I'm 24 years old, and I live with multiple life threatening food allergies.

This is how it impacts every aspect of my life.

Thing is how to be me way might be here all day, but peanuts, tree nuts except for coconut, soy, sesame, shellfish, fish, mustard, lichens and some fruits.

For me, my reactions happen fairly quickly, whether it's touching something that's basically immediate.

If I'm consuming something, my anaphylactic reactions have occurred about 5 to 10 minutes.

The symptoms started presenting after I consumed the product, so there are a number of products they always need to be carrying with me to make sure that will be safe.

And if I have an allergic reaction that I have them right away to use.

Most important ones are my ob accuse I always carry to everyone who has food.

Allergies should always carry, too, because the 1st 1 could not work or it could not be enough.

If your reaction is really severe, a lot of medications are also an issue.

When it comes to food allergies.

I can't have any products that across contaminated with peanuts or tree nuts.

So what that means is that any product that says may contain made in the same facility made on shared lines have to avoid all of those medications.

Don't have to label for that necessarily.

Capsule medication.

The tablet could potentially have dairy or soy ingredients that they use is the binder.

So I was younger.

It was thought that propofol, which is the version of anesthesia that they use in the hospital, could affect people with soy allergies.

So I had to have ketamine, so that was a crazy example, especially when I was, like, 15 years old.

By being the person who is organizing the plans, I feel like I have much better control of what's around, where we're going, what we're doing.

And I feel much safer.

There are sometimes occasions when I still want to go out with my friends.

They're going to a restaurant where I'm safe to sit there, but I can't necessarily eat, and I just want to be involved in be hanging out with my friends.

I don't want to miss out just because I can't eat the food that they're eating.

So if I'm invited to a party generally, the first reaction should be excitement But for me, it's like Oh, God, here we go Ah, lot of people in one room with snacks that are easily passed around and eating with your hands is not the best combination for me.

Of course, I still try to go, but there have been times that have had to leave parties just because people have crackerjack out or different things with nuts or peanut butter dips and things like that.

And so if that stuff is in the air, especially if the air is not circulating very well, I feel myself starting to react and it's just not worth it.

Dating is definitely don't I don't even know.

How did this guy dating with food allergies?

It's It's a challenge, for sure.

I can't I can't go around to meet somebody that night and then decide.

Oh, I'm I'm going to kiss them because, no, I need to lean in and ask them, Hey, what did you eat today?

So I recently went on a date and was trying to figure out what to do beforehand.

Should I text him and say, like, Hey, don't eat this But then he's expecting something, or should I not say anything and then just see what happens.

And then I realized that would make it even more difficult, because then I also need to watch what drink he's ordering.

So I figured he was just easiest to get it out of the way.

Like if they're going to like me, then they have to like my food allergies, so they need to get used to it from the beginning, whenever I've had a serious boyfriend, they have always known that they need to give up the peanuts and tree nuts in order to date me as long as they're avoiding my allergens and are receptive to me saying, Oh, by the way, you can't order that.

Dating so far has been okay.

Definitely a weird conversation to talk about, though, and if you Google it, you won't find really any advice.

Makeup is a bit of a challenge because not everything is always labelled.

So when I'm shopping for makeup, I always have to look at all of the ingredients to make sure that things were safe.

But specifically when the products are using different oils, so shale oil wand that oil, almond oil, macadamia nut, organ oil, sesame oil soyoil, and those are just a few.

So it's a long list of things that I'm looking out for and need Teoh kind of remember, and it's definitely a learning experience.

I learned the other day that one of the makeup products that I thought was safe had something that was derived from soy.

So what I generally tend to dio when I get a new product is I dab a little bit on my wrist just to check.

And if I start to get a reaction on my wrist, then I'll know that I should use that product.

Obviously wash it off immediately, but it's just a better way to check them, putting it on my mouth, eyes or face in general.

So this is the foundation that I use.

It's the tarte Amazonian clay, and I found that I don't react to it, has great coverage, especially when my skin's a little bit read.

If I'm reacting to something and something that's a little bit interesting, as I always have to keep the boxes, products and the ingredients are always changing.

So I wouldn't know the specific formula that I had and was using unless I kept the box.

If I were to ever start reacting and wanted to look back, I could always look at the box and see what was specifically in this.

And it's also nice because sometimes I can compare these ingredients to new makeups that I'm starting to use and so I can see.

Okay, I haven't reacted to the ingredients that were in this one, so it should be okay with that other new product.

So this is carat si facial oil A little bit of, ah, weird choice, but I don't react.

Carrots and not allergic carrots at smells kinda nice, and I like using it.

So basically, when my skin's dry, I always make sure to put this on before I go to sleep.

A lot of hair sprays have all different oils that aren't safe, This one.

I've been using it since I was little and doing dance recitals and needed toe hold my hair back in a bun.

So good old reliable with this one.

This is one of the Sephora lip palettes and the thing that's actually really good about this.

There are a lot of color, so that's cool.

But they also have the ingredients right on the package.

So with this, I don't need to keep the box.

I just got to keep the product, so that's a little bit exciting for me on my drawers, which are full of empty makeup boxes, two faces another brand that I have had some pretty good luck with, Whether it's their bronzers or their lip glosses, they label really well, and they use products that are safe for me.

A lot of lotions have ingredients that I can't use like shea butter, and those will be the ones that they generally advertise where they're saying that this lotion is the best because it has Shea butter or almond oil or different things like that.

