I attended a PANPHA conference this week with two other members of our administrative staff. Most of my time was spent sitting in seminars but the evenings were free so we enjoyed a wonderful meal out at a gracious hotel in town on Wednesday evening. I ordered salmon. It was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed eating it. There were five of us and we spent 21/2-3 hours eating and visiting together. When we got up to leave I suddenly began feeling severe abdominal cramps and thought, "I'd better find a restroom quickly!" By the time I reached the restroom and looked in the mirror my face was beat red, my eyes were bloodshot, my neck and chest were blotchy, my head was pounding and my fingers had become numb. I suffered an overwhelming bout of diarrhea and my heart was pounding so hard that I took my pulse and found it to be 120. I went out to find the rest of the group and told them that I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something that I ate. I am allergic to shellfish and thought that maybe my salmon had come into contact with shrimp which was also on the menue. One of them quickly found someone from the hotel who was able to bring me some Benedryl which I took. My two co-workers then drove me over to the hospital E.R. nearby.
When I was taken into the E.R. every room was filled so I was placed on a guerney out in the hallway. One of my friends stayed with me and answered questions for me between my trips to the restroom. One of the resident physicians told me that the supervising E.R. physicians did not think that it was an allergic reaction but something else. She brought me a computer printout entitled, Scomboid Fish Poisoning. It occurs when fresh fish in the Scombroidae family are not iced down quickly enough at sea and bacteria builds up in the flesh which produces high levels of histamine. The toxins are not broken down by cooking, freezing, or subsequent preparation techniques and it may still smell and appear fresh. Clinical symptoms appear in the person who has eaten the fish within 1-4 hours of ingestion.
I was given H1 and H2 histamine blocker medication and observed for awhile and told to take the medication for the next three days. The E.R. supervising physician told me that mine was only the 2nd case she had ever seen and she told the resident physicians not to be suprised if they were to see other cases that same night. I was up to the bathroom every hour for the rest of the night but was feeling better by morning.
What an experience! I don't think I'll be eating salmon again anytime soon.
