Betsy & the Scallop

So apparently not all of us know when we are having allergic reactions at the time of said incident. Keep this in mind.

I will preface this with I don't eat much seafood, I hated it as a child and was trying to re-introduce it into my life. So on Tuesday night I make scallops, I'm not very hungry so I only have 2. I then take the rest of them and the rest of James' for lunch the next day.

Wednesday afternoon, I am itching in crazy places. I think maybe I got something on my skin. Around 11 pm on Wednesday night I wake up with a stabbing pain in my back and my throat is on fire and it feels like a golf ball is stuck in it. So I think one of my nightly pills is stuck in my throat... I claim sleep deprivation. I try to drink some water, it burns. I try to eat some bread, I can barely get it down. I try to go back to sleep, I toss and turn the rest of the night trying to sleep. A credit to me, I did think that I should wake James up and go to the hospital but then I thought, nah, I don't want to be a hypochondriac. Opps.

Come Thursday morning, the stabbing pain is gone but the throat is still very tight and sore. I start having a cough. So i think I'm getting a cold. During the day I am still itching everywhere. My scalp, the soles of my fee, the palms of my hands, the inside of my ears. I now think I'm am hallucinating.

So I go home and take some benadryl and go to bed. I sleep ok but I'm up every 3 hours with something or other.

Come Friday I can't talk very well and all my co-workers think I have the plague. I start describing everything to my mom, a wonderful smart lady, and she says it sounds like an allergic reaction. So I start thinking about what it could be... damn the scallops! I start to panic and call the doc and they get me right in.

I go to the doctor and they're examining me, I have a fever, I'm all red from scratching, I sound like a trany, you know, the usual. Then she lifts up my shirt to look at my back and tells me I have hives...hum... I guess I don't look at my back enough.

So thank goodness I took the benadryl and that it didn't get worse or I could have killed myself. And the worst part is... I did it to myself!

I am on the mend now, throat starting to open and itching going down.

So here are my lessons learned:
1) when in doubt, seek medical attention
2) Now I know what an allergic reaction feels like. Won't miss that again.
3) I am staying clear of shell fish in general. Don't want to OD.

Now I have to ponder if I really knew all this when I was little and refused to eat seafood at all after one taste of shrimp. My parents thought I got the tail stuck in my throat and got scared. But maybe it was a reaction and maybe its gotten better over the years... I guess we'll never know.