Allergies Ahoy
Oh, hey, remember a while back I found out I was allergic to cephalosporins, the penicillin alternative? But luckily it didn't impact my breathing, just made me horribly itchy; and anyways, as it was a medication, it was nice and easy to avoid? SO much better than a food allergy, right?
Yeah, unless some asshole farmer gave it to his turkey and then slaughtered it before the drug cleared its system. So now I have a fucking contact allergic reaction, which let me tell you is not nearly as fun as a contact high.
So since Monday night I have been terribly, horribly, awfully itchy. Ugh. It's like wearing an itchy wool sweater, only all over, and much worse. If I take Reactine and Benadryl (which I am doing, but only a low dose of the Benadryl because it knocks me right out and I have already drunk-posted at you guys once this week) then it's still there, but more-or-less bearable; I can stop and type between bouts of scratching. If I don't take it, then the itching is unbearable.
I think the last time I had any of the turkey was Wednesday (didn't have any Thursday or yesterday), so tomorrow or Monday it should be easing off, I believe. I hope.
This is fucking bullshit. I am allergic to a human medication that I can then avoid. I shouldn't be getting exposed to a high enough antibiotic dose to give me a full-blown allergic reaction from eating a damned bird.
So I guess from now on I'll need to get organic turkeys that haven't had antibiotics used on them. That sucks, because then instead of paying $20 for the bird, I'll be paying $40 or more; but I've already spent the difference on bloody allergy meds and being itchy for a bloody week sucks. Would I pay $20 right now to have someone wave a magic wand (or give me a special pill) that instantly and miraculously got rid of all my symptoms completely (instead of just easing them off) and cleared it out of my system entirely? Fuck, yes. So, next time, let's step back in time and spend the extra $20 to get rid of these symptoms by ensuring I'm not exposed to the allergen in the first place, I guess. Bah.
I mean, I've eaten lots of turkeys over the years and I guess I've had, like, twelve or a bit less since I first encountered symptoms, maybe around five or six since I was diagnosed, and never had an issue; but also, that means that I have an 8 to 20% chance of encountering this again, going by my own exposures. Five to twelve birds is far too small a sampling size to be statistically significant (what if the odds are actually 0.003% and I was just really unlucky and got that one bird?), but fuck, I wanna stop scratching.
Since Spring of last year, Canada has banned the routine, preventative feeding of human-used antibiotics to poultry, to help combat the increase in bacteria resistant to antibiotics people use; but it's still allowed in the States. And birds can still be treated with the stuff if it's legitimately sick and it's prescribed by a vet. But there's supposed to be two weeks before it's slaughtered so the drug can clear its system.
Did I get an American bird, thoroughly saturated with antibiotic feed? Was it an ailing Canadian bird that wasn't given the full two weeks for its system to clear? Am I just really sensitive to the fucking stuff? The garbage hasn't been collected yet so I can go and find the wrapper it came in. However, doing so will mean digging the last bag of kitchen garbage out from under all the dog poo in the garbage can out back, and then digging around in what will likely be really smelly, meat-contaminated garbage to find it, which I don't want to do. But, sigh, I expect I will do so regardless because I want to avoid that brand, and also I may want to complain to Health Canada about it. Because this isn't supposed to happen.
Getting a regular bird instead of an organic bird: $20. Spending my Saturday digging through rancid garbage: Priceless. ><
This entry was originally posted at http://kryss-labryn.dreamwidth.org/104302.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Yeah, unless some asshole farmer gave it to his turkey and then slaughtered it before the drug cleared its system. So now I have a fucking contact allergic reaction, which let me tell you is not nearly as fun as a contact high.
So since Monday night I have been terribly, horribly, awfully itchy. Ugh. It's like wearing an itchy wool sweater, only all over, and much worse. If I take Reactine and Benadryl (which I am doing, but only a low dose of the Benadryl because it knocks me right out and I have already drunk-posted at you guys once this week) then it's still there, but more-or-less bearable; I can stop and type between bouts of scratching. If I don't take it, then the itching is unbearable.
I think the last time I had any of the turkey was Wednesday (didn't have any Thursday or yesterday), so tomorrow or Monday it should be easing off, I believe. I hope.
This is fucking bullshit. I am allergic to a human medication that I can then avoid. I shouldn't be getting exposed to a high enough antibiotic dose to give me a full-blown allergic reaction from eating a damned bird.
So I guess from now on I'll need to get organic turkeys that haven't had antibiotics used on them. That sucks, because then instead of paying $20 for the bird, I'll be paying $40 or more; but I've already spent the difference on bloody allergy meds and being itchy for a bloody week sucks. Would I pay $20 right now to have someone wave a magic wand (or give me a special pill) that instantly and miraculously got rid of all my symptoms completely (instead of just easing them off) and cleared it out of my system entirely? Fuck, yes. So, next time, let's step back in time and spend the extra $20 to get rid of these symptoms by ensuring I'm not exposed to the allergen in the first place, I guess. Bah.
I mean, I've eaten lots of turkeys over the years and I guess I've had, like, twelve or a bit less since I first encountered symptoms, maybe around five or six since I was diagnosed, and never had an issue; but also, that means that I have an 8 to 20% chance of encountering this again, going by my own exposures. Five to twelve birds is far too small a sampling size to be statistically significant (what if the odds are actually 0.003% and I was just really unlucky and got that one bird?), but fuck, I wanna stop scratching.
Since Spring of last year, Canada has banned the routine, preventative feeding of human-used antibiotics to poultry, to help combat the increase in bacteria resistant to antibiotics people use; but it's still allowed in the States. And birds can still be treated with the stuff if it's legitimately sick and it's prescribed by a vet. But there's supposed to be two weeks before it's slaughtered so the drug can clear its system.
Did I get an American bird, thoroughly saturated with antibiotic feed? Was it an ailing Canadian bird that wasn't given the full two weeks for its system to clear? Am I just really sensitive to the fucking stuff? The garbage hasn't been collected yet so I can go and find the wrapper it came in. However, doing so will mean digging the last bag of kitchen garbage out from under all the dog poo in the garbage can out back, and then digging around in what will likely be really smelly, meat-contaminated garbage to find it, which I don't want to do. But, sigh, I expect I will do so regardless because I want to avoid that brand, and also I may want to complain to Health Canada about it. Because this isn't supposed to happen.
Getting a regular bird instead of an organic bird: $20. Spending my Saturday digging through rancid garbage: Priceless. ><
This entry was originally posted at http://kryss-labryn.dreamwidth.org/104302.html. Please comment there using OpenID.