Weirdest Freaking Allergy

I've been making cookies for the past three days. It's this great recipe from my friend Krista's blog and I've been having a great time making them and giving them away and of course eating them. My face was itching on Monday but I chalked it up to the dryer weather and the fact that I'd forgotten my moisturizer that morning. Later in the day while dropping cookies off at various friend's houses my face was red and bumpy (sorry to every one who had to see me that day...) and again I wrote it off as a reaction to the weather and the need for moisturizer. The next day I was up and baking again since I'd given them all away. My friend and I got together and we made about 6 dozen or so and split them. We were laughing and baking and having a great time and had tons of tastes (to make sure they were okay of course). When I got home my face was itching again and I reminded myself to pick up some stronger moisturizer the next time I was out. Our home teacher came and as he was leaving Jason asked me if I'd been outside today because I looked a little sunburned. I told him no, I'd been inside, baking. He grabbed me and took me into the kitchen and turned on all the lights. My skin was an angry red and bumpy and it was itching. "You're having an allergic reaction. What did you eat today?" he asked me. I told him nothing different. I had a sandwich for lunch that wasn't any different from any other day and the cookies I'd eaten were the ones I'd made so the ingredients weren't crazy. I took benadryl and the reaction went away.

This morning I woke up and started thinking about my weird reaction and looked up the ingredients from my cookies. I found that sassafras is a fairly common allergen that causes dermatitis or itching and swollen skin. Ummm, yeah that's what I had. So apparently I'm allergic to sassafras, the main ingredient in root beer....awesome!! How weird is that?


I'm gonna miss you....