- My name is Sarah, I'm 24 years old,
and I live with multiple life-threatening food allergies.
This is how it impacts every aspect of my life.
[dramatic orchestral strings music]
This is how to be me.
- [Interviewer] Could you list out all the things
that you're allergic to?
[Sarah laughing]
- We might be here all day, but peanuts,
tree nuts, except for coconut, soy, sesame,
shellfish, fish, mustard, legumes, and some fruits.
[quick orchestral strings music]
For me, my reactions happen fairly quickly.
Whether it's touching something, that's basically immediate.
If I'm consuming something, my anaphylactic reactions
have occurred about five to 10 minutes,
the symptoms started presenting
after I consumed the product.
So there are a number of products
that I always need to be carrying with me
to make sure that I'll be safe,
and if I have an allergic reaction
that I have them right away to use.
Most important ones are my Auvi-Q's, I always carry two.
Everyone who has food allergies should always carry two,
because the first one could not work,
or it could not be enough if your reaction is really severe.
A lot of medications are also an issue
when it comes to food allergies.
I can't have any products that are cross-contaminated
with peanuts or tree nuts.
So what that means is that any product that says
may contain, made in the same facility,
made on shared lines, I have to avoid all of those.
Medications don't have to label for that, necessarily.
Capsule medication, the tablet could potentially have dairy
or soy ingredients that they use as the binder.
So when I was younger, it was thought that propofol,
which is the version of anesthesia
that they use in the hospital,
could effect people with soy allergies,
so I had to have ketamine.
So that was a crazy example.
Especially when I was, like, 15 years old.
By being the person who's organizing the plans,
I feel like I have much better control
of what's around, where we're going,
what we're doing, and I feel much safer.
There are sometimes occasions
when I still want to go out with my friends,
they're going to a restaurant where I'm safe to sit there,
but I can't necessarily eat.
And I just want to be involved
and be hanging out with my friends.
I don't want to miss out just because
I can't eat the food that they're eating.
[dramatic orchestral strings music]
So, if I'm invited to a party,
generally, the first reaction should be excitement.
But for me, it's like, oh god, here we go.
A lot of people in one room with snacks
that are easily passed around and eaten with your hands
is not the best combination for me.
Of course, I still try to go.
But there have been times that I've had to leave parties
just because people have Cracker Jack out,
or different things with nuts,
or, you know, peanut butter dips and things like that.
And so if that stuff is in the air,
especially if the air's not circulating very well,
I feel myself starting to react and it's just not worth it.
Dating is definitely ...
I don't even know how to describe
dating with food allergies.
It's a challenge, for sure.
I can't go around and meet somebody that night,
and then decide, oh, I'm going to kiss them.
Because, no, I need to lean in and ask them,
hey, what did you eat today?
So, I recently went on a date
and was trying to figure out what to do beforehand.
Should I text him and say, like, hey, don't eat this,
but then he's expecting something?
Or should I not say anything and then just see what happens?
And then I realize that it would make it even more difficult
because then I also need to watch what drink he's ordering.
So, I figured it was just easiest to get it out of the way.
Like, if they're going to like me,
then they have to like my food allergies, [laughing]
so they need to get used to it from the beginning.
Whenever I've had a serious boyfriend,
they have always known that they need to give up
the peanuts and tree nuts in order to date me.
As long as they're avoiding my allergens
and are receptive to me saying,
oh, by the way, you can't order that,
dating, so far, has been okay.
Definitely a weird conversation to talk about, though.
And if you Google it, you won't find really any advice.
[laughs]
Makeup is a bit of a challenge
because not everything is always labeled.
So when I'm shopping for makeup,
I always have to look at all of the ingredients
to make sure that things are safe.
But specifically, when the products
are using different oils.
So shea oil, walnut oil, almond oil, macadamia nut,
argan oil, sesame oil, soy oil, and those are just a few.
So, it's a long list of things that I'm looking out for
and need to kind of remember.
And it's definitely a learning experience.
I learned the other day that
one of the makeup products that I thought was safe
had something that was derived from soy.
