I am allergic to metal!  Yes, all metals!  It’s insane to think about and even more insane to live with, but I make it work.

How did it all start

At the time, I was working at a cell phone store and a radio station here in Cleveland.  One fated day September 19, 2013, my world came crashing. I left my work, my face felt a little itchy.  I looked in the visor mirror and there were tint white bumps all over my face and arms. I panicked! I’d never been through this before and even worse I didn’t have health insurance.  I went to 3 different hospitals locally, they all turned away as I was too poor to pay the co-pay. Until I got to the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center (Cleveland Clinic), they had no issue signing me up on a low-income plan.  I met with a Nurse Practitioner who had no idea what was going with me. So she set me up with an emergency appointment in the Cleveland Clinic Allergy Department.

Here we are

The next day, I arrive to my appointment.  The first person I met was a young Black woman, she was gorgeous. Her hair was natural like mine, her earrings were intricate like mine, her attire was modern eccentric like mine, she even wore glasses! I thought this girl was for me! I just knew she would have insight on my issue. Well, she didn’t.  My hopes for a quick resolve fleeted.  She was the first doctor who could not diagnose these crazy itchy spots, then three doctors later I made it to one of the heads of dermatology, Dr.Natasha!

Dr.Natasha knew her stuff! Until she didn’t. I was tested multiple times for scabies, syphilis and all types of venereal diseases. Thankfully, I had none of those. However, the medicine for what was possibly scabies was super expensive, $120!  From there I couldn’t bare it, the cost of medication was entirely too much!

Prescription after prescription and nothing worked. I was allergic to something but no one could figure it out until Dr.Natasha in her deep russian accent spoke four life altering words, “You’re allergic to metal”.

Metal? What do you mean metal? She stated I had a nickel allergy and to just stop wearing items with that contaminate.  However, being a fashion forward woman, it wasn’t that simple. Now, everywhere I looked had metal, everything I touched was metal, everything I ate comes in metal.  Metal, metal everywhere and not a bit of it should I touch.  So began the journey of MyCrazyAllergy!