now see contains soy – a no-no for me for other reasons so I will not be using this pasta again.