So Sad! Spuds No More!

This is me, after realizing I'm developing an allergy or some other adverse reaction to potatoes:

For the past few months we've been eating the super simple McDougall way. On weekends I would make soup for our dinners; Mondays and Thursdays would be rice and veg meals; Tuesdays and Fridays would be potato meals; and Wednesdays were sweet potato meals.

Once in a while I would cook up one of those mesh bags of tiny Gold potatoes and eat them with a veg and either ketchup, gravy, or a nutritional yeast-based cheese sauce for lunch. I even got my son in the habit of eating these delicious little gems.

But the past few weeks I noticed some weird things happening. While eating those tiny taters, or soon after, my throat would get this strange itchy and swollen feeling and my sinuses would get inflamed, and they would stay like that until I woke up the next morning. 

I was also eating russets at dinners once or twice a week but nothing happened after eating those, so I "knew" it wasn't potatoes themselves in general. Ha!

The first time it happened I assumed it was the sneezing spell I had during lunch and thought nothing of it. The second time there was no sneezing but the same thing happened. The third time I only ate 4 leftover tiny taters and by the third one the throat thing started so I stopped eating them. An allergic reaction to something that was sprayed on them, either in the field or the warehouse or stores? Or something in the potatoes themselves?

Now came the experimentation. I tried russets, whites, red, and yellow/Yukon Golds, in both conventional and organic versions. I also varied where I bought them, in case it was something happening in one store and not the others. At first the russets were fine, but then I started to react to those, too. Same thing was happening no matter which variety of potato I ate or where it came from. In fact, near the end of my trials the feeling was starting after the first few bites. 

What turned out to be my last day of experimentation really worried me. I saved testing the russets for last, because I had previously eaten them with no problems, even while reacting to the Yukon Golds. I guess something inside of me changed, because now I was getting the same reaction - the swollen sinuses, itchy and now swelling throat - after just 2 bites. I immediately spit out what was in my mouth.

For the next hour I hung around the house fully dressed, purse packed, ready to go to the ER if things got worse to get a shot of epinephrine if needed. My husband was ready to call 911 if things progressed too fast. Luckily the swelling started to subside a few hours afterwards and he and I started to relax.

So no more potatoes for me. My son already said he would finish up the few we still have in the house, especially now that he got into the habit.

But I don't dare eat another potato.

Hence the sobbing.

Now I don't know whether I should avoid all nightshades vegetables, too, like peppers and tomatoes. We eat the three of those foods at least daily, many times 2 or 3 times a day. I'd really go crazy if I can no longer have tomatoes, too!

Darn this auto-immune disease! I never know what's going to happen next!