I was preparing dinner when I noticed the tick bite: a beast about the size of a poppy seed had been inserted inside the ditch of my inner stream.
My wife got a bottle of ether spray and she froze the dead tick, and I went on to make dinner.
Weeks later, while squirting on the cup on Saturday night, I felt a itch on my arm. I rolled up my neck and noticed three red spots that looked like mosquito bites. Within seconds, more spots had appeared on my neck and back.
These were not mozzie bites; they were bees. And they were spreading.
My wife sent me to the hospital, quietly adhering to the speed limit despite my harassment. At the same time, I could feel the piles stretching further, racing down my body as if my legs were like the finish line.
I was guided by theories about the cause of the rash, and two things came to my mind: first, the conversation I had with my father-in-law a few days after the tick, which had reddened and swelled to size. golf ball.
The swelling indicated that the tick had absorbed its saliva into my bloodstream, my father-in-law explained. “It might be a good idea to be easy on the meat for a while,” he said.
The second thing I remembered was what I was craving for lunch: a Greek-Cypriot sausage called the sheftalia – pork, onion and parsley wrapped in a net of gut fat.
Beef, pork and lamb are off the table
By the time my wife and I arrived at the hospital, I was covered in huts from head to toe. They caused a wild itch that radiated heat, as if I were standing over a pit of fire while insects were screaming at my skin.
My vision was fuzzy and my stomach was churning.
Eventually, a doctor approached me like a womb coming out of his hole, and asked how he could help. I couldn’t talk non-stop, so my wife explained the situation as he entered his office.
The dock examined the broth, then looked me in the eye and said, “urticaria”. This is the medical term for hives – a new word for me.
He gave me a cocktail of antihistamines and steroids and gave me a tube of hydrocortisone cream, to make the thatch easier. I pulled on it like a sunshade.
Within half an hour, the beehives had almost disappeared.
Ten days later, I went up to the office of Professional Professor Sheryl Van Nunen, the allergist in Sydney with a reputation for getting to the bottom of secret allergies, like a wily detective solving a cold case.
She found the results of my tests, turned on the computer screen to me and confirmed what I suspected: I had allergic to meat as a result of the bite.
She prescribed me EpiPen which injected automatically, and instructed me to avoid eating mammalian meat hard.
Beef, pork and lamb were completely off the table. From now on, I would be half-vegetarian.
The connection can be easily lost
Despite this disastrous development, I was very lucky in some ways. I was already aware of this vague allergy because em is the father-in-law of Kevin Broady, one of Australia’s leading experts on toxin immunochemistry from paralytic tick bites.
Although now retired, he, along with Sheryl Van Nunen, is a member of Tick Induced Allergies Research and Awareness (TiARA). The expert group is a reliable source of information and comfort for patients with mammalian meat allergy, especially in eastern Australia, where paralysis is most common.
The specific allergen galactose-α-1,3-galactose, better known as “alpha-gal”, is a molecule found in non-primary mammals – cattle, pigs, sheep and kangaroos, to name a few – and can be given to humans through tick bites.
Most food allergies, such as those for prawns and peanuts, are caused by proteins, developing symptoms very soon after consuming the allergen. But alpha-gal is a carbohydrate, and reactions can occur up to ten hours after eating the meat.
That means victims often wake up in the middle of the night, hours after enjoying a dinner of lamb korma or beef bourguignon, with beehives all over their body.
Once exposed, the body begins to perceive the alpha-gal present in mammalian meat as a threatening substance, triggering a hypersensitive immune response, just like the one I found. experience that Saturday afternoon.
The delay between consumption and response makes the connection between the meat and the symptoms easy to lose, and many of those who are alpha-gal positive go for years without realizing they are allergic two.
Thanks to Kevin and my previous experience, I made the connection almost immediately.
I am one of the lucky ones
I was also lucky because my body’s response was relatively mild. In severe cases, the reaction can lead to heart attack and even death.
Some are so aware that visiting Bunnings is out of the question: the smoke from the sizzle sauce could put them in an anaphylactic panic.
Others cannot wear egg boots or use special soaps and medications without bees appearing all over the skin.
As long as there is no treatment or cure, there is some good news: many of those tested can eat meat again within a few years – but only if they avoid further cravings.
Good news for allergic people, perhaps, but not so great our comrades, who would find them again on our plates.
For me, I have religiously avoided mammalian meat for over a year, and they have been largely symptom-free.
I admit that if I am can eat meat sometime in the future, the temple for occasional ingestion may be too strong. But for now, I’m drawn to avoiding red meat for good.
Not only can it be a healthy and ethical way of eating, it is also one of the best ways to reduce our impact on the planet.
It surprises you: maybe the tickets are trying to tell us something.