A patch test showing severe reactions to nickel, chromium, and gold are a pretty good indication that the crazy swelling, burning, itching, fatigue and general ick you’ve been experiencing are in fact being caused by your braces. Now what?

What happens after you find out you are allergic to braces?

Well, your first reaction is, “THANK GOD, I now have proof that I am not a hypochondriacal freak”.

Your second reaction goes something like this:  “I’m such an asshole for letting this go on so long. When will I feel better? Am I poisoned? What can I eat? Why are my eyes flaking over? Why , Why, Why?”.  Add lots of tears and crying in bathtubs full of Epsom salts and you pretty much have a perfect picture of what the last 2 days have looked like for me.

I’m pretty sure I have toxic levels of nickel in my body. I’ll have a full panel of test; urine, blood, hair. There is talk of a plan for chelation but apparently I am not “stable” enough for that yet. I’m pretty sure that term applies to my mental state as much as it does my physical state.

Apparently, chelation can make you very sick. More sick than I already am? Fun times.

If there are phases of recovery in whatever you call this thing I’m experiencing I imagine the phase I’m in would be called,  Google Overload.

I have read way too much about metal toxicity, chelation, low nickel diets, and allergies in general. I have to stop myself. I’m going on an info black out. I’ll go crazy, like Helen Hunt when she jumps out the window in that really bad 80’s After School Special: Desperate Lives…. (skip to 2:01)

I scream for ICE CREAM! I would say that my family seeks out the best ice cream in whatever neighborhood we find ourselves in but really it is me. I have a legendary sweet tooth and our weekend outings often include a visit to a neighborhood sweet spot.

I’m a huge fan of YELP because I love to go on and read what people say and see the pictures of what they’ve eaten.  Based on what Yelpers had to say, I was pretty sure Milk was going to be good and I was not disappointed.

We had been to the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits so it was quick shot over to 7290 Beverly Blvd in the Fairfax neighborhood. When we arrived around 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon there was a line out the door but I knew to expect this based on Yelp reviews. We waited about 20 minutes and as the line passed through the front door I was surprised to see that they aslo serve soups and sandwiches. I didn’t see anyone ordering food but they also had a number of tasty looking treats in a bakery case around the side of the front counter.

I ordered a mint chocolate chip macaroon ice cream sandwich ($5). The ice cream was lovely and the macaroon was a surprisingly delicious twist on the cookie I typically experience with an ice cream sandwich.  Katherine ordered a cookies and cream ice cream cone ($3.50 for one scoop) and the boys both ordered milkshakes called The MILKIE Way Malt (vanilla ice cream, malted milk, chocolate chips and caramel-chocolate swirl). At $7 a shake you can expect a miraculous concoction and both boys were in gluttons’ heaven and they had to fight off my husband who was trying to abstain from sweets on that day. I was really happy with my ice cream sandwich but I think it is safe to say that the boys hit the jackpot with their orders. It isn’t surprising to me at all that LA Weekly chose to feature Milk and this particular milkshake in a piece title “10 Best Milkshakes in Los Angeles“. (post published note: not that I’m obsessed with this milkshake or anything, but while searching for photos of this shake to pin I discovered that this milkshake was in fact designated 2013 Best Milkshake in Los Angeles. There ya go!)

Don’t expect to eat inside or to find a place to sit outside if you go when it is busy. People on Yelp also complain about lack of parking but we actually had no trouble parking in a metered spot across the street. We’ll definitely visit again.

So, I’ve pretty much been in HELL for the past three months.Here are a few photos of what it looks like when you put braces on someone who has a severe allergy to nickel, chromium, and gold (the photo on the left is my “normal” face):

Imagine waking up every morning with your eyes swollen shut. Imagine your skin burning from the inside out. For a control freak, never knowing when this thing is going to really flare up is crazy making. No amount of Zyrtec or Benadryl seemed to get it under control when it was at its worst. Creams and ointments burned my skin even more.

The day after I had the braces put on my teeth I called my dentist because I noticed my face swelling a bit. No, not possible, nobody is allergic to braces. A week later I had my most severe reaction and ran to my dermatologist. The photo on the bottom was taken in her office.

She put me on a short course of Prednisone and it helped quite a bit but I decided pretty quickly I wouldn’t be able to sustain that type of treatment and come out on the other side weighing less than 400lbs.

One of the worst situations was when I had a flare up during the week of 5th grade Science Camp. I had volunteered to spend the week as a cabin leader and since camp is “my thing”  I was pretty excited about it. I began to feel the fatigue set in the day before we left and in the back of my mind I think I knew what was coming on. There seemed to be a pattern. The swelling and burny/itching came shortly after the fatigue set in. This picture on the left was taken in our cabin. The girls I was in charge of were rather horrified by the reaction but we got through the week and it was quite fun.

I kept a photo journal mostly because the doctors I would see never seemed to understand how severe the flare ups were or would say things like, “well, it isn’t possible that you could be allergic to something where the reaction would stop at your neckline. “.

Most days my face and neck were just itchy and burny and the swelling seemed to bekept at bay by continuous doses of Zyrtec in the morning and Benadryl at night. When things flared up I would double up on Bendadryl and just stay in bed sleeping my life away. It was terribly depressing.

After about a month’s time I was desperate and started looking at non-traditional alternatives. 

Acupuncture, Chiropractic and NAET treatments. This is definitely a topic for a future post. On this crazy journey I stumbled on NAET, Nambudripad’s Allergy Eliminations Technique, an interesting and controversial method for allergy elimination or as my practitioner called it, “desensitizing”.  I won’t go into detail in this post but if you are at all interested you can Google Namudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique and you’ll find plenty of info. Our family jokes about my “Voodoo” doctor but, while I wasn’t cured, there were some very real benefits from the treatments I did receive. In all, I did a month of acupuncture, NAET and chiro treatments. I started out very skeptical but after seeing the x-rays of my spine and jaw I jumped in and even although my allergy issues were not fully resolved I can say that some of the jaw issues that sent me to braces in the first place have now been resolved. bang. A lot of good things have come out of this painful journey.

Lyme, Lupus, Autoimmune diseases. These are all words that were tossed around by different doctors. Terrifying – I’ll leave it at that.

Patch Testing – Ironically, it was my dermatologist who finally said “enough” and ordered Patch Testing. This was not a fun thing at all. I also had to wait through three weeks of holidays because you have to get the patches on a Monday, checked on a Wednesday and then a final reading on a Friday. So I sucked it up through the holidays and then went off antihistamines one week beforehand and for the week of testing. This was traumatic and terribly uncomfortable but within 48 hours of the patch testing it was pretty clear what I was reacting most severely to. Nickel, Gold and Chromium.  HELLO BRACES.

My dentist was pretty surprised. I was not. Several times throughout the past three months I have pointed at the braces and I regret not having been more forceful in my original conviction. Live and learn.

Today I had all of the metal removed from my mouth. I will begin a low nickel diet and will eliminate chromium going forward. I’ll stay away from cheap costume jewelry and Gold… hello Platinum. I hope to feel better soon and with any luck, knowing what I’m allergic to will allow me to become healthier than I have been in years. That would be nice.

I wish I had blogged the entire thing because it’s been a ride.  I’ve learned a lot about allergies, the food we put in our bodies, and what it’s like to have people think you are a crazy fucking hypochondriacal lunatic.