If you invite me over for a nice Italian meal.....

don't be offended if I turn you down.

I love garlic. I love garlic bread. I love garlic on my fries. I love garlic all over my spaghetti. I love cheesy garlic bread from Red Lobster and garlice sauce over pasta.
But the garlic has never been that fond of me. It's always punished me a few hours after ingestion, with a hour or two of gastointestinal discomfort and a day or so of swollen tongue and lips.

But that's not enough to stop me.
Oh, no. I'm not that easily swayed. Garlic fries are worth the few minutes (hours) of distress.

Wednesday evening, the garlic fought back a bit harder. In fact, the garlic has totally won the war.
I found out just what the garlic could do and just how much of it I could handle.

By Thursday afternoon, I was reduced to a dried out husk of a woman who could barely stand. I was so dehydrated.
At 4, my sister picked me up (and my niece came to watch all the boys) to haul my very ill and sorry self off to the ER.

I felt silly going to the ER for and IV. I've done enough ER trips with the boys to know that the doctors hate dealing with these little issues when they have real trauma going on. I hated to be one of those "little" issues but I was so miserable and could barely even sit up.

They took me back right away, which isn't saying much since there were only 2 other people there..one of which was a toddle with a fire ant bite.

ER doc was a hoot. He tried to make us laugh but I couldn't follow the conversation enough to really get the jokes. My legs had started cramping and my fingers were becoming numb. After a bag of fluids and some meds, I was still in no better shape. I couldn't even answer the doctors questions without thinking really hard.

After a few tests, the ER doctor came back in and announced joyfully,"You flunked them all....you get to stay." I didn't quite get it. "You're being admitted," the sweet nurse explained to me, "You're severely dehydrated and very sick."

Oh good. I didn't want to be a little problem.

The rest of the story is short. I stopped counting at 7 bags of fluid. I weaseled out of the contrast MRI test. (The test dye is a laxative and causes nausea. They quickly rethought that idea but not quite fast enough.)
I had no viruses, no bad bacteria, and no sign of any life long serious disease. I also was not digesting anything and had effectively kicked off the lining of my intestines.
After 2 days of torture, they determined that the garlic had to be the culprit or all my troubles and it was to be avoided from here on out.

Then they sent me home to follow up with my IM doc and get a referral to an allergist.
I'm still on liquid diet today and tomorrow. Tuesday, I can can add some starches back into my diet. It will be another week until I can eat meat again.
I can't wait. I am so craving a nice steak....without the garlic.