My reaction to chicken of the sea

The other night I made the most awesome tuna-fish salad. I had been craving it all day and went to the store and even got preboiled eggs so I wouldn’t have to wait on those. Pickles, Olives, Mayo and Eggs…Ooooh it was gooood!

Then yesterday, I didn’t realize it, but I had bitten the side of my tongue and I think my teeth felt weird all day.

It was in fact because my tongue was SWOLLEN! Even so, an allergic reaction to something didn’t even occur to me until late in the day. I had eaten normally, but that feeling you have when you first wake up and can’t really talk well stayed with me all day. ..and then I remembered the tuna-fish sandwich. … So I did what I normally do and called my friend, who yelled at me that I could have died and she made me call my doctor. After asking if I was itchy (No) or if my mouth itched (No) or if my throat was closing up (No). Just my swollen tongue, it’s just difficult to say numbers easily. “Call her right now and call me back and tell me what she says!” is how the conversation ended.

So I did. The doctor said that I might be allergic to tuna. Sad huh? I’ve had small reactions to sushi in the past, but I thought it was the roe that is on some of them, never occurred to me that it could be the tuna.

I love tuna-fish salad. -=sigh=-

She said to take 50mg of Benadryl at first and then 25mg every 6 hours for the next 2 days.

…and (as if it was an afterthought), “if you feel your throat closing up, call 911 immediately, because if you try to drive to the emergency room, you probably won’t make it.” Nice.

Seems my newness to sushi made me more sensitized to the cooked tuna. Weird. All of my allergies have been more intense in the last year or so. all kinds of stuff is popping into my head.

So the doctor is sending me to the lab to have me tested for fish allergies. They have tests that can determine exactly which fish I am allergic to. That would be cool because I would still be able to eat sushi, just not tuna rolls.

The end.

well, almost. I was trying to be good, but this morning I took 2 benadryl, not just one. ...realized that when I was on the tollway and my arms were tingling as the drug was kicking in...my thought..."Aw crap, Benadryl makes people sleepy!" I got to work okay, but I warned my team that I might just be a little woozy. I took about 2 hours to complete one task because I kept getting distracted and doing something else!

I'm a dork.

...with a swollen bitten tongue.

...there's still an awesome tuna-fish salad in my fridge.