Being allergic to alcohol

This is my story about being allergic to alcohol. It started when I was 19 strangely enough. I drank when I was 18 and was like everyone else but I am a real light weight. The side effects back then were nothing out of the ordinary to anyone else that drank just I didn't need to drink as much to feel the effects. I was never a fan of drinking no matter how much I thought those really cool drinks with the umbrellas in them were absolutely amazing. I was never the type of drinker to get drunk. One night I was at a party and I had just finished off one cooler and I felt that the rings on my hands were abnormally tight and that my tough felt a lot bigger in my mouth. At the time I didn't think much of it so I had a couple more. That night, after drinking a total of 3 coolers and about 5 glasses of water I was very sick. My hands and face did not go back to normal till much later the next day. I realized then that there was something wrong. So, what is the first thing you do when an allergic reaction like that happens? You start thinking about anything different and out of your normal diet that you had that night and the only thing that I could think of was my coolers. 

I never was a fan of beer because of the smell and the taste of skunk. Everyone that I tell this to always asks, "well what about beer? There isn't as much alcohol in that." It is kinda to bad that I hate the taste so much. 

I decided then that I would research what happened to me and what could have caused it. After a long time of researching I came across many sites explaining that everyone reacts to alcohol in different ways. Some people that I read about broke out in hives, others got violently ill after just one sip of alcohol. Everything seemed to be so much worse then what I had experienced. I knew it was not life threatening so I continued to drink casually for a while. 

By the time of my 20th birthday I could not drink at all. My lips, tongue, throat and hands would swell to the point that they would hurt every time that I decided to have a drink. Therefore, I cut it out of my life completely. As I have gotten older the sensitivity to alcohol of any kind has gotten worse. I can no longer use hand sanitiser or rubber alcohol. 

It has gotten to the point that I need to use special shampoos and soaps because of the perfume that is put in most products. If I use the wrong product the skin on my hands blisters and cracks and the skin on the rest of my body goes so dry that it cracks and bleeds. 

In a way I sort of am happy that this has happened to me for many reasons. 1) No matter who finds out about the problem they are always seem so interested but yet sad for me. 2) I get to buy soap that is way better for your skin and therefore my skin always looks very clean smooth. 3) I save A LOT of money because I don't buy anything at bars or need to go to The Beer Store or the LCBO. 4) Whenever you are out with a bunch of people you see and experience way more then you are sober then when you have a couple drinks in you. It is still fun, believe me!