I’ve always loved macadamia nuts. Out of the blue, a couple of years ago, I seemed to have developed an alergy to them. My throat swells up enough that I have real trouble swallowing, and I have intense pain in my stomach (I’m assuming the pain is where the throat is swollen.) This pain and swelling typically lasts an hour or two, after which everything seems ok.
I don’t seem to have any other symptoms, no rashes, irregular heartbeat, no wheezing or shortness of breath. Also, I don’t seem to have a problem with any other tree nuts or peanuts.
Now for the stupid part.
As I said, I love macadamia nuts, especially in white chocolate chip cookies. So I eat one occasionally (every few months), knowing full well that there’s a chance I’ll be hurting pretty bad because of it. I don’t always get these symptoms, and when I do, sometimes the pain is mild. Although the odds seem to be better than 50/50 that I’ll really hurt when I eat these things.
In fact, I ate a macadamia nut cookie at lunch. And man, I hurt real bad right now. I feel like there’s a knife in my stomach.
Anyway, the questions:
a) Is it possible/likely that other health dangers are present? That the pain I’m experiencing isn’t the whole of the problem?
b) Is it common for alergies to pop up like this? I never had this problem till my late 30s.
c) My research seems to indicate that this is a for-life sort of thing. true?
d) My research seems to indicate a shot of epinephrene could help this. True? How about epinephrene taken via an inhaler, like in Primatene Mist? How soon could I expect relief? Yes, that’s right; I’m actually considering carrying an inhaler or even a needle with me just so I can eat a cookie now and then. Which leads me to the most important question:
e) How frigging stupid do you have to be to keep doing this? Hit me with that stick one more time, please.
Yeah, yeah I know: go see a doctor. any other thoughts?
Thank you very much.