Strange but true

My dear, lovely aunt Janie (also my piano teacher for many years-- seen here in a picture from the day before I moved to Taiwan in January 2001--which is why we look like we've been crying, because we had!) is allergic to red dye. She has to be careful with the things she eats and drinks because many things that you never think about have red dye in them. She has it down to a science though and is pretty good at avoiding things that contain the dye. She even knows exactly which M&M's have red dye and which don't so she only eats the red dye free ones.
Recently she was shopping and began to feel really sick and was having difficulty breathing. She ended up having to go to the hospital in an ambulance where they gave her an IV with an antihistamine in it. By the time she got to the hospital and saw the doctor she was better so he diagnosed her as having had a panic attack. She disagreed with this diagnosis but couldn't figure out what could have caused the attack because she hadn't eaten anything she shouldn't have. A few days later she was accompanying a student at a recital and started feeling the same way. She fought to keep it together until the end of the song but as soon as she was done she had to go to the hospital again.
Finally after thinking about what she had done different those two days she figured out that what was causing the attacks was her eyeshadow. Apparently some peach colored eye shadow she had just bought contained red dye. After she used it, it had slowly been absorbed into her system through her eyelids and caused her allergic reaction.
Who knew that you could absorb enough red dye through your eyelids to have an allergic reaction. Yet another reason not to share eye makeup with others! You never know what strange diseases you could contract from their eyeshadow brush.
I think this would make a good episode of CSI. A woman is poisoned through her eye shadow!!