It wasn't cross-contamination - what could it be?

So the doctor suggested that I might have been the victim of bad kitchen maintenance or hygiene. I chalked the somewhat major (at the time) incident to bad luck and nothing more. This was the first time I reacted to food I had injested and hopefully it would be my last.

I work at a resource centre in Ottawa that provides services to seniors who live independently in their homes. One of the programs hosted on-site is a bi-weekly luncheon for particularly frail and elderly seniors. From time to time I would "steal" a bowl of soup that likely would have gone to waste and enjoy the mysterious concoction of the week. On one given day, a nice red soup was on the menu and I thought I'd give it a try. It had a nice zip to it so I ate it with great enthusiasm. I remember going home for lunch and feeling a little "off". I skipped the rest of lunch and decided to lie down for 20 minutes before going back to work. Upon returning, I jokingly accused my co-worker of attempting to poison me and went back to my desk.

Everything obviously worked out for me that day, for nothing of any significance came of it. Two years or so later that soup came back for another go and I eagerly devoured another bowl. Once again, off to the house I went and, of course, I started to feel ill. Not remembering the last time this happened to me (no connection was immediately made), I went to work and jokingly accused my co-worker of attempting to poison me. It was deja-vu for her, I guess, for she immediately pointed out that I had once complained after eating that soup. Putting two and two together, I arrived at five point six and realized that I was on the verge of another reaction. I asked someone to drive me over to the drug store right away so I could buy some Benadryl and hope that it would take care of the onsetting symptoms. It did.

As a result of this, I sat down and tried to link all three occurances together. Nothing made sense as I called the owner of the restaurant that provided the soup and he swore that there were no shellfish-related ingredients in this soup. I accused them of using Clamato juice as a base (I have fond memories of drinking plain Clamato juice or enjoying the odd caesar) but he insisted that tomato juice was the main ingredient. He did point out that pine nuts were crushed into a powder and added into the mix, but I had already been tested for that and tests came up negative.

Two more tests... two more ambiguous results. What was I to do?!

Off to the allergist for tests!

A month and a half ago (sorry!) I began writing the story of my introduction to the world of allergies and eventually to anaphylaxis. Ana-what? When I ended last month's chapter, I wrote about how I went home to bed after a lunch with co-workers, not really knowing what was going on.

Two or three hours later my parents arrived at the house. I got up and asked them if I looked different than I normally did. The answer was a resounding yes and I was immediately transported to a local walk-in clinic for a brief examination. The physician quickly assessed the situation and informed me that I was suffering from an allergic reaction to food I had eaten earlier in the day. I was given Benadryl and was told to take it for a week and I'd be good as new. Given the relative severity of the reaction, I was advised that allergy testing might be a good place to start preventing another such episode.

Years before, I was tested for airborne allergens that were likely contributing to hayfever symptoms. My mother had undergone years of shots to cope with her allergies to ragweed and other wonderful noxious weeds, and it was my turn to suffer from the same thing. But for over a decade, that was the full extent of my intolerance for environmental allergens.

Back I went to the allergist. Results indicated that I had to avoid shellfish. Had I consumed shellfish that afternoon that caused me to break out into hives and have difficulty breathing? No.

As an aside, I rarely stray too deep into menus at restaurants. Depending on what kind of establishment I'm frequenting on a given day, I'm very likely to order some salmon dish (accompanied by rice and vegetables) or a club sandwich. 90% of the time you should be able to predict my order hours before I place it. I consequently have never had any issues eating out and this was the first time.

After the test results were in, my doctor suggested that I was the victim of cross-contamination (or something like that) where a pan, knife or some other tool had been used to cook a lobster or shrimp prior to grilling/frying my salmon. Satisfied that I knew how to prevent further occurances, off I went, figuring that I was unlucky and sound kitchen cooking policies will prevent something like this from recurring.

Would that turn out to be the case?