At this point I don't know if it's worth going to the family gathering if I am relegated to a certain room and chased and/or exposed at every turn.

Yes, but were other people eating it with THEIR hands?

Because if so-- what else were they touching in between eating them and washing their hands VERY thoroughly?

Doorknobs?  Table?  Chairs?  Lightswitch? 

All it takes is YOU touching one of those invisible smears of shrimpy-ickyness and somehow transferring that to a mucous membrane, or touching your own food.

This happened at New Year's so a few weeks later.

To my knowledge no one touched the food they gave me by hand. It was set out on a table a few hours after shrimp was boiled.

My fiance's friend says I have super powers because I can detect shrimp. That's perhaps the most positive way I can think about it.:/

Yes, yes, yes.  I don't really see how it's possible for the allergen to be comingling with your other food and for it NOT to contaminate things.  If the shrimp was there as a 'treat' for the holidays, I strongly suspect that this was your "flu" since it was probably present in small amounts on touch surfaces throughout your environment.  BTDT.


The reason why only I feed our tropical fish is that I can do it without:

a) getting fish food ANYWHERE but INTO the fish tank (unlike the adult members of my household-- oh, wait-- that doesn't NEED to be plural)

b) contaminating my hands-- because I 'shake/tap' gently, I don't ever handle the food itself, and

c) I keep my face WAY WAY away from that action, and I still wash my hands incredibly well afterwards.


All that to say-- I'm not really all that sensitive to shellfish ( I don't think, anyway-- I don't seem to react to things that are on well-managed shared lines like better-than-bouillion). 

The amounts involved are really tiny.  NO WAY can I eat food at a restaurant with someone eating a shrimp cocktail within ten feet of me.  It smells like vomit or worse, and it makes my food TASTE that way, as well.  DH has watched me turn green and ask for a box a few times in a restaurant.

Oh my goodness--I could NOT eat food in the same fridge as shrimp.  Before I knew I was allergic, we prepared some gumbo for a dinner party for folks from DH's work. It was just before Mardi Gras.  We had a lot leftover, and we froze it.  It was in the back of the freezer, and it expanded a bit beyond the container as it froze, raising the lid.  But we didn't see this.  All I know is that for the next couple of months, I wanted to puke every time I opened the freezer. Ooooh--I can still smell it.  How horrid. 

I guess I was developing the allergy then. This was about four months before my first reaction. 

Or--maybe I had already developed the allergy by the dinner party? I may start a separate thread, as I don't want to derail this one.


----------------------------

I would think uncovered shrimp in the fridge could very well contaminate the turkey.  Also, how careful are folks around you about avoiding cross contact?  Were they eating the shrimp with their fingers? Even if not, it's not uncommon to touch the shrimp while removing the tails when eating. 

Oh, I would not be comfy in that situation.

Also, is it possible that eating a food stored in the same fridge as a loosely covered allergen cause issues? I.e. eating turkey stored uncovered in the same fridge as boiled shrimp?

I know I have issues with the steam, but I assumed it would be okay as it was mostly covered (but not entirely so).

That's the weirdest part! Neither my fiance (who persisted in kissing and sleeping with me) nor any other family members who spent time with me had any issues. Not even my gramma. I attributed it to my amazing hand washing but wondered how realistic that was.:/

I will mention this, but how troubling in retrospect.

Wow-- I wonder if you allergist knows whether or not angiodema can be a result of a viral illness?

I guess my question is also-- how SURE are you that your GI problems were illness and not allergy?  Was it apparently contagious?

If not, I'm suspicious that you might have gotten something lightly contaminated and been dosing yourself with it somehow.


And yeah-- any constriction of an airway is an automatic epi.  Pretty much no matter what you think (or don't) is happening.

Wow. I had t thought of that before, but it makes sense.

I would think if anything impeded your breathing, it would be time to Epi.  But without a trigger, I don't know.

An incident happened a few weeks ago that still troubles me. I'm going to mention it to my allergist but my PCP said that it is entirely possible that tonsils can swell during an allergic reaction.

Here's what happened: it was around ten in the evening when my throat started to burn and tingle. I assumed it was the remnants of my illness from the week before and took my Mucinex and Tylenol in an effort to avoid greater discomfort. That didn't work. In fact, I soon descended into a coughing fit which I attributed to getting over a cold. It grew more difficult to breathe and swallow and when I looked at them in the mirror they were red and swollen. I ended up taking Benadryl, but for a while I struggled to catch my breath.

I was struggling with the "stomach flu" or virus and so I hadn't eaten anything. Neither had my fiance. The only point of vulnerability was that our bedroom windows were open as they always are. I had smelled cigarette smoke and it was burning my eyes but I couldn't smell anything cooking.

My questions are as follows:

1) Can tonsil swelling be a sign of an allergic reaction?

2) If so, where would it fall on the grading chart of symptoms?

3) Can cigarette smoke cause that reaction or is it more likely someone was cooking?

Thank you for any insight.