Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett

My latest audio book to hear was an unabridged version of Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett. The book is a story of a banking family and the world situation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The fortunes of the Pilaster Family in London is the primary thread of the book. It is a good story and an interesting look into a segment of history that I had never investigated. A good read!

Allergic to Chocolate

I was sitting in my comparative anatomy class, minding my own business when I began to feel a strange sensation around my mouth, nose and chin. It felt as though my face was swelling. I covered my lower face with my hand left hand and continued to take notes till class was over.

I then went to the infirmary to see if the nurse had any idea of what to do. When I walked in she looked at my face and said, “Uh oh, allergic reaction.” I said, I was just sitting in class and had not been bitten by a bug, nor had anything else happened I could think of that would be the cause.

She asked me what I had eaten for breakfast. I told her nothing, only had a coke on the way to class. She asked what I had for supper last night, but when I told her, she said that was not the problem. Next she wanted to know what I had eaten after supper. I told her my wife had made a pan of brownies and I had eaten several while they were still warm, with a glass of cold milk!

Her immediate reaction was, “that’s it, you are allergic to chocolate.” I let out a shout heard all over campus “Nooooooo!”
I said I had eaten chocolate all my life and never had a negative reaction. I said “maybe it is coca cola, I drink lots of cokes”. She replied that coke has chocolate in it. I was devastated, losing chocolate and coca cola all in one moment.

I asked if there was any doubt. She told me that I could go have a series of tests run to confirm, but that she had no doubt. She suggested that I go a few days without chocolate and then try a bite and I would know the answer soon enough.

Since I did not really want to know, I went a week or so without chocolate. But one morning my 2 year old was eating a Marathon candy bar and offered me a bite. Without thinking I took a small bite, congratulating my baby for her spirit of sharing.

Within minutes my body was covered with welts the size of golf balls. I was miserable and very sad. I then went about three months without any chocolate. At Halloween the girls brought home lots of goodies and I opened a little box of Milk Duds, three measly Milk Duds! Within a few minutes of eating those morsels my face began to swell, my windpipe closed off and I was gasping for breath.

I decided that day that I like breathing more than I like chocolate, but it is only by a very narrow margin!