Dr. Grumpy: "Any allergies?"
Mr. Cereal: "Nuts... Hey, do you know it's safe for me to eat Honey-Nut Cheerios?"
Dr. Grumpy: "Umm..."
Mr. Cereal: "I mean, I know it says 'nut' in the name, but I wasn't sure if they really have nuts in them, or if they just say that".
Dr. Grumpy: "Have you read the ingredient list on the side of the box?"
Mr. Cereal: "No, why?"
Obviously, I'm allergic to nuts, too, of a sort...
A&P: TURF to psychiatry.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think that TURF is the answer to almost all your patient's questions/problems. ;-) & that maybe I should reconsider my prospective career choice, lest I end up on the 5p news for idiot bashing. :-}
I always just tell them "you never know until you try." Is that bad or something?
ReplyDeleteMJH- not at all. I think Darwin did research on that subject.
ReplyDeleteCareful, Blaze, the "Diversity Police" will get you. Being an utter moron is protected in our society as a viable alternative to awareness.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound like an allergy. People with food allergies know how to read ingredient lists (and about FAAN).
ReplyDelete"Ask your doctor if Honey Nut Cheerios is right for you."
ReplyDeleteIt always astounds me how many risks people take with serious allergies. We actually had a friend DIE at a restaurant from peanut allergies. WHY would you eat out if you knew it was playing Russian Roulette? Don't get it.
ReplyDeleteThe operative word there is "read."
ReplyDeleteAnd that is a non-starter for most people these days.
Frantic Pharmacist- Yes. I love the phrase "RTFM".
ReplyDeleteHoney Nut Cheerios contains almonds, actually. I know this because my sister was insisting it was peanuts. There may or may not be traces of other nuts in it, I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteI'm allergic to tree nuts, and am obsessive when it comes to reading ingredient labels. It isn't hard to do, you just have to turn the box. Yikes.
I had an allergy to red food dye. Thankfully, it is no longer a problem.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when it was active, I read EVERY label before eating. I would eat over other people's house, and if I thought something had dye in it, I would ask to see the container... so I could check the label.
How hard is it? Read the label!! If it says NUTS or some specific nut, DO NOT eat it.
Actually, there used to be real nuts used in Cheerios, but as of 2006, only almond extract is used. Google it. So she was right about the nut thing, but I can't believe how some people take risks like that. If you're allergic to nuts, can you eat nut extract without getting a reaction?
ReplyDeleteI'm allergic to grapes and nuts. Can I eat GrapeNuts?
ReplyDeleteI gave a patient 'calcium lactate' and the next morning she called and told me that she had the worst stomach ache and diarrhea after talking the pills. She explained that she was lactose intolerant and forgot to mention it to me. I had to tell her that this was not an allergy because there was no lactose in the formula, it just sounded the similar. It was lactic acid and calcium together to form calcium lactate.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that allergies, in large part, can be purely psychosomatic. In this case she became very embarrassed, tried the formula again and tolerated it without any problems.
Our thoughts can be very powerful in healing and harming.