This brand has been, say, for me, it is oatmeal based, so that's fine for me.

It has all of the ingredients listed here.

There aren't too money, which is always nice, and I have been able to use this brand for years with solutions.

It's very rare that he'll find a product that I can put on my face that won't make me read or itchy or hot or any of those things.

So I cook and bake a lot of my own food just because a cross contamination and the unknown.

So if I'm making something in my kitchen with brands that I know we're safe, I can guarantee I will not have a reaction to these foods.

But going to a grocery store involves reading the ingredients over and over and over again, walking up and down a 1,000,000 aisles to find that one product that I know it's safe to eat.

Shockingly, I can go down the peanut butter I'll those air sealed containers.

So it's fine, and I need to go there to get my son butter anyway, which is my peanut butter alternative.

I have a number of restaurants that are considered my Sief restaurants and those the ones that I go to where the people there know that I have peanut allergy or I've eaten there before and they've been able to a comedy.

So when I'm going to a new restaurant, it's a bit of a lengthy process, also involving a lot of nerves and kind of getting over that eso step one.

I looked the menu online to see if it will be safe for me to even go to that restaurant.

There are certain cuisines that I can't eat Chinese, Thai and Indian are the main ones that come to mind, too.

If the menu is safe, I will call the restaurant and say that I have Ah, very severe peanut and tree nut allergies.

I just list those when I'm calling because those the ones that cannot be crossed contaminated.

So once I go there, it's kind of starting the whole thing again and talking to the person who seats us and the waiter and making sure the waiter is communicating with the kitchen staff and anybody that needs to know.

And depending on the waiters reactions, there happen times that we've left restaurants.

If they're rolling their eyes and taking it like it's a joke, then I don't feel safe eating at that restaurant, and it's not worth it.

So with strangers, when they're going, Teoh pretty much remain strangers and somebody that I'm just interacting with briefly.

It's definitely challenging if I'm going to a job interview and it's expected that I walk in and shake their hand, but I shake their hand and see that they have a bowl of peanut Eminem's on their desk.

That's all I'm going to be thinking about for the entire interview, and there's no clear way to communicate that.

And then I have to kind of think about it and say, OK, is it worth it for me to say, Oh, I have food allergies, I won't shake your hand and then they'll think I'm rude Or do I shake their hand and know that I might blow this job interview?

Because all I'm thinking about are these peanut M and M's that are on their desk, situations like that.

It's hard to know what to do.

So I carry these wipes around with me pretty much everywhere I go to make sure that I will be able to safely touch whatever it is that I am looking to touch.

So on.

Airplanes, especially.

I always bring these.

We get to pre board because food allergies are considered a disability and we use those wipes to wipe down the see the light, the window TV and the tray like everything that you could think of.

And a lot of the airlines have stepped serving peanuts, so I have been able to travel more and out of the country when I travel out of the country.

I bring a food allergy card with me that's in the native language.

It's double sided about this big, and the front side says that I have severe allergies and explains that I can't have cross contamination or anything like that and how severe the allergies are.

And then the backside listed all of my allergies out.

While my allergy list here seems a little bit long in France, it was double that length because there's no word for tree nuts.

So I had to list all of the tree nuts out, and the restaurants and waiters that I was dealing with found those allergies to be a bit of a burden.

When I went to Italy, they were amazing.

I was able to eat in every restaurant that we walked into, and they have to label for the top 14 allergens on all of their menus.

So what?

I'm looking at a menu I can see based on a little number put next to each item.

What allergen is in that item?

A lot of the budget versions of things aren't available to me.

So whether that's makeup or food products or medications, ah, lot of the time.

I'm not able to use the generic versions because they have filler ingredients that I am potentially allergic to.

I'm really lucky that with my insurance, I'm able to get off accuse for free.

But a lot of people have issues.

Getting these medications, especially at depends there's now a huge shortage of them and the prices up.

The life saving medication that you need to carry around with you to be safe are through the roof.

They're crazy, expensive.

The food is definitely a big one for me to get.

A Sief brand of chocolate chips that's free of the top eight allergens costs $8 a bag compared to the $2 version that you could get at the store again.

It's not a choice that you have to use these products versus something that's a little less expensive.

You have to use these products in order to be safe.

Once I had my first and if lactic reaction where I had to administer the ah Becue to myself, things became a little more anxiety inducing.

For a while, I didn't feel safe eating anything because of this allergic reaction, so I basically stopped eating and had to work, to be able to feel comfortable eating again, because any time I put something in my mouth, I was convinced I was going to have a non if lactic reaction.

I had to develop different tactics that would help me kind of get through my meal and move on with my life when I was eating and after, I needed to distract myself.

So after I ate, if I knew OK, now I'm going to go to this activity or I'm going to watch this movie or I'm seeing these friends just having the next thing lined up.

So for the 30 minutes after I ate it, I wasn't sitting there focusing on every single tiny thing I felt in my body, thinking that it was going to be an honest, lactic reaction.

This morning I woke up, knew that I was coming to do this, and the first thing I'm thinking is please don't have a reaction, but that's something that I'm dealing with Every day when there are big days, I wake up and think, Oh God, am I going to have a reaction today?

Is it gonna ruin?

My day is going affect everyone else's day.

But those are the things that just kind of go through my head.

Sometimes as I've gotten older, I have realized that people are becoming more and more aware and conscious of allergies, and my life's only getting easier.

They're still working to find a cure, but I'm confident that they will, and new treatment options, things like that give me hope for the future.

That's great.