An Experiment Gone Awry

Last week I had what I thought was a great idea; I would have a friend cook up a bunch of ground beef (in the form of hamburgers and just some crumbles for maybe soup or spaghetti) for Gary and Ellen as a break from chicken or turkey. 

On Sunday I gave my friend Erin several lbs of ground beef.  She cooked it up and brought it back to me on Monday.  So I wrapped 3 burgers tightly in foil and put them in the oven to warm up.

Such a bad, bad idea.  

It took maybe 10-15 minutes and I could feel myself starting to react. First I got faint; not really dizzy completely, but just really light headed and shaky.  Then a few minutes after that my pulse began racing. It is a very unpleasant feeling. I at first got a face mask, turned off the oven and kept on with supper prep in the hopes it would subside, but it didn't, it just got worse.  

I took some liquid allergy medication and just went outside and sat in the fresh air to recover. Gary and Ellen ate the offending hamburgers (which they said were delicious), and opened every window and turned on every fan in the house, blowing out of the windows. Ellen washed up the dishes, then we just waited.

Fortunately we have an oximeter that I'd had for my mom a few years back, so I was able to track my pulse.  At the very height of the attack it said my pulse was 147, I think, it started weirding out trying to keep up. The whole episode made me agitated, loopy and just not think straight.  When I was talking to Gary during the ordeal I'd often have to pause to gather my thoughts and I could feel my brain spacing out.   My pulse would fluctuate weirdly; like I'd start the oximeter and it would read 110, then go down to 99, then pop back up to 105, then go up  to 112, then go down to 95...all in a minute or two.  So scary.

So the lesson learned here is that as a person with AGS (Alph Gal Syndrome) I am very, very fume reactant.  Just the fumes from cooking meat send me into an allergic reaction that affects my heart.  

When mammal meat (specifically beef, venison, lamb, or pork)is cooked or heated it releases the sugar molecule, galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, from the meat and it floats through the air.  If you happen to have AGS and are fume reactant it will enter your lungs and cause a horrid reaction.  And everyone is different; some people have it so bad they go into anaphylactic shock and can die if not treated rapidly. Some people just break out in hives. 

This puts a whole new level of aggravation in my life because now we probably won't even be able to go into McDonald's or any other restaurant where they could potentially have red meat fumes floating around. Camping will also be fraught with danger.  We will have to have turkey burgers and I will have to be so very careful to be downwind of people grilling.  We will also either have to bring our own grill, or just pan fry any meat we bring.  I am sure the grills at the campsites are coated in hamburger juices.  

To end this post I guess I should just say; Yes, this is yet another complication, a hiccup in our lives.  A friend so astutely put it; you are a family of special diets.  Haha!  Yes, Ellen is type one diabetic, Gary has diverticulitis and has to be very careful of what he eats, and now I have alph-gal syndrome.  Ha!  

But we are so blessed to live where we have ample food alternatives, we do not have to worry about where our next meals are coming from.  We know what our medical issues are and we can deal with them. It is all manageable.  

 

 

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