So sorry to hear of this!

I must admit that I'm less inclined to think you are dealing with a food allergy but, instead, had a reaction to the chemicals and/or iodine present in both of the processed food items you consumed - especially the Doritos.

Supposedly, allergy seasons have become increasingly worse.

My suggestion is that you evaluate your diet to make it more Graves'-friendly.....and keep records of the foods you eat so you can identify any trigger foods.

Hi:

I went to the FritosLay.com website and found the ingredients for something similar to what you had and wow, it's loaded with bad, bad stuff! There's MSG, GMO sugar, corn this and corn that of different types which definitely are GMOs.

I haven't been able to eat Doritos in quite awhile as I would get hypER and but my eyes didn't get effected like this though.

So sorry you went through all that. :-(

{{{hugs}}}

Well, I never thought of this aspect ladies. It definitely was an allergic response to something in the Doritos. I had some regular ones before that and nothing happened. Some chemical perhaps. But since I had a similar reaction with pepper cheese from a cheese factory I assumed it to be the pepper/spices.
What is a GMO? Something that makes the graves worse?
Just last week I decided to try to go gluten free to help my Graves and arthritis. For the few days I tried it did help. However we had guests on Saturday and that's when I had the Doritos. Big mistake!
I guess when I do the allergy testing I will know for sure.
Thank you for your opinion.
What's wrong with corn? So is gluten free a good way to go?

GMO means genetically modified organisms found in foods. GMOs are harmful because of the chemicals and toxins put in or grown in such crops that a person's DNA gets changed.

I eat organic foods as much as I can and avoid all processed chemical/toxin laden foods/drinks.

{{{hugs}}}

I had a very strange and severe allergic reaction last summer. I was at the ER 3 times in 24 hours. I had huge hives all over and my throat was swelling shut, it would get better and they discharged me, but the hives kept coming back in cycles -- the meds weren't working. At it's very worst, my tongue and mouth were very swollen and the Dr's were waiting for me to completely stop breathing before performing extreme measures (tracheotomy). It was very scary. Eventually the hive cycles became less and less severe, but the whole thing lasted a week.

When I went to see an allergist afterwards, he said my skin was too sensitive to perform a skin patch test, so I never found out what the culprit was for sure. I didn't eat anything unusual that I could think of. However, I suspect there may have been something growing in my re-usable water bottle. It had a built-in filter and it had been very hot the day before... and it was the only thing I was ingesting during those first 24 hours. I even had it with me at the ER the first 2 times. Maybe it would explain why my hives kept coming back worse and faster each time... until the last time when it was so severe that I had to rush back to the ER with no water bottle. After that 3rd and worst bout was when it started to improve. Maybe it was mold? Or bacteria? I am deathly allergic to penicillin, so who knows....

I started carrying Epipens after that, but haven't had any hives since. I agree that our messed up immune systems make us GD-ers tend to have more allergic reactions.

Sorry, that was super long, but wanted to share my similar, mysterious allergic reaction story.

Just to add, I obviously tossed my re-usable water bottle after the incident. I've been super-paranoid about my water since then. I even got rid of my Brita.... and for a while drank tap water at home, even though the water in LA tastes pretty bad!

I just recently found out that I have a very severe shellfish allergy and
about 5-6 years ago I developed allergies to what I now know is grass pollen.

I am not sure if these are due to grave's or just a part of getting older.

Well thanks ladies! So I am not alone in developing a sudden allergy. It makes sense I guess that if you develop one autoimmune disease you could get more.
FYI, I went to the allergist yesterday. She tested me with a spice panel and for "fun" the environment panel. I was allergic to anise, cumin, and curry. Not jalapeo or other pepper surprisingly. And the environment panel I reacted with all trees! My! The Dr thinks By rubbing my eyes I set off the reaction. It probably wasn't from eating but more contact. I am now very careful about rubbing my eyes. Probably will stay away from spicy chips forever.
I am trying to eat better, cut out diet soda and less wheat in my diet. My arthritis has improved already.
Thank you for your two cents.

You're very welcome, Mary!

DId your Dr. run a blood test or a skin panel? Like I said, mine said my skin was too sensitive to do any skin tests (I get welts from a normal scratch of nothing), and he ran a couple individual blood tests for tomato, potato, etc., that all came back negative. He was reluctant to run any allergy blood panels because of the cost, so I'm wondering if you had better luck?

I had the skin tests. 62 of them! All the trees itched like crazy right away. It seemed like a pretty good test. I was surprised by the spices.i have eaten all three before and didn't have a problem.

That's great that you got the skin test and very interesting about the spices! It's been a year, so maybe my skin is less sensitive in general now, so I'm hoping I can get a skin panel done at some point.

Take care!