Food allergy affecting eyes?

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Has anyone ever heard of or had it happen?

This past year I took an abx ceftin and about 2 days into it my eyes went beat red and starting itching like you wouldnt believe along with water blisters coming up on the white of my eyes. I was in misery. I stopped the abx and my eyes got better.

Last week I went to Wal Mart and bought some chicken called general sews. The next morning I woke with bright red eyes and the itching and blisters again. I went to the Dr. because I was in so much pain and told her what I was thinking it was. She thought maybe viral but gave me drops for allergies as well as some abx cream to put in my eyes. They got better in about 2 days.

Well I went back to Wal Mart night before last and ate some honey bbq chicken that I have eaten in the past with no issues and yet again I wake up with the eyes again.

So now I am thinking they added something to the food or some chicken got mixed together and I am reacting to food like I did with the abx.

Is this even possible? Oh and I have some itching in my mouth though when I am sick like now I often have that anyway.

Any thoughts, or btdt?

[sbgrace]

Ack!

Ok. A severe drug allergy can cause what you describe with your eyes and cephlin type antibiotics are main culprits. It's very serious though or can be (as in life threatening). It's called Stevens Johnson's Syndrome and I'd look into it to see if the eye symptoms are what you experienced. If so I'd want to see an allergist. I'm wondering if you might be reacting to antibiotics in the chicken! I hope not.

Ok...on the chicken. Contact the manufacturer and find out if there are any allergy warnings and get ingredients. That might help you see if there is the same thing in both you might be reacting to.  Ask if it is produced on shared equipment with any of the top eight allergens that you don't regularly eat safely. I'd agree you're allergic to something and, to me, that reaction is scary. I'd see an allergist for testing.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Thank you. I will look into seeing a allergist. It is so odd that after all these years I am starting to have allergies to things like that when I never have before.

I have always had seasonal type allergies but no food ones.

[deminc]

I am allergic to NSAIDS and my main symptoms are as you described - swelling and blistering around the eyes and I will be gasping for hours after. The doctor who first put me on NSAIDS never gave me an epipen though he told me to put the allergy on all my medical files. I wonder now if I should get one because years later, I had the exact same reaction - to my neighbour's fried chicken. I never had the heart to tell her her food sent the whole family driving to the nearest emergency clinic late at night. Earlier this year I had a milder repeat after I was given a high dose of panadol while undergoing gum surgery.

I also began to get food related blistering and swelling around my eyes in my twenties. After three emergency visits to an old dermatologist, he put me on a low salicylate, chemical free diet for three weeks and it put me in the clear until about five years later. I'm supposed to go on the diet for a couple of weeks everytime the reactions start coming back.

[danipoppins]

You can develop allergies any time... my son's first grade teacher became allergic to avocados (anaphylactically) in her 40's and last year I developed an allergy to pork. 

Makes me wonder if the reason you're reacting to the chicken is perhaps abx that they are fed in their feed?  Have you tried organic or free range chicken?  What about eggs?

[momofmine]

Whoa, that is really scary.  Please keep us posted.  I really want to know more about WHAT triggers these?  It must be similar to the process that happens even when someone has an allergy all their life, right?  Then it just happened either in utero or in early life.  But what in the world is going on when someone develops an allergy to a random thing like avocadoes or a drug?  Is it something about the state of the body at the time of exposure that triggers it?

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

I havnt had the reaction with any other medication other than the ceftin. I have been eating grilled chicken breast here at home with no issue as well so I dont think it is the chicken itself. Though it might be abx given to the chicken maybe.

I never had any trouble breathing at all with it even when I was taking the abx. Just the eye's and the blistering was not that bad just one or 2 on either eye with the abx. With the bbq chicken the first time there was one blister the second time no blisters.

I am trying not to freak out but it is disconcerting.

[deminc]

Well I didn't bother much with it when it was just food related mild blistering and swelling around my eyes though people might start asking. It will generally go away within a couple of hours. It got progrssively worse over the next few years with intense itching and hives all over until the dermatologist put me on the diet.

My drug reactions are much stronger with my eyes swelled shut and I can't see. I just go home and try to sleep it off. The first NSAID reaction and the fried chicken episode, I really felt I was going to suffocate to death but I had time to get to the clinic.

I must admit I have become really wary of all drugs because I cannot be certain of what might happen. When I took epidural for my first child it left me unconscious and the nurses had to turn it off, pump saline and slapped me back. By my second child, I was reacting to the OB cream with hives. But ds2 turned out really sensitive as well.