The Story from APM

Close Call

Monday, March 12 2007

CLOSE CALL

Susan Barber

Regular listeners to the program will know that Dick often asks for stories from listeners. Susan Barber emailed us with her story: dining in a restaurant 3 years ago, eating pizza with her husband, as she had at the same venue two weeks prior. She began to feel itchy, and her throat got sore.

This was no gentle awakening. It was full-blown anaphylaxis; a scream-in-the-ear assault on my body with a deadly weapon: food.
-Susan Barber

Susan survived her ordeal, but found that many restaurants don't really cater to the 12 million Americans with food allergies.  Susan now travels "self-contained" as she puts it, with her own food. She tells Dick that her sense of smell has intensified now that there are so many food items she can no longer eat. Walking down a street in Manhattan, she says, and catching the scent of restaurants and markets can actually make her feel full!

• Read Susan's original e-mail to us (includes a recipe!)
  
• Learn more about food allergies

Music heard in this story: La Golandrina (Italian Traditional) by Blue Mountains Trio for the album Music for Grand Dining