Aloha No More?

Duuude. Did you know it's possible to be allergic to pineapple? Me neither!!

I've eaten it my whole life and I love it. Yum yum! I have to admit that all the pineapple I've ever ingested came from a can. Lately though, we've been enjoying fresh pineapple from the store and today I packed some for my lunch, about 3/4 cup (which is more than I usually eat, but it's a particularly good one, so..).

I was reading the paper as I was eating, so I didn't notice anything until almost the end when my tongue felt funny. By the time I finished, my tongue felt all raw and like it was on fire. I drank some water and went to the washroom to brush my teeth, to no avail. The whole front half of my tongue was burning up! You know when you didn't listen to mom and gulped down your atomically hot soup or hot chocolate despite her cautions for you to slow down and the telltale steam rising and then you scald your tongue badly and it hurts so much you suck on ice cubes to numb the pain? That's what it felt like in this case, times 5. I sat at my computer and worked for the rest of the afternnon with my tongue hanging out of my mouth so that the cool air might heal some of the pain. If this were the cartoons there would be little bolts of lightning zapping around while my tongue went "BZZ.. BZZZ".

My co-workers asked me if I was allergic and I didn't think so, because I've never had any kind of reaction to pineapple before and didn't display any of the other common symptoms. Shortly after, my throat started hurting. What the? She asked me if it was my throat closing up and I said I didn't think so, I could still breathe. My throat just hurt like when you have a cold. Hmm... A little after that my ears started itching... like when you have a cold. And somehow your pinky finger is never small enough so that you can fully jab it in there to scratch that itch so you contemplate using your pen or letter opener, or toothpick... Oh come on. You know you've thought of doing that before!

I joked that if I dropped right there, she'd have to tell the paramedics what happened to me. I didn't want to alarm her at the time, but my chest was also feeling a little tight. I was breathing fine so I wasn't about to panic. As long as the airway's open I won't be dialling 911.

Anaphylactic shock, anyone?

My symptoms are slowly going away now. The tongue feels like a day old burn now and my throat and ears are only mildly irritated. But I guess I won't be eating anymore fresh pineapple anytime soon, unless I want to go on another bad trip with this crazy Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde tropical fruit.