Weddingbee boards

Yup.  It came on like...seriously in the span of a week.  It was my first semester in college and I was living in the dorms/eating at the dining hall.  They had a chocolate milk dispenser and i LOVED it.  Drank WHOLE chocolate milk ALL the time.  Then for some reaon, I got hooked on orange-guava juice for a week, so I stopped having milk for a week.  When I finally decided I wanted a glass of milk, BAM.  Too late.  Lactose intolerant.  I'm Asian, so I'm sure it was already written in my genes and I'd probably been mildly intolerant before but never noticed it.  It was a sad discovery.

7 years later and I've discovered Lactaid (lactose-free) milk.  It's not EXACTLY the same taste as milk, but it's pretty close.  It's basically milk with the proprietary lactaid (lactase) enzyme added in.  It's got kind of a sweet overtone to it, but once you get used it, it's really quite nice.  I get little to no LI side-effects with it. 

I'm like you where I can eat a pound of cheese and have no problems.  Yogurt is actually not a problem either.  It's really only milk, ice creams and related products like milkshakes and soft-serve.   

It's not the end of the world.  The only thing that annoys me and is hard to deal with is when I want to cook things that involve Heavy Whipping Cream.  I can't seem to find a lactose-free alternative that has the same thickening action when cooked.  Silk claims to make a lactose-free heavy cream, but no place in Memphis, TN seems to carry it.  Big surprise (NOT). 

ETA: What sucks about my case, though, is that my degree of intolerance has increased in the last 3 years or so.  I used to just get gas (sorry if TMI) and if I didn't have any lactaid on hand, it wasn't really a problem if I was willing to put up with the rumbly stomach and gas later.  I was never really that uncomfortable.  But in the last year, I find that I will have real GI distress (ahem, if you know what I mean) if I'm not careful.  I'm at the point that I won't order macaroni and cheese at restaurants because they usually put heavy cream in it and I'll end up spending an hour+ on the toilet later.  AND if I order lattes from Starbucks, if they screw up and don't make it with soy milk and I don't realize it, I'm pretty much home-bound for at least 3 hours.  Lame.  Keep lactaid with you.  At all times.  Everywhere you go.  Hide it in your shoe if you have to.  Not worth the strife. 

@FutureMrsRugbee:  it snuck up on me too. i eat cheese pizza and other dairy products but i never drink milk on its own. i havent bought a carton of milk in years. at my house i do soy milk for coffee. well, a couple weeks ago i was on vacation and all that was in the house was whole milk. so i made some coffee w/ splenda and put in 1/2 a cup of milk. sorry to be tmi but i was on the toilet ALL DAY. ugh! i know i need to cut out all diary products--like i probably shouldnt have ordered that pizza yesterday. i bet my allergies would be so much better!!!

I found out I was a "lactard" because I was getting a stomachache from drinking lattes and mochas in grad school.  At first I thought it was upset stomach from too much sugar.