An Illusion Of Hope

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In a sense I've acted pretty stupid in the last few days, in addition to being an autistic idiot for practically all of my life. But, in a way, I've been smart too. To cut to the chase, I may have uncovered the reason I have had the trouble I have had with my lips swelling and a sore, irritated tongue that had caused me lots of misery. I may be allergic to cinnamon.

My brother and I had lunch together yesterday morning. As usual, I was whining about how hard it has been for me to just eat my food and enjoy it the best I could, in fey consideration of the food the greasy spoon we were eating at would allow.

It's what I call "lunch room food". It's the same type of come-from-a-gallon-can food dumped into a boiler and warmed up that they serve in the high school lunch rooms. The fact that it was the only food some students got to eat all day made my snotty complaints unworthy.

My brother pretended to be listening to me as usual. He's an Aquarius, and nothing if not skilled at pretending to be intrigued by everything anybody has to say if it's directed his way. Recently, in the last week even, he arranged to be tested for his hearing, and subsequently bought the latest technology in hearing aids. His dismissive "pretense" may have just been necessary because he is fairly deaf according to the audiologist, who obviously knows a sucker when he "sees" one.

Maybe my brother would have told me the story of his associate earlier if he had actually heard what I was whining about. The story was about his doctor's mother who complained of having the same problems I describe having, and it turned out that she only had these problems when she ate cinnamon. His story immediately perked up my persistently struggling attention span.

I have a history with eating cinnamon with the oatmeal I prepare for breakfast perhaps 4-5 times a week. I love the taste of cinnamon in my oatmeal that I make for myself. It's the easiest, simplest way to eat something in the morning to have something in my belly when I swallow all the pills I take twice a day or more. Only a few of them are prescribed. I'm a health nut of sorts and I eat lots of supplements just to make sure.

It's not just a sprinkling of cinnamon I've been putting in my oatmeal either. I have used, in the past, as much as a half a teaspoon full, if not more, to give the bland oatmeal some zing. I always buy the large container of cinnamon to make sure I have enough.

I also put maybe twenty or so raisins and some canola or olive oil in the mix, but it's the cinnamon that actually gives this concoction an exotic taste. Who doesn't need a little exotica for breaking one's fast?

When I got back home I immediately Googled up "cinnamon allergies". As usual, Google returned about ten zillion links of which may ten were actually about what I needed to know. One of the papers on this dentist's presentation was about a woman who experienced somewhat the same sort of distress I complain about.

His report was aimed at other medicos and written in their own technical jargon, but I understood enough to ken the gist of his problem in diagnosing what went on in his efforts to give his patient some relieve. Several times in his report he stated that she did not respond to the standard food allergy tests he arranged for her to undergo, and that mystified him in a way.

He prescribed prednisone to alleviate her symptoms, and that worked for a while, but the symptoms always came back, This went on over a few years. Her visits were infrequent. In between her telling him what she ate, and him patiently listening, it turned out that she had a habit of using cinnamon flavored chewing gum along with eating other cinnamon flavored foods. He told her to stop doing that, and it eventually solved her problems.

Reading this story along with others of a similar ilk immediately gave me hope. I got so excited I could hardly contain myself. I "knew" this was the solution to my problem, but I've "known" stuff like this a thousand times over that turned out to be a false alarm, so I'm apprehensive that I may be fooling myself again. Still, I do eat a lot of cinnamon.

I've meditated on how recently I've fixed oatmeal with cinnamon recently, and whether when I skipped a few days without doing it, if I experienced any relief from the symptoms that make eating a living hell. I "think" I've discerned a bit of difference. Only the complete abstinence of cinnamon from my diet will tell the tale.

I've been actively dealing with these symptoms for weeks now. I've tried everything that usually gives a modicum of relief without much ease. I had a bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon just two mornings ago, so I don't think I can trust in any signs and omens that I'm allergic to cinnamon just yet.

The dentist's report that prednisone helped his patient get some temporary relief offered me an option that I took immediately. I have an ongoing prescription for prednisone that's associated with the rheumatoid arthritis.

I've been instructed to ease off from the use of it because a continued use ain't healthy, and I've done that, but I've been hurting because I can't eat comfortably, and the symptoms are 24/7, so I popped a couple of 5 mg pills to seek some immediate relief, and to help me get through the period of time it might take for the last cinnamon I imbibed to wear off.

Taking the prednisone really helped. I can at least swallow now without as much pain as usual. I took some more this morning. There is a self-imposed limit to how many more times I'll do this. A couple of more days at best. Then, I'll back off to 5 mg for a couple of days and stop taking it.

By then, along with a total abstinence of putting cinnamon in my body, should give me a sign that cinnamon is the culprit that's made me dis-eased. If I'm right, then not eating cinnamon will be the easiest solution I've encountered to make life more bearable. I'm highly skilled at refusing to do things other people seem to find irresistible.

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