Always see a Specialist…

This brief blog post is a little different to our usual blog posts, but I think you may find it interesting.

For upwards of 25 years I have lived my life staying well clear of all Seafood. Following some reactions to crustaceans and the like at an early age, I was instructed to not eat Seafood. That belief was re-enforced not long after I started my role at AKS and began fishing on a regular basis.

I had visited a GP and told them that I was catching Mackerel on a semi regular basis (very semi actually) but was keen to eat what I was catching. Some bloods were drawn and again I was told – stay clear of all Seafood.

Fast forward a few years later – and as had become customary I had mentioned my Seafood allergy to a client whilst chatting about fishing. That client happened to be an immunologist and he kindly offered to do some more extensive testing. I am not one hundred percent sure why, but I never really acted on it. Perhaps I thought it would be more of the same and I would again be let down by a body that just did not want seafood in it.

Then as fate would have it, that same immunologist – Dr Andrew Merry – happened to enter Adder Rock this year and again offered to do the testing. Andrew had brought what he needed to test and this time there was no hiding behind excuses…

Following the Prize giving – Andrew kindly sat me down and we spent the next hour or so testing my skin, lips and throat; and whilst I did not get a lolly for sitting still and behaving myself during testing – I did get the life changing news that I was in fact not allergic to fish.

Prawn and Squid, definitely still allergic, but Fish now back on the menu.

I would like to thank Andrew so much for doing this for me, I have since eaten a couple of fish dishes, with a massive smile on my face and look forward to getting stuck into some great fish recipes soon. Now I just need to catch a few.

A lesson learned… Always see a Specialist.