W is for...Waiting, Wondering and Working

Hope everybody had a lovely Easter. I know I did. Well, I did until I had an incident.

I'd been thinking for a while that dairy wasn't agreeing with me. I was getting sick after I drank tea, was having a lot of nausea and other issues. At first it was mild, but over the past few weeks I noticed it had gotten worse. I tried a couple of days dairy free, and my symptoms stopped. So, I thought fine. I obviously have a food intolerance. That I can deal with. I can avoid milk products most of the time, and then occasionally I can indulge as long as I realise that there are consequences. Fine.

But yesterday was Easter Sunday. And I am a chocoholic. My husband had very nicely bought me a bar of Toblerone all for my very own self, and so I decided to do what any good chocolate lover would do. I ate three quarters of it. Only then did I discover I was not lactose intolerant, I have a full on allergy. My immune system went into full force trying to protect me, and the result was kind of scary. My body itched all over, I got bad nausea and headaches and my mouth swelled up. My husband wanted to bring me to the hospital, but we waited it out with antihistamines and water. Husband was very worried, I thought he was overreacting. He pointed out that I had rashes and tingling, I said that I'd had it for weeks. My husband, who has a severe allergy to paracetamol, said that they were symptoms of anaphylactic shock. Great. Every woman loves to discover she's allergic to milk on Easter Sunday!

But, on the bright side, I was vegan for a while, so I know how many great substitutes there are out there. And while I'm going to miss my Starbucks frappucinos, I'm sure I'll deal.

 Tomorrow I find out if I made it through to the ABNA semifinals. I don't expect to, competition is very strong and I'm delighted to have come so far. And I'm not going to lie, getting through would be amazing. But for now I just have to wait. And wonder. And work on my next novel.