TIFU by thinking cold foods make your throat close.

So, I’ve always loved ice cream. I ate it all the time as a kid when I was allowed to. Every Sunday, honestly starting not too long after my twin brother and I could walk, we would go swimming at the pool at our great grandmother’s house and eat ice cream afterwards. Absolutely loved it. Loved tossing blueberries she grew in her backyard in the ice cream. 10/10 would recommend, just make sure there aren't any spiders still hanging out on the blueberries.

Sometimes I was a little hesitant to eat it because it always made my throat feel super weird. My throat would feel like it was swollen or closing. It happened with the ice cream and whenever I drank cold milk or used cold milk with cereal in the morning. Or if I grabbed a slice of cheese out of the fridge for a sandwich for lunch if I didn't have time to get something else.

Man, all of these dairy products were really making my throat swell! You see the pattern, right?

Well, little child me didn’t! Little Child Hufflehugs reasoned that it was because those things were so cold! Yes, that had to be it, even though I'd consumed melted cheese on things like pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches with the same aftermath! Cold things make your throat close up and make it a little hard to breathe! But I could still breathe pretty well, and the foods that I was eating were REALLY GOOD, so I just didn’t say anything and kept consuming those things.

The problem never went away, obviously, and now I’m in my 20s. I just got an allergy test done because I suspected I was allergic to my German shepherd. When they called with my results, the nice lady on the phone asked if I ever had any issues with dairy products making my mouth or throat itch/swell. I happily told her that, no, I’ve never had any issues, which is great because I LOVE milk, cheese, ice cream, and various other dairy products. She was silent for a second before saying "uh yeah you have a pretty severe allergy to milk, but if you’re saying you've never had a reaction then I'm not entirely sure" and I assured her it was totally fine but I’d be careful and watch for anything.

That was last month. Flash forward to today, about ten minutes ago. I’m sitting at my desk, eating out of a nice little tub of vanilla ice cream to soothe the pain of university starting again. My throat feels super weird. Immediately. Like the intelligent person I am, I eat, like, a quarter of the (very small!) tub of ice cream.

And then I get the random thought, “Hey. Wait. Does this happen to everyone?” No clue why I thought about it, but it was time to investigate. And so I go to my twin brother and I’m like, “Hey, does your throat close up when you eat ice cream, too?” He tells me it definitely doesn’t do that. I ask if he’s sure, and he says that he’s 100% sure it’s never happened to him.

And then we both make the same realization at the same time—this is an allergic reaction. Only it took him TWO SECONDS to make the connection whereas it took me, I dunno, A DECADE? And then I kind of mention the allergy test and he says “If you say what I think you’re about to say I swear to god.”

HAHA. WELL. "Yeah, the allergist told me that I have a severe milk allergy and I thought the reaction was caused by the ice cream being cold" was only partially what he was expecting. He told me that I definitely should feel dumb and reminded me of a post we'd read about a person who had allergic reactions to cantaloupe and kept eating it anyway, and then reminded me of how we both said "haha yeah that would NEVER happen to us, we'd definitely realize what was happening and stop eating that food! haha."

Well, now my unfinished tub of ice cream is being consumed by my milk-allergy-less brother while I wait for my Benadryl to start working.

If you eat something and it makes your throat swell, YOU'RE PROBABLY ALLERGIC, PLEASE STOP EATING IT.

TL;DR: Since I was a kid, ice cream and milk made my throat swell. I thought it was because it was so cold and I didn't tell anyone so no one corrected me. Was told I have a severe milk allergy, thought everything was fine, continued eating ice cream. Realized I am an idiot and had to take a few Benadryl. No more ice cream for me. Pay attention to your reaction to things, and if it makes your throat swell, DON'T KEEP EATING IT.