Now that's amazing because I've had a mild allergy to shellfish all my life too! I eat it anyway, it just turns my face and neck pink for a few hours and I feel like I have a fever if I eat a lot.

I am totally ignorant when it comes to pharms. It just doesn't interest me that much— guess no one was asking about that!

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.

Erin

You and I would be pure entertainment if we were to go out for dinner together! We would drive the waitress and the chefs totally whacky asking them all sorts of questions about the ingredients!

They would probably just ask us to leave! Or rather why would we bother to eat out if we were allergic to so many things! LOL!

Do you carry an epi-pen? I used to but go tired of getting it refilled and not using it! I just pop benadryl like you do and avoid those foods!

I go to the allergy section and get the generic Benadryl. I go to Sams and get a big bottle. It's easy enough to sometimes take without water. I have the same problem with my sleep cycle. I can be exhausted but come around 7-9 PM, I am wide awake and can not go to sleep. Right now most nights my Klonopin puts me to sleep but sometimes I have to revert to the Benadryl or even an extra Klonopin. I even have an old script for Lortab that is my last resort. Last night it was after 4 AM that i finally went to sleep and that was after 75 mg of Benadryl.

I've never had an Epi-Pen, but my mom is allergic to bees, so we do have one in the house. We need to get it refilled, because I think her latest Epi-Pen is circa 2002. (we keep it in the refrigerator...nice central location)

I might try to go see an allergist, because I was having some weird allergy-like symptoms a few years back. I'm pretty sure I was allergic to my dog towards the end of his life (he was a walking 100 pound ball of dandruff) and whatever about him that I was allergic to seemed to magnify my allergies to other things.

After TinyMonsters died, a lot of my weird food allergies went away. (I got hives if I ate anything with italian spices in it.) It was several months after he died, we'd had all the carpets cleaned, furniture cleaned that I noticed the allergy problems just went away. It was weird.

I'm not afraid to eat anything I thought I was allergic to, except the shellfish. That's a potentially deadly allergy if I am truly allergic, so I'm not going to try to test the theory that I might not be actually allergic. (and I have had hives after getting my food cross contaminated since the dog died, just not as often)

Yeah, it would be kind of fun to go into a restaurant that carries things we're both allergic to and then give the waiter all sorts of instruction on how to make the food and keep it allergen free. They'd probably just hand us a glass of water and a basket of crackers. (that's if neither of us are allergic to any flour or wheat in the crackers)

I have taken Flexeril (muscle relaxer) or Baclofen when I cant sleep. It still doesnt work very well on me. My dad told me I have some weird atypical reactions to medications sometimes. (he's an anesthetist, and says that I have some of the weirdest reactions to meds that he's seen)

I'd have fun with your dad! One of my doctors tells me I am an anesthesiologist's worst nightmare! I am the reason they have malpractice insurance!. I have had "not so good" reactions to general anesthesia in the past -- the kind that those guys don't like. If they don't pay attention to me during pre-op interview, I just tell them that I am the reason they have malpractice insurance and that usually gets their attention!

I have weird reactions to meds...we don't experiment on me. And I am in a clinical trial! LOL! Hey, it's an autologus vaccine. Pretty safe. So far!

Sally
I've heard that children have opposite reactions especially to Benedryl .

When I go to the dentist, it takes me about 2 or 3 times as long for the novocaine to kick in. And then, it's only effective about 10 or 15 minutes, if that long.

Last time I went to my former dentist, he had a hissy fit because he'd given me not only one injection, but the entire freaking syringe and I wasnt numb yet when he expected me to. He said a few choice swear words, threw his little mouth mirror thingie across the room, followed soon after with the drill. Got up, told me to make another appointment and come back some other time.

Needless to say, he is now definately my former dentist. I got a brand new dentist last month, and she's so cool. She's going to take out all of my high mercury content amalgam fillings. (all of those fillings have cracked the teeth that they reside in, so if they're going to be drilling around in them anyways) Then, the dentist is going to try to fix my front teeth that had the unusually soft enamel on it and see if she can make my smile better.

I hate dentists, but I'm actually excited about this. I'll have new shiny teeth that arent full of one of the most toxic substances (mercury) in the world.

I'm hoping that if I get that amalgam out, that some of my MS symptoms might improve. (I'm suspicious of them, especially when the new dentist said that they're "high mercury content".

I have the best sleeping aid out there and it's free. It's called taking call! I've been up for the past hour and a half waiting to see if this patient is truly in labour or not (I didn't even work yesterday, but we are working on a schedule so that I won't have to take call on nights when I have to work the next day....). If anyone wants to try staying up almost all night, I'd bet you wouldn't have much problem sleeping the next night, especially after working all day! I still get to eat any seafood and don't have a need for Benadryl though. I don't know what I would do if I had an allergy to seafood. I LOVE it! YUMALISH-isn't that what that Rachel woman says all the time? (She drives me crazy )