Adult Peanut Anaphlaxis Reaction

PatnBrian,

Try the search function and the keywords 'pa adult'.
I know Andy, rebekahc, and pester are adults living with pa. There are a lot of others.
I apologize to the other adults on this site-these are the only ones I can remember offhand!

Hi Patnbrian! Welcome to the board. I am a 25 year old PA female. I was 16 when I had my first reaction, I guess kinda straddling the line between child and adult. I had mild reactions (itchy hands when I touched something with peanuts in it, or an upset stomach) but nothing as severe as what happened to me when I was 16. I know that this is a new and scary thing for you. My suggestion is for you to read everything that you can get your hands on and really educate yourself in relation to your allergy. You'd be surprised by the number of products with hidden peanuts in them. One question...did you eat peanuts all your life, or did you not like them? I always hated the smell and taste, and I have found that a lot of PA people have felt the same way before knowing about their allergies.

Hi, sorry to hear about your experience but please don't give up on the prednisone. It is a wonderful drug with minimal side effects especially when taken for a short time. It is standard treatment and has much to recommend it.

[This message has been edited by Kathryn (edited August 15, 2000).]

Hello. I am 47 and have had PA my whole life. I never knew how serious this was until a few years ago. I always thought that I would vomit badly for a while and then I would get better. I did not know enough to go to the ER. Now I know better. If I had a peanut or peanut butter now I would immediately use my epi pen and go to the ER. The problem with this is you never know how bad the next reaction will be. Mine have been roughly the same my whole life, but I do not take it for granted that the next one will be ths same as the last one. I will tell you though, that I do not let this change my life one bit. I travel, go out to eat and have a full life without fear, but I do keep my epi pen close. Andy

Hi,
PA/Tree nut/Legume/Seed, adult 44. My first was the worst. At 5 years of age, a watermelon seed put me in a coma for several days. Nowadays as far as the length of discomfort, it always depends on the severity. If actually consumed, the chills, cramps and stomach problems last me 7 to 10 days. Also what I find is my immune system fights the toxic so hard, inevitably during that week I'll catch a bug or serious cold. All the folks I've spoke with that had first attacks as adults have specific nut or milder (but still serious) effects. It's the lifers I know with constant life threatening severity. I've found the population of potential threats has increased over the years. Let's hope your allergy restricts itself to that pesky peanut.

Thank you to all you replied...my problem is minor compared to the ones I've been reading about, especially if you've had to deal with this all your life. I've never been a big "fan" of peanut butter, pa cookies, etc (give me chocolate chip anytime), but I would eat peanuts on an occasional basis without any problems for all my life, then wham! Funny thing is that the 2-3 days prior I had a few of this same kind of peanut from the same bag (this was an "off" brand purchased at The Dollar Store). Wonder if it might have been something in the preservatives in this particular bag? Anyway, ER doc rated me 9 on scale of 1-10(1=minor anaphylaxis, if there is such a thing!)...I couldn't even talk when I stumbled into the ER. Hope everyone has a great day and stay away from peanuts! I'll do some more browsing to see what I can find...thanks!

The thing that I like the most about this support group is its potential for saving lives. How many of us have had the pharmacist tell us to administer Benadryl for an allergic reaction, and to only give an Epipen if the reaction escalates? We all know now to give the Epi instead of the Benadryl first. There are many other potenially life-saving tips on this board, and I'd like to thank patnbrian for pointing out another one.

My husband is 37 years old and in the last couple of years has had an itchy mouth and throat after eating hazelnuts (his favorite kind). After reading posts and seeing what anaphylaxis looks like (our PA daughter's reaction), he has decided not to take the chance that this mild allergy will not escalate. patnbrian, your post is an excellent example of the unpredictability of allergies. Thank you for sharing your experience with us, and we hope you're feeling better soon. Welcome to the board!