A woman who is “allergic to everything” can only eat oatmeal at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Caroline Cray, 25, was diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) – which causes recurring severe allergy symptoms – in May 2018.
She first realized something was wrong when she ate an ice cream and went into anaphylactic shock – spending 12 hours in hospital – in September 2017.
She had three more severe allergic reactions that month to bread and pizza.
After eating rice and beans with her family, Caroline reacted again and spent 12 days in intensive care.
After 10 months of tests, she was diagnosed with the chronic disease and now has a diet consisting only of oats and EleCare – an amino acid-based baby milk.
Caroline says she still enjoys the Christmas season and spending time with family and friends – despite her restricted diet.
Caroline, a healthcare recruiter, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, said, “When I was younger and able to eat normal food, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday.
“I used to love the food, but that has definitely changed.
“I tend to lean a bit more towards Christmas as there is more focus on other areas like gift giving and putting up decorations.
“This is my fifth year on the oatmeal diet and it’s hard.
“I’d be lying if I said I don’t fight because I do.”
After a string of anaphylactic shocks in September 2017, Caroline claims she was initially told her allergies would clear up within months.
She said, “In the fall, when I was experiencing the recurring shocks, my allergist and the ER doctors were under the assumption that my reactions would only last a few months.
“They put me on antihistamines and took me to a specialist.
“It was really discouraging that a few months later I was really sick.
“Every day I wondered if I was going to end up in hospital, I had a really tight throat and I was itching and short of breath.”
After a 10-month wait, Caroline was diagnosed with MCAS in May 2018.
She said: “I was emotional, which was very surprising to me.
“I’m a very cut and dry person, but me and my mother, Julie, 59, were both crying.
“It was validation that someone was finally like ‘this is a chronic disease and we need to treat it as such.’
“It was 90 percent relief and 10 percent ‘oh my god I’m going to live with this for the rest of my life’.”
Caroline must take a mixture of medications including Xolair injections every 14 days, daily antihistamines and Hizentra every seven days.
She also avoids foods like nuts, kiwi, sesame and mustard.
She said: “My diet consists of oatmeal and EleCare – my biggest trigger is the process of eating and digesting food.
“I’m meeting with my MCAS therapist to try different foods.
“I’ll try single foods one at a time, so if I have a reaction, we know exactly what it’s for.”
Since March 2024, Caroline has been participating in food trials to see if there are any foods she can eat.
She has tried chicken, lamb, sweet potatoes and broccoli, but has had allergic reactions to the foods.
Caroline said: “I’ve tried food but nothing has worked yet.
“We have introduced small amounts of a single food to see how I react or if I react.
“Unfortunately, I had a reaction to the food I tried.
Caroline says a silver lining to the holiday season is that Christmas and Thanksgiving are held at her house, so she can easily prepare her own meal.
She said: “I’m in my own home so I can prepare my food the way I want.
“In the first two years of my diagnosis, I didn’t want to eat in front of anyone.
“Of course it’s difficult because food is at the center of the holiday season, but there are many factors that make me feel included in the Christmas ritual.”
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