Did You Hear About My Allergy to Chocolate?

Archie Brown likes to recount stories of special moments in his life. Here is another of his oft told tales.

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 infirmiry 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 coverd 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!

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