Mangos

I love mangos. I have for quite awhile now. I think my uncle started me on them. They have such a strange flavor to them, really more of a weird after taste, but still none the less, yummy. Well, I think I have to finally get it in my head that I need to stop eating mangos. When I was almost 7 months preggers, I ate some mango at my uncle's dad's house. Well, I later start to notice my lips feeling like they're cracking in the corners and itchy around them. This was like the next morning. I just thought that my lips were chapped or something of that nature. I mean, I'd eat mangos all the time in Germany, why should it be different now? Well I come back up to Spokane a few days later, my lips getting worse. I can't figure out what's wrong with them and they start swelling and hurting. My MIL has some more mangos at home that my BIL gave to them a few days before. We start eating them, since you know, I love mangos and everything. Well my lips only get worse and start to get little bumps on them. Eating becomes a painful process. Overall, not very fun. I even go to an urgent care because my left eye starts to swell and hurt! So the doctor there tells me to continuously take benedryl. Well finally after like 2 weeks it goes away. I think at some point I ate another mango and it came back. That's when I started to connect the dots. I was having a reaction to the mango. Totally bumming for me. So I stop eating mango. My midwife then tells me that peaches are very similar to mango and I should avoid those too. So I do and the rest of my pregnancy goes good without any more swollen painful cracked lips. So after Jaeden is born, every once in a while my lips will start to crack and swell and do the same thing, minus the swelling of my eyelid. I can't figure it out, I didn't eat a mango or peach. It happened to do it a few weeks before my yearly check-up with my midwife and she tells me that it can be a vitamin deficiency. So I start taking my prenatals again. Didn't do all that much. So one trip while I'm down in California, I'm at pinkberry with my sister or my cousin (for those who don't know what Pinkberry is, it's a yogurt chain that is absolutely amazing! But like anything else, not everyone likes it. I didn't the first time I tried it, wasn't until the second time that I was hooked!). Well at pinkberry they only have 3 flavors of yogurt: plain (which is just a plain tart, my favorite!), green tea, and now pomogranite (which I like also), and they have a wide range of toppings. Fresh fruit, some cereals which are actually good on the yogurt, mochi (a rice patty/cake thingy), chocolate chips, etc... I usually got strawberries, then started getting raspberries also, then eventually got gutsy and added mango to the equation. And to my happiness, I didn't wake up with swollen, cracked, painful lips! So I continue everytime I go to pinkberry to get strawberries, raspberries, and mangos. No reactions. I thought the mango thing was over with. That is until I buy a nice mango at the store a few days ago. Well, I ate that mango last night. Want to guess what I woke up with the morning? Yes, swollen, cracked, itchy, painful lips. Not very pleasant. So here I sit, waiting for the benedryl to kick in and knock me out. Benedryl usually gives me restless legs so I hate taking it, I'm just hoping that I don't get them. The only thing that helps me with that problem is a hot shower. And I hope this annoy whatever it is that I have just goes away quickly. So now I've shared my story on mangos. It's more like a novel. Who knew someone could write so much about a fruit.... Hmmmm.. So there is a cell phone picture of my lips now. Not as bad in the picture, but believe me, I still feel it! Ughh!