My very recent seafood allergy experience

 

On Tuesday 13^th January 2021 my wife and I decided to walk out to the nearby Gov Stoa market, just outside the DWU front gate. It was around 7.30 in the morning and usually women from this settlement, and nearby Kerema compound bring their goods to sell at this makeshift market early before the sun starts giving off its first strong rays. We bought some stuff and were about to head back when she saw an elderly lady selling smoked fish laid out neatly over small patches of banana leaf on top of a container. She was casually waving what appeared like a magic wand over the fish to make them disappear, no (I had wished that later on during the day) she was just making sure the nasty little Musca domestica (scientific name for House flies..hehe) were kept at a safe distance from the fish.

Now we both would kill to eat fish cooked in any way so long as it will satisfy the egocentric tummies. She was already contemplating on buying a chunky piece but I detested. I am always the one worried about every little toea that we’re spending except when I am craving betel nut and other fruity drinks – the strong ones. I had despised the thought of buying a piece earlier with the last K2 we had but she insisted and convenient enough each piece was selling for K2.  Oh great! So I had to give in although with a sly thought that I will be getting a bigger slice from that chunk of fish meat.

Well, she bought the piece which was wrapped nicely in a piece of the banana leaf protruding from the container. I chewed a nice 20 toea meat buai and proceeded to the school main gate with my multi-purpose face mask on (pun intended).

A nice and simple breakfast of my favorite Lae Snax biscuit to go with the smoked tuna and top it off with a hot cup of tea was all I wanted. All was going well until I took a bite from the piece. Well more than one bite actually. I was already thinking of going for the fourth bite when I started feeling a kind of salty and stinging sensation inside my mouth. Too bad! I had already swallowed much of the fish. I had almost ate the whole piece myself. Because I had felt this metallic salty taste I told my wife not to eat the rest of the fish. Wasn’t much left of it either as greedy me had almost ate it all.

The reaction was instant and I could still feel the stingy sensation in my mouth and my head started to ache. I had finished my breakfast so decided to head to the office. About an hour later, I am in the office and the head ache just gets worse. I could feel my head was about to explode and my eyes got so red I looked like a vampire. 

I felt dizzy and could only drink water and hope that it would all just go away anytime soon. Thankfully, it did all go away and my eyes went back to normal after 4 hours or so.

I had realized that this was a toxic reaction to the tuna fish. The fish may have gone bad or had some toxins or parasites in it that caused my body to react. Wasn’t the first experience though as I’ve had a similar but much worse food poisoning from eating fish some years back. I had even ended up spending a night in the emergency ward on glucose.

Seafood allergy is usually mild but can sometimes be fatal. Especially when the seafood has dangerous toxins that could potentially harm the human body.

I had to do some reading later on to learn about seafood allergy via this website and have told myself to be more careful with seafood.