So what I generally tend to do when I get a new product
is I dab a little bit on my wrist just to check.
And if I start to get a reaction on my wrist,
then I'll know that I shouldn't use that product.
Obviously, wash it off immediately.
But it's just a better way to check
than putting it on my mouth, eyes, or face in general.
So, this is the foundation that I use.
It's the Tarte Amazonian Clay.
And I found that I don't react to it, it has great coverage,
especially when my skin's a little bit red
if I'm reacting to something.
And something that's a little bit interesting
is I always have to keep the boxes.
Products and the ingredients are always changing,
so I wouldn't know the specific formula
that I had and was using unless I kept the box.
If I were to ever start reacting and wanted to look back,
I could always look at the box
and see what was specifically in this.
And it's also nice because sometimes
I can compare these ingredients
to new makeups that I'm starting to use.
And so I can see, okay, I haven't reacted
to the ingredients that were in this one,
so it should be okay with that other new product.
So, this is carrot seed facial oil.
A little bit of a weird choice,
but I don't react to carrots, I'm not allergic to carrots.
It smells kinda nice and I like using it.
So basically, when my skin's dry,
I always make sure to put this on before I go to sleep.
A lot of hair sprays
have all different oils that aren't safe.
This one, I've been using it since I was little
and doing dance recitals
and needed to hold my hair back in a bun.
So, good old reliable with this one. [laughs]
Well, this is one of the Sephora lip palettes.
And the thing that's actually really good about this,
there are a lotta colors, so that's cool,
but they also have the ingredients right on the package.
So with this, I didn't need to keep the box,
I just got to keep the product.
So that's little bit exciting for me, and my drawers,
which are full of empty makeup boxes. [laughs]
Too Faced is another brand
that I've had some pretty good luck with.
Whether it's their bronzers or their lip glosses,
they label really well,
and they use products that are safe for me.
A lot of lotions have ingredients
that I can't use, like shea butter.
And those will be the ones that they generally advertise,
where they're saying that this lotion is the best
because it has shea butter, or almond oil,
or different things like that.
This brand has been safe for me.
It is oatmeal-based, so that's fine for me.
It has all of the ingredients listed here.
There's aren't too many, which is always nice.
And I have been able to use
this brand for years with lotions.
It's very rare [laughs] that I'll find a product
that I can put on my face
that won't make me red, or itchy,
or hot, or any of those things.
So, I cook and bake a lot of my own food,
just because of cross-contamination and the unknown.
So if I'm making something in my kitchen
with brands that I know are safe,
I can guarantee I will not have a reaction to these foods.
But going to a grocery store
involves reading the ingredients
over and over and over again,
walking up and down a million aisles
to find that one product that I know is safe to eat.
[quirky music]
Shockingly, I can go down the peanut butter aisle.
Those are sealed containers, so it's fine.
And I need to go there to get my SunButter anyway,
which is my peanut butter alternative.
I have a number of restaurants
that are considered my safe restaurants,
and those are the ones that I go to
where the people there know that I have peanut allergy,
or I've eaten there before
and they've been able to accommodate.
[quirky music]
So when I'm going to a new restaurant,
it's a bit of a lengthy process,
also involving a lot of nerves
and kinda getting over that.
[laughing] So, step one, I look at the menu online
to see if it will be safe for me
to even go to that restaurant.
There are certain cuisines that I can't eat at.
Chinese, Thai, and Indian
are the main ones that come to mind.
Two, if the menu is safe,
I will call the restaurant and say
that I have a very severe peanut and tree nut allergies.
I just list those when I'm calling
because those are the ones
that can not be cross-contaminated.
So once I go there,
it's kinda starting the whole thing again,
and talking to the person who seats us, and the waiter,
and making sure the waiter is communicating
with the kitchen staff and anybody that needs to know.
And depending on the waiter's reactions,
there have been times that we've left restaurants.
If they're rolling their eyes
and taking it like it's a joke,
then I don't feel safe eating at that restaurant
and it's not worth it.
