DETROIT – You might recognize multimedia journalist Kila Peeples from Live in the D, where she loves to try new things and that includes new foods.
At 42 years old, she had never had any food allergies -- but suddenly suffered a reaction to something she ate. Now she’s sharing her story to warn people that they can suddenly develop food allergies.
Food allergies are common in children, but if you’re an adult without any allergies you probably assume you’re safe. That could be a deadly mistake.
“It was June 9, I’ll never forget it. I was eating dinner,” Kila Peeples said.
It was a dish she had many times before.
“I had my last bite, which I can close my eyes and see it. It was rice and shrimp and some sauce and I took the bite and then immediately the inner part of my lip started to itch. I didn’t think anything of it. I was just like, ‘Oh, that’s weird,’” she said.
She went to bed and then woke up a couple hours later.
“I noticed that my lip was twice the size. My upper lip was twice its size. Started, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, like, I must be, I must have gotten bitten by something,” she said.
She took Benadryl and went to bed.
“During the night my cats kept pawing at me and meowing and I didn’t get why they were doing that,” she said.
Hours passed and her lip continued to swell.
“A voice inside of my said, ‘Get up right now and go to Urgent Care.’ It was so serious and scary that I didn’t even -- I didn’t even doubt it,” she said. “I sat up. I turned out of the bed and I walked out the door.”
She said she felt lethargic and had trouble breathing. A nurse examined her.
“She starts to feel my throat. She was, ‘Oh my gosh. Your throat is closing up.’ And that’s when everything broke loose,” she said. “She just starts pushing in medications and at this time, I’m thinking, ‘What is happening?’ And, ‘Am I gonna make it through it?’”
She said everything happened so fast that it scared her.
“I thought I was dying,” she said.
The staff asked Kila Peeples what she had to eat.
“I’m like, I didn’t eat anything that was out of the ordinary. I had this and this and this and she goes, ‘Well, you might have an allergy.’ I’m like, ‘I have no allergies.’ She goes, ‘Now you do,’” she said.
It took several weeks and extensive allergy testing to find out what was truly to blame.
“I’m allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, especially hazelnuts and I have a mild allergy to coconuts and rye,” she said.
She had never experienced a food allergy before.
“I have eaten peanut butter my entire life. I’ve eaten Reese’s cups. Those are my favorite,” she said. “Hazelnuts and almonds and other nuts that are tree nuts -- I’ve eaten those my entire life and I’ve never had anything like that happen before until that day.”
Nearly half of adults with food allergies report at least one of those allergies developed in adulthood.
Dr. Annie Arrey-Mensah is with the Asthma, Allergy and Immunology Institute. She said food allergies can occur at any age and the reactions can be severe at any age. She said symptoms can seem mild at first.
“Runny nose, itchy mouth, itchy throat, some hives, itching on your skin. You know that feeling of a tickle in your throat, stomach discomfort,” she said.
Those symptoms can progress to a severe reaction.
“Constriction in the chest, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, to full blown systemic reaction that your blood pressure could drop, you could have cramps, you could actually go into full blown anaphylaxis -- which is shock,” she said.
If you experience any of those initial red flags, it’s critical to seek medical help fast.
“The terrifying thing about it is that, like, if you don’t know you have it, an allergy, and you have a reaction like that. It’s very easy to have something terrible happen to you. That was the scary part,” she said. “What if I didn’t listen to that voice? What if I didn’t get up and go to the doctor, go to Urgent Care?”
Kila Peeples now carries an EpiPen with her at all times and is careful to avoid the foods she’s allergic to.
“It literally happened for me out of nowhere and I think it’s important for people to know that it can happen over 30, over 40, at any time in your life as an adult,” she said. “It could be fatal and that’s the scary part.”
The most common adult onset food allergies are to shellfish, peanuts and tree nuts. If you suffer a reaction after eating food, don’t ignore it, seek help immediately.
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