Holidays

It's a lovely Easter Sunday here, as I sit homebound for the 3rd day. The last 2 were loaded with benadryl from a reaction beginning on Fri., right after I finished with my prednisone taper from a reaction that I couldn't get out of for a week. I know I have progressed with the disease of natural rubber latex allergy.

Because of this, I have missed 2 social functions this weekend. I rarely have social functions to go to, and, it never fails. I can't make it to them.

Holidays have never really meant a lot to me because as a nurse I worked half of them for 25 years. No one ever made their holiday plans around my work schedule. That includes 2 ex-husbands and their families. I pretty much became immune to holidays. I do have several that were my big favorites that I could participate in somewhere after I finished at work. I think I'll just list all that I can because I'm in a fowl mood, maybe withdrawal from the prednisone.

New Year's Eve-balloons are always part of the decor anywhere. Then in restaurant/bars, latex gloves are used for food service. Well, I usually sleep thru midnite anyway.

Valentine's Day-It does help to have a valentine, but I find I gift myself better than they ever did. I can't eat chocolate. :( I know from contacting Hershey's that they use latex gloves in the manufacturing plant. I'm learning from others that most chocolate makers use latex gloves.

St. Patrick's Day- a super day for an Irish lass. I always went out to celebrate! I'd dress in funky green clothes & take along my green food coloring for my beer. One year, I even went to South Hadley, Mass. They paint the center line green. The parade is 4 miles long. There is more everything in that parade than Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade. Every once in a while you go into the bar to refresh your drink, & warm up if need be. The whole parade route is a party, long after the parade has finished. The 2 very Irish bars that I would go to use latex gloves. The one right around the corner always has balloons. Now I just stay home & cook corned beef & cabbage. This is a huge dissappointment for me. Last year, my big few minutes out was to Wal*Mart with my Irish cap.

Easter-no chocolate says quite a bit right there. I've heard from 2 friends who already know I'm stuck at home. No one else has called, not even my out of state family.

All summer holidays I'm better off here. I would be reacting to the rubber from all the road traffic & road construction. Besides which, many people are out on the canal & the pathway. My friends tend to migrate here as well.

Halloween-another big fave is now a nightmare for me with rubber in masks, grease paint, the decorations. I use to dress up when I lived in the trailer park, not wise. I worked out a costume with sheets to be a ghost, but it still didn't filter out the latex protiens. No children come by where I live now. I don't even decorate, too much rubber exposure.

Thanksgiving-everyone is going somewhere. I do cook a nice turkey.

Christmas-I am allergic to my artificial tree, but I still put it up. The day is a family day: that's where everyone else is.

After 13 1/2 years with this, the dissappointments seem to get worse instead of better. I just can't let it roll off my back.

Sal