Surprise! As we sat down to eat at my grandmother’s 80th birthday party, I anxiously dug into my plate of barbeque. I had come home to St. Louis from Atlanta and had deeply missed my family’s barbeque with the homemade sauce. So I filled my plate with ribs, pork steak, wings and mostaccioli ( a saucy St. Louis dish ). I ate beyond the limits of my belly and went on my merry way. Later that evening, I began to sweat and itch in my abdominal area and lower back. I ran to the bathroom, lifted my shirt and found red blotches all over. Two things came to mind… one, take a benadryl and two, an allergic reaction has occurred.
Since every item on my plate that day was a meat item, I decided to temporarily eliminate each meat option from my diet to weed out the culprit. I started with pork because, well, who needs it anyway, but the itching continued. Next I eliminated beef. I had done this before and felt 10 times better so I said a cheerful farewell, but the itching continued. I thought to myself, maybe ground turkey was used in the mostaccioli instead of beef, so I removed it next. Can you guess what I’m about to say? Yep, the itching continued.
One sunny afternoon, as I was driving home and eating a “holy” deluxe chicken sandwich, I immediately began to itch. It was as if jackpot sirens began to blare all over my body. I was flushed with sadness because I had just moved down the street from this cheerful chicken place. It was finally at my disposal and I had to give it up. I made peace with thinking, “maybe I can’t eat chicken from there” and proceeded to try chicken from a different source. I went to the store, fried up some wings and began to itch again. It was official. Chicken was the guilty party and it had to go. I had found the source of the itching but what about the sweating? That’s a story for another day!
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Joia
