I’m An Alpha Gal

Are you an Alpha Gal, too?

I’m covered in a rash and I can’t think straight. My tummy hurts and I don’t feel great. I get up at 3 am ‘most every morn. It has gone on so long, my patience has worn. I can’t quit wondering how and why, or if there is anything else I could try? 

At first, I groggily determine that I’m one of those people who need bi-phasic sleep (there’s a name for it.) If I’m lucky, I’ll go back to sleep and get my 6-7 hours in two blocks. So, I get dressed and have my morning cup-a and go about my day to the best of my ability.

But time goes by, and the brain fog doesn’t get better. There are good days and bad days. After a while, I acknowledge to myself that I can now only tackle a few tasks in a day, not my normal workload—a fraction of it—and I’d better spend the following day reviewing my work from the day before. It’s just aging, right?

I itch. All over. Especially at night. I wake up with claw marks on my legs and arms. When the rash heals (it sometimes does), I have little welts all over from the scratching. Lingering wounds from the rash. The rash I have sleuthed high and low to discover the cause of. The doctors look at the rash and scratch their heads. Itch cream, maybe?

Is it food? What food? I start eliminating things and paying attention but can find no pattern.

Is it chlorine from the pool? Maybe they changed the pool treatment system, and the rash is from the water. But then I’m out of the water for several weeks, and I still get the rash.

Perhaps it’s the red wine I like to drink after dinner. A time of teetotaling demonstrates that is not the cause.

I know! It’s the neighbors! They are spraying poison to kill weeds. I must be having a reaction to the poison! The no-spray signs go up but the rash continues.

Could it be the mold in the basement? I go to doc #2. Or more like, Doctor of Number Two. Is it a digestive problem? Do I need to detox?

It is interesting what a body can get used to, and how symptoms gradually increase. And are ignored. Like that frog who started in a cool pot of water, you don’t notice that rolling boil until after the cooking has already started. It’s just a hot tub, right? But there is always the last straw. The one we mistakenly blame for the poor camel’s back breaking.

The final straw for me occurred at a busy time. I had a need for ready-to-eat food made by myself, (I was still eliminating everything in fear of causing a rash. A bizarre, intermittent rash.) I went to Costco and made a few weeks’ worth of meatloaf and froze it for meals. Now, I’m not a big meat eater. And I’d already eliminated cheese (mostly) in fear it was causing my stomach upset. So, when I increased my beef intake from 4 or 5 times per year to 4 or 5 times per week, I got a noticeable reaction. Right away.

I was lucky enough to have an accidental REAL test to guide me toward the cause of my condition.

What happened? The rash goes nuts! I’m a lobster. I look like I’ve been at the beach and burned to a crisp all over. As the rash begins to fade, it peels like a sunburn. The itch feels like it is on the inside now, not just on the surface of my skin, under my skin. In my bones! I can’t breathe. I call the doc for an inhaler. The asthma of my youth is acting up big time.

And then there’s the elephant.  Yes, there is one in the room, too, that I haven’t named yet. But there is also the one on my chest in the middle of the night threatening death.

Then someone mentioned Alpha Gal.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Could you have been bitten by a tick?”

“Ha! I pull ticks off myself all the time!”

I finally end up at an allergist. I test positive for Alpha gal, with confirming results of beef, pork, and lamb allergy.  And thus begins my journey into the seven realms of hell (you thought I was already in hell, didn’t you?) which I will describe—along with my journey of recovery—in this series: Are You An Alpha Gal, Too? Come along for a wild but informative ride.