Social Stigma

It all started with my third birthday when my parents got me a cute little puppy. I was so in love with her. She was named “Mimi” which is what I started calling her the moment I saw her. I would play with her every day for long hours when one day my parents discovered red blotches or rashes all over my body. At first, they thought I might be allergic to something I ate. When they took me to the doctors and talked about the daily activity and food I had, turned out, I was allergic to dogs. And not just any allergy, it was an allergy to a particular dog protein which is one the rarest allergies ever. Now my parents had a very hard decision between me and Mimi (that’s what they told me anyway), and eventually they picked their human baby over the pup. Mimi was given to one of my father’s friends in another city and I never saw her again. Since the allergy was so severe, and nobody would actually be able to see it unless it started on my face or any visible area of my body, I suffered a lot of smirks and sarcasm when I tried to avoid someone’s beloved dog. Apparently, you can have pollen allergy, cat allergy and any other allergy in the book, and people need to respect that. But if God forbid, you have a dog allergy, people start looking you different. I never liked dogs because of the pain and discomfort that would come with them, and I didn’t remember Mimi to know what it’s like to have a dog. When I joined in my law firm, I immediately realized it is a dog friendly office since everyone would bring their dogs. I told my supervisor right away that I was allergic. However, they had a ritual of dog walk every afternoon for which I was invited every day. On those walks, the dogs would rub against me, hit me while playing with each other or simply shed a lot of hair that will blow at me through the gust of winds. I joined them for walks for about a week when I realized the allergies were getting worse and I had rash all over my body by then. It would take weeks of medication to get it back to normal. So, I told my supervisor that I would no longer go on the walks with them because of the issue I am having. Now the funny thing is, no one else was paying for my medicines or the doctor visits. However, they felt entitled to be offended. I faced slammed doors when I passed them, dirty looks and rolled eyes. One of my coworkers actually said, “maybe It will go away if you get used to them”. So, to fully understand this, I was supposed to respect if they have a dust allergy, but they won’t believe if I have a dog allergy until I walk around naked with my rash-up body to prove it? In that case, I should make a “nut allergic” person eat a whole peanut butter jar to see if it is true. Anyway, one of my interns had her birthday so I invited everyone and brought pizza. One of coworkers (the same one from above) wished my intern birthday, but was standing by the door. I asked her to come in and have a bite and she said, “no it’s fine I have a yeast allergy”. I looked at her and said “Wow, sorry to hear that. Do you think it might go away if you get used to eating it?”.