By the time the night was said and done I was famished, so I got to pick the restaurant we did carry out from.

I hadn’t had this restaurant’s food in years, but I absolutely loved their buffalo chicken mac ‘n cheese and was craving it hard since we had been hovering around its location all night long.


Now. My doctor wants me to stay away from dairy because of the recent alpha-gal diagnosis. I’ve obeyed that request fully, including using $10 plant-based Greek yogurt and insanely priced plant-based protein powder as the staples in my morning smoothie. But yesterday I got my iced coffee like I had always had it…with milk…and I can’t tell you how much better it is than having almond milk in that decadent drink. Zero regrets with that allowance, and I felt the bold “fuck it” when I placed the order for the mac ‘n cheese.


It wasn’t until after 9 that I actually got to eat it, and my…gawd. It was just as incredible as I remembered. The creamy roux sauce. The melted cheese on top. The juicy tidbits of chicken.


But then I tasted something else. Bacon. I had completely forgotten it had bacon pieces welded to the melted cheese on top. I panicked for a second fearing that I may have pushed my luck too far by introducing actual mammalian meat to my allergic system.

Dude. I continued the “fuck it” train and kept eating because the damage had been done at that point.


The thing with alpha-gal is that a reaction can happen anywhere from 2-6 hours after exposure to the sugar in meat that the effects of the tick bite make it hard for my body to process now. My immune system reacts to the foreign invader and a series of reactions can occur, including anaphylactic shock, which I have EpiPens for.

I was getting sleepy on the way home because the adrenaline from the tattoo was wearing off, so I knew that that window was going to fall within my sleep. But I wasn’t nervous for some reason. Maybe my emotions were just that spent.

I put one of the EpiPens next to my bed and crazily enough, peacefully drifted off to sleep for the entire night.


What could’ve easily been a very bad night as a result of my negligence ended up being the best night of sleep I’ve had all week. I blame the emotional effects of the tattoo. …and the comfort meal I suddenly remembered from a different time when everything was far more settled than it is today.


*I will be more cautious in the future though. The universe has a wicked sense of humor and I’m not pressing it’s leniency anymore than I have to.