Cashews - the hidden danger!

Cashew Reaction

Originally uploaded by rrader.

I am either having an allergic reaction to Cipro (unlikely) or I'm suffering from an unwitting encounter with urushiol, a caustic phenolic resin found in the leaves of certain speciesi of ivy, oak and I've learned, the seed of the cashew tree.

Urushiol is the substance that causes the reaction most people get from poison ivy. When I was in Sao Paulo, the hotel had cashew apples, complete with seeds, at the breakfast buffet. I'd seen cashew apples in Costa Rica previously, but hadn't tasted them. Inside the seed of the cashew apple, is the cashew nut - the expensive and tasty delicacy that we get in tin cans and chinese food dishes. I was interested in learning what they tasted like raw, so I bit right into the seed first off.

Quite awful tasting - and sort of...ummm...painful :)

I didn't realize that I had just ingested a "caustic phenolic resin" when I did it. Shortly thereafter, my arm started getting itchy. And it got worse, then my other arm got itchy, then the back of my neck, scalp and face got itchy. They my face started swelling up.

The swelling seems worse when I'm reclined or prone. I couldn't see out of my right eye when I woke up this morning. Its taken four hours to get the swelling down to the point you see in the picture.

This is all sort of funny to me. I'm not in any real pain - itchy, but not painfully so. Apparently its going to be 7 - 21 days before this works through my system.

Tomorrow I have to go back to the doctor to confirm the diagnosis.

Fun .