So, with strangers, when they're going
to pretty much remain strangers,
it's somebody that I'm just interacting with briefly,
it's definitely challenging.
If I'm going to a job interview,
and it's expected that I walk in a shake their hand.
If I shake their hand and see that they have
a bowl of peanut M and M's on their desk,
that's all I'm going to be thinking about
for the entire interview,
and there's no clear way to communicate that.
And then I have to kind of think about it
and say, okay, is it worth it for me to say,
oh, I have food allergies, I won't shake your hand,
and then they'll think I'm rude?
Or do I shake their hand
and know that I might blow this job interview
because all I'm thinking about
are these peanut M and M's that are on their desk?
It's situations like that it's hard to know what to do.
So, I carry these wipes around with me
pretty much everywhere I go
to make sure that I will be able to safely touch
whatever it is that I am looking to touch.
So on airplanes especially, I always bring these.
We get to pre-board, because food allergies
are considered a disability.
And we use those wipes to wipe down the seat,
the light, the window, TV, and the tray.
Like, everything that you could think of.
And a lot of the airlines have stopped serving peanuts,
so I have been able to travel more and out of the country.
When I travel out of the country,
I bring a food allergy card with me
that's in the native language.
It's double-sided, about this big.
And the front side says that I have severe allergies
and explains that I can't have cross-contamination,
or anything like that, and how severe the allergies are.
And then the back side listed all of my allergies out.
While my allergy list here seems a little bit long,
in France it was double that length
because there's no word for tree nuts,
so I had to list all of the tree nuts out.
And the restaurants and waiters that I was dealing with
found those allergies to be a bit of a burden.
When I went to Italy, they were amazing.
I was able to eat in every restaurant that we walked in to.
And they have to label for the top 14 allergens
on all of their menus.
So when I'm looking at a menu,
I can see based on a little number put next to each item
what allergen is in that item.
A lot of the budget versions of things
aren't available to me.
So whether that's makeup, or food products, or medications,
a lot of the time I'm not able to use the generic versions
because they have filler ingredients
that I am potentially allergic to.
I'm really lucky that with my insurance
I'm able to get Auvi-Q's for free,
but a lot of people have issues getting these medications.
Especially EpiPens, there's now a huge shortage of them.
And the prices of the lifesaving medication
that you need to carry around with you to be safe
are through the roof, they're crazy expensive.
The food is definitely a big one.
For me to get a safe brand of chocolate chips
that's free of the top eight allergens costs $8 a bag,
compared to the $2 version that you could get at the store.
Again, it's not a choice that you have to use these products
versus something that's a little less expensive,
you have to use these products in order to be safe.
Once I had my first anaphylactic reaction
where I had to administer the Auvi-Q to myself,
things became a little more anxiety inducing.
For a while, I didn't feel safe eating anything
because of this allergic reaction.
So I basically stopped eating and had to work
to be able to feel comfortable eating again,
because any time I put something in my mouth,
I was convinced I was going to have
an anaphylactic reaction.
I had to develop different tactics that would help me
kind of get through my meal and move on with my life.
When I was eating and after I ate,
I needed to distract myself.
So after I ate, if I knew, okay,
now I'm going to go to this activity,
or I'm going to watch this movie,
or I'm seeing these friends,
just having the next thing lined up
so for the 30 minutes after I ate
I wasn't sitting there focusing
on every single tiny thing I felt in my body,
thinking that it was going to be an anaphylactic reaction.
This morning I woke up, knew that I was coming to do this,
and the first thing I'm thinking
is please don't have a reaction.
But that's something that I'm dealing with every day.
When there are big days, I wake up and think,
oh god, am I going to have a reaction today?
Is it gonna ruin my day?
Is it going to affect every else's day?
But those are the things that just
kinda go through my head sometimes.
As I've gotten older, I have realized that people
are becoming more and more aware and conscious of allergies.
And my life's only getting easier.
They're still working to find a cure,
but I'm confident that they will.
And new treatment options, things like that,
give me hope for the future.
- [Interviewer] And that's great.
- [laughing] Okay.