I used to be only allergic to shrimp. It would just give me hives. So, I ate the other shellfish that I liked better, clams, lobster (MmmmMMM!!!) and crab.

Then one day, we went out to eat at a local restaurant. They had a special on the lobster (probably a bad sign...) They were selling the lobster dinners for $15 dollars apiece (another bad sign, that was probably ignored) and I had a really tasty meal of lobster and garlic butter. (oh yum! lobster and garlic butter! MmmmmMMMMmmmm!!)

Well, we had been home about 20 minutes when I started to have an allergic reaction (not anaphylaxis) I was going to see my doctor for a cold the next day anyways, and asked about it there. They said to assume that I've got an allergy to lobster.

A year or so later, my dad was making fish sticks. He didnt have enough, so he asked what I prefered, fish sticks or chicken strips. I told him chicken. He cooked both on the same tray in the oven. I only had chicken. But, I had an allergic reaction.

So, since I've had reactions to eating shellfish and other fishies, I consider myself allergic. The weird thing about the allergy is, that most shellfish allergies are not really to the shellfish, it's to the iodine.

Imagine my surprise when I went for a cystoscopy (not sure if that's the right name...I was getting my bladder checked out, and they also did a kidney xray) With the xray, they inject you with a constrast....that has iodine in it. Told them of the shellfish allergy, they said they were ready to deal with that if I had a reaction...and that we'd know for sure about the allergy about 2 seconds after getting the contrast injected.

whaddya know? I didnt have a reaction. So, I dont know if I'm allergic now. So, I'm going to guess that I am allergic, but that it's not to all shellfish. But I'm not about to test the theory. Shellfish is too expensive in most of the restaurants here in Omaha (and I'm suspicious of the quality of it anyways) so I just dont eat it any more at all. Too worried that I'll pick the wrong shellfish and get the big allergic reaction (anaphylaxis)

Cheaper not to eat it anyways.

My parents took me to a restaurant up the street awhile back. It's new, and is considered to be a bit upscale. The menu had a lot of seafood, so I ordered a beef-type of dish. The menu had no mention of seafood in it at all.

We also ordered the chicken soup they had. I asked to make sure it didnt have any seafood in it. The waitress didnt know, so she asked the owner. Owner said no.

So, they bring out the soup first. It tasted pretty good. Then I noticed it tasted like Miso soup. (ut oh!) There was chicken in it, and something that looked suspiciously like a spring roll.

Asked the waitress what it was, again, she was clueless and got the owner. Owner comes out and said "oh. That spring roll" (argh!) What part of "allergic to seafood" did she not understand? I'm starting to itch, took a couple of benadryl. Things were ok.

Then they brought out the entrees. I start eating mine, and began to wonder what the white stuff that was decorating the plate and the meat. Asked again....again clueless waitress asked the owner. She tells me "oh, that roe." I asked, "what's roe?". She tells me that it's something that's sort of like fish eggs. That's when I told my parents to go ahead and finish their dinner, that we'd stop at Burger King on the way home for mine. Popped another Benadryl and sat there getting stoned on antihistamines while waiting for my parents.

Even tho I didnt eat more than a few bites of my dinner, and told them why, they still charged us for my meal. Geeze, try to "possibly" kill me with seafood even tho I told them I couldnt eat seafood before I ordered and had specifically told them not to have any seafood around my food, and then they still wanted me to pay for it.

I posted a review of their restaurant on several restaurant review websites and warned everyone reading it to not eat there if they've got an allergy to seafood. The restaurant will try to kill them with it.