The breaking out and swelling continued off and on for several days, which prompted me to contact an allergist. Dr. A. ran the typical allergy tests... foods, dust mites (yes), etc... and discovered that I was allergic to those nasty mites and corn. She decided to put me on a pear, lamb and rice diet... perhaps the same diet your DOG was on when suffering from skin irritations. I had to log my meals for 30 days to see if we could detect any additional triggers.

The random outbreaks continued. There was no consistent pattern that would help us identify triggers, and after 90 days on my "doggie diet" the only thing apparent was the 30 pounds I had lost after dumping all of my favorite foods and gnawing on lamb bones and white rice. Next, the doctor added plain yogurt (yuck) to my diet in hopes that some "good" bacteria (probiotics) might bring some balance to my immune system (talk more about that later). She prescribed 5mg of Zrytec, daily, which she would bump up to 10 mg after six months. The angioedema and the uticaria seemed to vanish after the dosage upgrade... for the time being anyway.

I returned to eating "people" food and proceeded to gain most of weight I had lost within a few months. AND THEN...