Deathly allergic to tuna

(Jill F.) #1

So I have been eating lots of steak and sausage while on keto, some pork and chicken but mostly fatty meats. Now that I am at goal weight I thought I would throw in some tuna.

I have had a shellfish allergy since I was a teenager, think anaphylactic reaction. So I always avoid that. But I ate a small can of tuna Monday and had to go to the ER! It was so scary and i was thankful they fixed me up so quickly.

IMG_20190715_165331_878
IMG_20190715_165331_878.jpg1080Ă—1080 84.9 KB

Has anyone else experienced this after having a shellfish allergy? Dr said large fish like tuna can have high histamine levels that may have caused it.

(Susan) #3

Firstly, I am sorry you had to go through that and so glad you are okay!

My daughters were in Australia for a month and they went to the beach, they were all excited as it was their first time in an ocean. We go to the beach here every summer but it is part of the Great Lakes, not an Ocean. There were having fun, and then my eldest daughter started having anaphylactic issues, and could not figure out why. They went to a medical clinic that was like right there basically they said, and the people said the health insurance they bought for the trip was only good at the hospital and it would be a minimum $200 up front for her to see a doctor, so the nurse talked to her and advised her to go to the pharmacy. They sold her a very high dose of an allergy pill that is prescription strength as she was not in good shape, and having a bad attack, they monitored her and sold her more of it, she was told to keep taking them for a few days. She had her EPI pen with her, I told her she should have taken it and then gone to the Emergency but she was concerned about the paying up front part, etc. and didn’t. Thankfully she was okay but they figured she must have swollen some fish eggs or fish product of some sort when she inadvertently swallowed some of the water when a wave hit. She has severe shellfish allergies.

I will warn her about this though; as I know she does eat fish that I cook, and tuna at times! This could happen to her, and she has had to go to the hospital in an ambulance in the past from going into anaphylactic shock; when she was a teenager, and we were panicked.

Thankfully that pharmacist was very kind and helpful and provided her with what she needed but it was scary for her and her 21 year old sister with her. They told me afterwards on Facebook facetime, and I was so glad she was okay. I am certainly going to tell her to be careful of Tuna now.

I am so glad that you are okay, but it is very scary. Maybe you should get an EPI pen? My Sarah is also very allergic to all Nuts, Peanut Butter, and peanuts, and oddly enough, Cinnamon (which is a more rare allergy). She also has drug allergies; she is allergic to antibiotics, including all forms of Penicillin and Sulfa. We had to get herbal remedies for her when she would get infections or just wait them out.

(Jill F.) #4

Yes it is scary! I did have an Epi pen but it was very expired, dumb on my part. I got a new one and a back up now!

(Susan) #5

Okay, great =). I just told my 25 year old about it and she was like wow, she said she is glad you are okay too =).

#6

Wowzer! Glad you’re okay now @MommyJill2005!!!

I have several allergies, and shellfish was a less serious one. I do eat tuna, lake trout, and salmon from time to time, and have not had any issues. I won’t touch shellfish for fear that the allergy has worsened like my corn allergy did. I did an experiment with the corn, and it didn’t go so well…

When I was about 7 or 8, I was tested for allergies due to some health problems I had. Corn was the most serious, but for years I could squeak by and eat pop corn or nacho chips - but I didn’t eat a ton of it. I wanted to test out whether or not I had grown out of the allergy, as some people do, so about 10-12 years ago, I tried some corn on the cob. Damn near killed me. Probably shoulda learned from that. But… fast forward to a couple years ago… Figuring that hominy was nixtamilized, and the proteins were pretty much broken down or neutralized - I thought having some hominy would be fine. Nope. One tiny bite and my entire tongue swelled up almost instantly, and then my throat started. I spit it out. Grabbed a bottle of benadryl and chugged it. NEVER expected that kind of reaction! Took over a week for the swelling to disappear. I didn’t even swallow the hominy, so it was just the residue that hit my throat. Can’t imagine what it would have done had I swallowed it.

That experience has just made me very cautious about trying things I was previously allergic to. There’s about a dozen or so drugs that I am severely allergic to, also. And we are not going to experiment with those again. Ever.

Glad you’ve got an Epi pen now. Hope you continue to feel better, and Keto on!!

(Jill F.) #7

I understand! It is scary stuff. My dr told me as a teen to try to reintegrate foods slowly over time and out of all of my food sensitivities the shellfish and fish one obviously is getting worse. I also have a lot of allergies to drugs of all sorts, it is hard to prescribe antibiotics when I am sick due to it. Good times!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #8

Just some thoughts to round out the discussion:

Meat-only carnivore (no dairy, no spices, just meat and water, and maybe some salt) is a good elimination diet, if you want to test foods that you suspect of being a problem.

I would expect allergy issues to abate at least somewhat on keto, but if you’ve already had an anaphylactic reaction to something, I would still avoid it. It is possible, with the proper treatment, to defuse the reaction over time (at least this is true for asthma and my respiratory allergies), but this is a tricky process when one is starting out at anaphylaxis. And conversely, each time one has a reaction without treatment, the reaction is generally worse after the next exposure.

Adrenaline/epinephrine is something anyone who has experienced anaphylactic shock should have on their person at all times.

Keto reduces a lot of sensitivities, but I would wait well past the point of fat-adaptation before even beginning to try to mitigate such serious allergies.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #9

Glad your okay ! Food alergies are scary !
If I eat mangoes, first my mouth will go numb, then my throat will start to swell shut !
Red chillie peppers will fry my mouth and throat, and take days to heal… Although I love Jalepeno’s and other spicy foods.

It’s ironic that they often put red chillie pepper on dried mangos ! Yikes ! If someone ever wanted to kill me… :smiley: lol

#10

Yikes! That is scary. Food allergies are so bizarre. My coworker recently discovered she was allergic to something she had been able to eat for years (it is escaping me at the moment what it was). She’s in her 40s! Hope you are feeling better.