severe food allergy, part two

[bmccasland]

Saw my GP today for the lab results, and they were Inconclusive!. What I don't get is that it didn't even show my allergy to bees & wasps, and I KNOW I'm allergic to them.

So now I'm being referred to an Allergist - first appointment in 4 weeks. He has talked to her, and says she's loath to do skin tests on patients with known severe allergic reactions - like full blown anaphalytic shock. So I have an appointment, and have been told to continue to avoid the suspect things - mussels and cephlopods. Hopefully it isn't as nebulous as the seabed my food came from 'cause that'll be hard to avoid. And I was looking forward to a different flavor of seafood when I go to Boston (Lowell, MA) next month. Since I can eat shrimp, maybe I can still enjoy a lobster???

[Crankin]

I wouldn't eat the lobster... to make a long story short, in 1989 I had a bad summer of asthma and other allergic things.Things had calmed down and we took a 2 week vacation to Cape Cod and Boston, as we were preparing to move here from Phx and we were looking for houses. I have always eaten shellfish; I grew up on steamed clams that i dug myself and spent every summer on the Cape eating all types of shellfish. Only two months before this trip I had eaten tons of shrimp in Rocky Point, Mexico. We had a lovely al fresco dinner of clam rolls and then went to walk along Main St. in Chatham. Within 20 minutes my tongue was swelling and my lips were numb. It didn't go any further than that, but I haven't eaten any shellfish since then, except scallops. I had skin tests 3 times (the last being right before this incident) and no shellfish allergy showed up. I also couldn't drink wine for like 15 years (sulfites) but that seems to have gone away, too. Sometimes I think our bodies get reactive to certain things when we are under stress and thenit goes away. But I would be very cautious, since you had a pretty bad reaction.
When are you coming to Lowell? I live pretty close.

Robyn

[Grog]

My (very poor) understanding is that some shellfish in particular can contaminated with histamines, which causes the allergic reaction. The shellfish itself is not necessarily the cause.