Allergic to Sauce

While working a shift the other day, I noticed listed among a patient’s allergy list, “sauce.” Interesting, I thought. I asked him about it when bedside, at the start of the history.

“What kind of sauce are you allergic to?”

“All sauce.”

“You mean, tomato sauce or clam sauce, what specific kind?”

“No sir, I am allergic to all sauce. If it is made into a sauce, I am allergic to it.”

”Are you telling me that you can eat mushrooms, milk, eggs, and flour, but if mixed, cooked, and served with a meal, you can’t have it ?

“That is correct, sir.”

The exchange struck me as odd. I’d never heard of anyone allergic to the blended form of certain foods but not to the individual foods themselves.

Was it all that different to my alleged allergy? It has been said that the alcoholic is allergic to alcohol, which is really no more than the fermented version of various foods. As a medical professional, I always questioned the soundness of this concept. But if I put my understanding of physiology aside and took a broader view, I could see the logic.

When I had alcohol in me, I exhibited a strong negative reaction-

Alcohol caused me to crave more alcohol.
It made me feel overconfident.
It made me stupid.
It made me selfish.
It exacerbated all my character defects.
It made me withdraw from the world.
It made me screw up my life and lose everything that I loved.

I’m not sure if it is an allergy, an intolerance, or simply an adverse reaction, but that was all just semantics. It was clear that no matter what I called it, I could never touch another drop ever again. I needed to forever lay off THE SAUCE, and that was all that mattered.

I finished up my history taking with the patient , examined him, and began to exit the room to go put in my orders on him.

“I’m sorry about your sauce allergy.”

He smiled. “Don’t be, I do just fine with gravy.”