Well fellas, I know I'm usually on here making goofy comments and posting crazy pics, but I want to get serious in this thread.
This post is going to be long, but PLEASE take the time to read it. Especially if you spend a lot of time in the woods, because this may save your life or the life of a loved one.
This is the story of a little-known, but deadly allergy that almost killed me on the night of Dec. 25th 2013. Yep, I almost died last Christmas.
And here are the gory details....
Back in 2010 I was 34 years old and had no history of allergies at all, until I woke up in the middle of the night covered in red itchy hives, with a SCREAMING case of diarrhea. I treated it with a double dose of Benadryl and a long trip to the bathroom. Since I had always been really healthy with no known allergies, I just wrote it off as a one-time freak incident and forgot about it.
Then it happened again about 6 months later. Again, in the middle of the night. Covered in red hives that itched 1000 times worse than poison ivy and again with the diarrhea. I hadn't been around anything unusual that day, and hadn't eaten anything in hours, so I had no idea what might be triggering these episodes.
Over the next few years, every 5 or 6 months, I would awake in the middle of the night with these same symptoms and continue to treat them with lots of Benadryl and extended stays in the bathroom. Throughout all of this I could never find the common thread that tied these allergy attacks together.
Then, on Dec 25th 2013, I had another allergy attack, but this one was different than the others. This time, in addition to the hives, my throat got itchy and began to swell. Within 5 minutes of this attack coming on, my throat had swollen so badly that I was struggling to breathe and my vision was getting blurry. I was going into anaphylactic shock. If I had been home alone that night, I would have died.
Luckily for me, I wasn't home alone. My wife was there and called an ambulance. The EMTs showed up fast, got me stabilized and took me to the hospital, where I stayed under observation for a few hours and then was released with a prescription for an epipen and a referral to an allergist.
So I go to see the allergist and I give him all the above info. He immediately asks me, "Do you spend much time in the woods?". I tell him yes. His next question is, "Have you ever been bitten by a tick?". I tell him that I can't even count all the ticks that I have had to pull off of myself over the years.
The allergist doesn't miss a beat. He immediately tells me, "We will have to do a blood test to be sure, but I can tell you right now with 99% certainty that you have an allergy to mammal meat that was brought on by a tick bite."
WTF?!?! AN ALLERGY TO MAMMAL MEAT?!?!?!
Turns out it's true guys. After doing the blood test, the allergist confirmed that one of the many tick bites I got over the years triggered my immune system to create an anti-body that reacts with a carbohydrate found in mammal meat.
So what does this mean? Well, that's the heartbreaking part....
It means no more steak, hamburgers, pork chops, BBQ, deer meat, rabbit, and worst of all.... NO MORE BACON!
I can still eat animals that were hatched from an egg, but NO MAMMAL MEAT.
I also have to carry an epipen with me 24/7 just in case I accidentally eat something that has mammal meat in it.
It's been a year now since I was diagnosed and stopped eating mammal meat. I haven't had any episodes since, but I just wanted to get the word out about this allergy and what causes it.
All you ODT members that spend time in the woods need to be extra careful about ticks and use repellant.
If you are having mysterious allergy attacks like I described above, GO SEE AN ALLERGIST! There is a simple blood test they can do to see if you have this allergy.
It's nothing to play with. It can kill you.
Here's a link with more info about this allergy....
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tick-will-make-lose-appetite-red-meat/
Thanks to SouthernSlammed for this link with lots of good info....
http://www.m.webmd.com/allergies/news/20140813/tick-bites-red-meat-allergy
Let's get the word out about this!
This post is going to be long, but PLEASE take the time to read it. Especially if you spend a lot of time in the woods, because this may save your life or the life of a loved one.
This is the story of a little-known, but deadly allergy that almost killed me on the night of Dec. 25th 2013. Yep, I almost died last Christmas.
And here are the gory details....
Back in 2010 I was 34 years old and had no history of allergies at all, until I woke up in the middle of the night covered in red itchy hives, with a SCREAMING case of diarrhea. I treated it with a double dose of Benadryl and a long trip to the bathroom. Since I had always been really healthy with no known allergies, I just wrote it off as a one-time freak incident and forgot about it.
Then it happened again about 6 months later. Again, in the middle of the night. Covered in red hives that itched 1000 times worse than poison ivy and again with the diarrhea. I hadn't been around anything unusual that day, and hadn't eaten anything in hours, so I had no idea what might be triggering these episodes.
Over the next few years, every 5 or 6 months, I would awake in the middle of the night with these same symptoms and continue to treat them with lots of Benadryl and extended stays in the bathroom. Throughout all of this I could never find the common thread that tied these allergy attacks together.
Then, on Dec 25th 2013, I had another allergy attack, but this one was different than the others. This time, in addition to the hives, my throat got itchy and began to swell. Within 5 minutes of this attack coming on, my throat had swollen so badly that I was struggling to breathe and my vision was getting blurry. I was going into anaphylactic shock. If I had been home alone that night, I would have died.
Luckily for me, I wasn't home alone. My wife was there and called an ambulance. The EMTs showed up fast, got me stabilized and took me to the hospital, where I stayed under observation for a few hours and then was released with a prescription for an epipen and a referral to an allergist.
So I go to see the allergist and I give him all the above info. He immediately asks me, "Do you spend much time in the woods?". I tell him yes. His next question is, "Have you ever been bitten by a tick?". I tell him that I can't even count all the ticks that I have had to pull off of myself over the years.
The allergist doesn't miss a beat. He immediately tells me, "We will have to do a blood test to be sure, but I can tell you right now with 99% certainty that you have an allergy to mammal meat that was brought on by a tick bite."
WTF?!?! AN ALLERGY TO MAMMAL MEAT?!?!?!
Turns out it's true guys. After doing the blood test, the allergist confirmed that one of the many tick bites I got over the years triggered my immune system to create an anti-body that reacts with a carbohydrate found in mammal meat.
So what does this mean? Well, that's the heartbreaking part....
It means no more steak, hamburgers, pork chops, BBQ, deer meat, rabbit, and worst of all.... NO MORE BACON!
I can still eat animals that were hatched from an egg, but NO MAMMAL MEAT.
I also have to carry an epipen with me 24/7 just in case I accidentally eat something that has mammal meat in it.
It's been a year now since I was diagnosed and stopped eating mammal meat. I haven't had any episodes since, but I just wanted to get the word out about this allergy and what causes it.
All you ODT members that spend time in the woods need to be extra careful about ticks and use repellant.
If you are having mysterious allergy attacks like I described above, GO SEE AN ALLERGIST! There is a simple blood test they can do to see if you have this allergy.
It's nothing to play with. It can kill you.
Here's a link with more info about this allergy....
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tick-will-make-lose-appetite-red-meat/
Thanks to SouthernSlammed for this link with lots of good info....
http://www.m.webmd.com/allergies/news/20140813/tick-bites-red-meat-allergy
Let's get the word out about this!
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