The Unfortunate Allergy...

Sometime during last football season Deaner and I decided that we would have a chili cookoff and invite our parents over to be the judges. We are both extremely competitive and stood firm in our individual belief that we each made the best chili. There is no need to mention who won the competition (me) but we discovered something much more interesting. Don't ask me why but Deaner decided that he was going to chop up no less than a pound of cilantro for his chili. Shortly after he demonstrated his excellent knife skills he started to complain that his sinuses were bothering him. Since there was nothing wrong with him prior to us starting to cook, I did think it was sort of odd. When the congestion and scratchy throat didn't subside for the next 72 hours we chalked it up to him having cold and I never thought about it again. This past Thursday we went out to a new mexican restaurant. Deaner ordered some sort of tacos and it came with a bowl of chopped up cilantro. After complaining about how bland the tacos were, he proceeded to load up each of the three tacos with the cilantro. 20 minutes later he couldn't breathe out of his nose and his throat was scratchy. This has seemingly confirmed what we suspected last year. He does in fact have an allergy to, of all things, cilantro. Who would have ever thought?? Today is Sunday and he is still having issues. Now the funny part begins.....

Deaner is acting as though this new found allergy is going to be the death of him. On the six hour drive up here to Virginia I was telling him about my friend, Christina, who really does have a deadly allergy to peanuts. I told him the story about how in 6th grade someone accidently wiped peanut butter across Christina's forehead at a "Double Dare" birthday party. She had to be picked up and taken to the emergency room. Just from having peanut contact on her skin! Think about if she actually ATE a peanut. You can imagine my surprise when Deaner responded "that sounds a lot like my allergy"..........huh????? You cannot be serious! While I know that he was partially kidding, I realized that he really does this that his new found allergy is serious! I wonder if we are going to have to start inquiring in restaurants if certain dishes are prepared without cilantro?? Maybe we will have to start dining only in "cilantro free" environments!! :)

Luckily enough, I think that Deaner's allergy is going to be just fine. I don't think that we will be making any trips to the emergency room if we do happen upon an accidental ingestion. Just as good that we know about it now. I don't think I can take another 30 minutes in the Food Lion in Danville browsing the immense selection of Food Lion brand decongestants!