You ladies are smart. I'm reaching my wit's end with my FSIL and I want your input on whether I'm being a total B or if I'm right in being completely aggravated. This is probably not going to be light reading, so bear with me.
FSIL has an allergy to cats. Not anaphylactic, but pretty severe (hives at times). She decided to start getting immunotherapy allergy shots, basically harrassing your immune system (from what I've read) to get it to become more tolerant of the allergens.
Now she has always had a sensitivity to onions. It runs in their family. Runs in my family too, so I'm sympathetic. She starts to claim the allergy shots are making her more sensitive to onions. Makes sense, I suppose. She goes so far as to say that onions can absolutely NOT touch her food, or she'll be worshipping the porcelain God for a few days. Okay that's fine too.
But then it starts happening with dairy. Then peanuts, Then salmon. Then corn. Etc. I'm thinking, "Shouldn't you STOP the shots if you're suddenly unable to, you know, eat?" But she doesn't. She keeps going.
Now here's where it gets interesting.
She's CONVINCED that "cheese proteins" (her words, not mine) can migrate from someone else's plate at a restaurant and get into her food. She seriously believes that the solid food that she's not ingesting is leaving it's essence on her food and making her sick. Does she continue to go to restaurtants? Of course she does, and makes a scene pretty much every time or takes about 30 minutes to order. I tolerated this when this first started happening, thinking it was an adjustment period. But it still continues, and this is almost 2 years later. Even when SHE picks the restaurant days in advance, it takes her a million years to order when we get there. You'd think she'd look at the menu or something. She also says "I'm allergic to _____" but she doesn't have allergy symptoms, just GI stuff.
Here's the BEST part. She makes cheesecakes for her husband. With real cream cheese. Then she tells everyone not to bring any dairy over to dinner parties she throws cause then she'll have to "bleach the kitchen". But she HANDLES THE CREAM CHEESE. I don't understand. I really don't.
I am quickly losing my patience. She makes every get together that involved food (read: all of them) about her and her "allergies". If she was consistent with her problems, I think I would be fine. I had a good friend with Krohn's disease where dairy would literally kill her because it could eat a hole in her stomach and make her septic. I totally get having issues. But she was still going to restaurants and being pleasant and prepared for what she knew she had to deal wth.
But FSIL is somehow unable to cope with her "allergies". She is always making a fuss over something and dinners that are held in someone else's honor always end being about her and what she can't eat, how "proteins" are getting into her food from someone else's plate, and her basically being a real pain to be around the entire time.
Now, I ask you. Is this real? Could this possibly be a legit problem, or is she just throwing a hissy fit for attention? I'm not a doctor, but I've talked to a couple pharmacists and nurses that are friends of mine and they all think this is baloney. Any medical types out there?
EDIT: And when I say "migrate" I mean, without touching. The proteins literally levitate through the air and get into her food. This is what she believes.