“I hope that one day future generations will understand food allergies better, and grow to understand what people need/deserve.”

Food allergies have never been a part of my whole life, in fact not even half of my life. Rather it has taken up 2 years of my life, and I’m still navigating through all the hardships. Now that I’m older and having these severe allergies, I realize the importance and severity that a person has to undergo to live life. I developed my first food sensitivity my sophomore year of high school, I didn’t understand why the symptoms were happening nor did I know that in the future these symptoms would become permanent and in fact developing at a rapid pace. Although these symptoms were happening to me, it seemed no doctor could get to the bottom of it. Navigating through many trials and tests, no doctors could get any positives on my allergy tests. The only thing that stood out was diagnosing me with Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS) and avoiding all fruit. Yet I still continued to stumble across a few mishaps along the way, but in the end it never could have been anaphylaxis. Right? A couple months in my senior year of highschool, I left my school in an ambulance because I was experiencing my first severe and life threatening allergic reaction. After being discharged from the hospital, the doctors did in fact confirm I did go into anaphylaxis. But that was impossible! I had OAS not anaphylactic shock. A couple weeks later me and my mom went on this hectic journey to multiple doctors, but it seemed that nobody could find out what caused the impossible that day. Then one day a doctor stepped in when I was having a medical emergency, where he then gave me another epi pen, and offered to take me in that same week to see what what had been going on. After running multiple labs and tests, he determined that I did in fact have severe and life threatening allergies to oranges, lemons, cherries, and peaches. I felt so relieved, I finally had the answers that I longed for! After that, I didn’t go to the ER for a couple of months, until one day I left school in another ambulance after I was struggling to breathe. I grew up never realizing how important and severe food allergies actually are and how these allergies aren’t being taught properly in school. Millions of people we grow up with everyday like friends, family, and colleagues struggle with severe and life threatening allergies and we never know what to do. I now look back two years ago and I realize that although these allergies are a curse itself, I know what it’s like to live allergy free and how everyday people like me two years ago don’t know what to do if something were to come up. I hope that one day future generations will understand food allergies better, and grow to understand what people need/deserve. Because in the end severe and life threatening allergies, come in all shapes and sizes.

- Malia B.