Crafterateur

If you follow my crafty side business on Instagram, you probably saw my post about being allergic to shellfish…supposedly. Let’s recap. Over the almost 31 years of my life I’ve only had a suspect allergic reaction to crab on two occasions. The first time was maybe six years ago. I had crab and rice with a spicy garlic vinegar dipping sauce for dinner, and that night I was so itchy. I woke up with a swollen face and pain everywhere. Thankfully, I was at my parents’ house and they knew I was experiencing an allergic reaction. The second time was within the past year. It was less severe, but scary because I didn’t have antihistamines on hand. Mind you, though, that I’ve had crab and other shellfish in the in between and was just fine. Allergies are weird. But after this second time I decided I should probably get a skin test to find out the truth!

I was scratched with eight different allergens in the shellfish panel, including one control scratch with histamine. The histamine scratch was supposed to swell up and prove that I hadn’t taken any recent antihistamines. After about fifteen minutes my arm was itchy and the nurse confirmed that indeed I have a crab…and lobster!…allergy. The histamine control didn’t react as much as it was supposed to though; even the nurse said it was ‘odd’. So I don’t know…I think I need a retest! In any case, the allergist repeatedly apologized to me, because I found out I had a food allergy, and prescribed an epinephrine pen in case of a severe allergic emergency. She gave me a brief tutorial and had me practice jabbing it into my thigh (sans needle of course). I then learned from the pharmacist that not only do you jab it into your thigh, but you hold it in there for ten minutes. Ugh, I can’t imagine having to do that. That’s enough to keep me from eating (a lot of 😉 ) shellfish I suppose. Obviously, I went to get boba after this sad news. It’s not a huge deal; I don’t actually eat that much crab or lobster, but it’s just sad to know that I shouldn’t because I might blow up like Will Smith in Hitch. As I sat there waiting for my drink, another girl went up to get her drink and stabbed it with the boba straw. I then realized,

Jabbing an epinephrine pen into your thigh is like stabbing your straw into your boba. I got this.

Ok, maybe they are not exactly the same, but at least now I associate the epinephrine pen with a tasty treat. Boo to food allergies! What else deserves a thumbs down? Rant below!