Teaching #7: Time to go fishing?

Sig: Epinephrine 0.4mg IM x 1, may repeat x 1 for continued anaphylactic signs and symptoms

I’ve had several interactions with the old swimming creatures in my life and subsequently with an EpiPen.  I’m allergic to everything that swims in the water except for frogs and turtles I think.  That is not news to anyone.  When I was 7 years old, sitting in the Denver airport on a flight delay back home, my dad pulled his Swiss army knife and a Bic Pen out of his pocket.  He then showed me how to do an emergency cricothyrotomy by removing the ink cartridge from the Bic Pen, making a small incision just below my Adam’s Apple, shoving the shell of the pen through the hole, and then breathing for someone through the Bic Pen.  See the included video below if you are trying this on someone at home while you are reading the blog, or if you have found this blog in an emergency google search and need to know how to do this.  Just substitute Swiss Army knife for the scalpel, and substitute a Bic Pen for the airway tube in the video.  Otherwise it’s pretty much the same. 

This post, however, is in reference a new revelation.  I love the cobb salad at Salut in St. Paul.  It is amazing.  It has one of the most brilliant dressings on it, and that is 75% of its glory.  I have eaten this salad 5-6 times in the past couple years.  Every time, I get a little feeling that I’m having an allergic reaction, but it never really develops fully.  The next 24 hours I have tons of watery mucus inside my body.  I found out this weekend the reason why.  I Googled “Green Goddess Dressing Recipe,” and I see anchovy paste in most of the recipes.  I know why my long run on Sunday had 4 bathroom stops.  Just a tad bit of denatured anchovy, not enough to mandate “Epinephrine 0.4mg IM x 1, may repeat x 1 for continued anaphylactic signs and symptoms,” but enough to tweak me.  I feel stupid that it took me 6 salads to figure this out.  But, the salad is so darn good that I think I will just premedicate myself with some steroid and Benadryl next time.  Teaching?  Well, there is one in this post that could save your life…Actually 2 if you are alergic to fish and see Green Goddess Dressing on a menu…Actually 3 if you ever need something to pass the time with your 7 year old child in an airport on the way back from a fishing trip…Actually 4 if you are looking for an awesome salad some night.  Call me and I’ll come have one with you.