Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Rast Test Trip

I finally made the time to take a trip over to Bunnings Warehouse to get a trusty old-fashioned watering can and a few more packets of seeds to add to our garden. I spotted a pack of Jiffy Peat Pellets which "Give your plants the best start in life!" and thought I'd take those. Actually.. It was for the novelty factor - just add water and watch the peat pellets expand to 7 times their size! Anywho, hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be transplanting coriander, dwarf borlotti beans, sun 'n' snow sweet corn, tiny tim cherry toms and forono beetroot seedlings out into the garden with the rest of my babies. My dad is always a little hesitant when it comes to growing veggies since the slugs always seem to get them first, but fingers crossed this year.

Rast Test results came back from Symbion Laverty Pathology yesterday and apparently I'm highly allergic to the 'seafood mix' which includes (but most likely not limited to) codfish, shrimp, mussel, tuna and salmon. Ah shit. Well that would explain the brush with urticaria in Thailand and Japan and last week. I asked the doctor a barrage of questions about the allergens, proteins, possible effects after consumption. I mean all it says on the piece of paper is "Allergen specific IgE Seafood Mix - High (2)". WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?! TELL ME!

"If you don't eat it you'll feel better. Don't eat it. It's not good for you."

Thank God he went to medical school.

Does anyone else have experience with this pathology stuff? I suppose they just lump all the possible seafood allergens together and do one test since there's no specific information included with the test results. What does the (2) indicate? I've read that people who are allergic to say tuna in its raw state can still happily eat tinned tuna. I doubt I'd be particularly happy about eating tinned seafood for the rest of my life but it would be infinitely useful to find out exactly how the proteins change under specific conditions to denature the allergenic properties (I have no idea what I'm talking about but it sounds good doesn't it).

3 comments:

  1. What on earth does "seafood mix" mean?!
    So you're allergic to all seafood? Tragic! :P

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  2. I'm sure you've googled this already, but here's my find

    http://www.allergy.org.au/aer/infobulletins/Laboratory_Tests.htm

    Sounds like it might be worth having some more tests to get a more specific allergen identified.

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  3. seafood mix sounds like a type of cheap generic cat food if you ask me. snappy tom seafood mix. bleurgh!

    looking at the other groups like nut mix they've bunched everything together which includes peanuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, etc. but people are usually only intolerant to one or two things.. right? it's only in the movies when kids live in bubbles and breathe through straws. so maybe, hopefully it's only one or two things in the seafood mix that i'm allergic to.

    you're right, i suppose i really should get more tests done to find out what it is exactly and figure out all the other things that share the same evil fish protein :(

    ReplyDelete

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