(no subject)
I discovered that I'm allergic to shrimp... in my eye.
This probably requires some degree of explanation.
I went out to dinner with my parents tonight at a swanky restaurant (Slocum House for those of you who are curious. My dad got some kind of gift certificate there from a patient) and it was tasty to the max. I ordered a dish that had bass, shrimp, and "blackened rice" (it was this strange, gunkier rice-like substance. Apparently emperors in China ate it... but I digress). As I struggled to cut through the huge shrimp my mother, the perceptive parent she is, noticed that the shrimp was strung on to skewers (they were big pieces, OK! it was hard to tell they were connected to anything!). For those of you who have ever seen me eat a kabob, I am horrible with skewer control. I simply cannot be graceful when pushing meat off of those stupid wooden sticks. So, as embarassed as I was to use my hands in a fancy restaurant, I pinched one end of the skewer with my finger and pushed the meat off with my fork.
OK. That was the boring context part.
My contact started to itch, so I (subtly, I swear) rubbed my eye. Then, it started itching more. Naturally, I rubbed again, but it still itched.
Then. Pain!
Needles! Needles of airborne particles were being jammed in my eye! I was sure of it! I ran to the restroom and plucked the contact out of my eye, ran it under the faucet, and put it back in again.
That, unfortunately, did not remedy the problem.
I looked into the mirror again (with contact) and my right eye was red . It wasn't just a little pink, it was bloodshot, swollen red.
So, I took it back out, carried it over to where my parents were sitting and filled my spoon with water (ha) and put the contact into the water.
It all happened so suddenly. I whined. I complained. I was half-blind (I'm legally blind in my right eye. It's sad). Then, my father had an epiphany (yes, it was that profound).
"Did you have any food on your hand when you touched your eye?"
YES! The remnants of shrimp juice were the culprit! Those tiger prawns caused my deep 20-minute long suffering! My father actually has the same problem, only it's with papayas. He cannot get papaya juice in his eye or his eyes get swollen and bloodshot. Apparently, I have the same problem with shrimp.
FIN.
That was the highlight of my day. Pretty exciting.
This probably requires some degree of explanation.
I went out to dinner with my parents tonight at a swanky restaurant (Slocum House for those of you who are curious. My dad got some kind of gift certificate there from a patient) and it was tasty to the max. I ordered a dish that had bass, shrimp, and "blackened rice" (it was this strange, gunkier rice-like substance. Apparently emperors in China ate it... but I digress). As I struggled to cut through the huge shrimp my mother, the perceptive parent she is, noticed that the shrimp was strung on to skewers (they were big pieces, OK! it was hard to tell they were connected to anything!). For those of you who have ever seen me eat a kabob, I am horrible with skewer control. I simply cannot be graceful when pushing meat off of those stupid wooden sticks. So, as embarassed as I was to use my hands in a fancy restaurant, I pinched one end of the skewer with my finger and pushed the meat off with my fork.
OK. That was the boring context part.
My contact started to itch, so I (subtly, I swear) rubbed my eye. Then, it started itching more. Naturally, I rubbed again, but it still itched.
Then. Pain!
Needles! Needles of airborne particles were being jammed in my eye! I was sure of it! I ran to the restroom and plucked the contact out of my eye, ran it under the faucet, and put it back in again.
That, unfortunately, did not remedy the problem.
I looked into the mirror again (with contact) and my right eye was red . It wasn't just a little pink, it was bloodshot, swollen red.
So, I took it back out, carried it over to where my parents were sitting and filled my spoon with water (ha) and put the contact into the water.
It all happened so suddenly. I whined. I complained. I was half-blind (I'm legally blind in my right eye. It's sad). Then, my father had an epiphany (yes, it was that profound).
"Did you have any food on your hand when you touched your eye?"
YES! The remnants of shrimp juice were the culprit! Those tiger prawns caused my deep 20-minute long suffering! My father actually has the same problem, only it's with papayas. He cannot get papaya juice in his eye or his eyes get swollen and bloodshot. Apparently, I have the same problem with shrimp.
FIN.
That was the highlight of my day. Pretty exciting.