Keep that shiitake away from me!

What a week. Last week at this time, I was heading out to meet a friend for a late breakfast. I had an errand to run before we met at 11. At 10:24, I received a text from her that she wasn't coming. I was not a happy camper. Over the last 40 years since we've been friends, she's done this to me more times than I can count, which is why years will go by without our seeing each other. But I had to be in her neighborhood last Tuesday, so I contacted her on Monday to make arrangements.

Don't you hate when people are unreliable? I sure do. 

Shiitake mushrooms

Rather than going somewhere for breakfast, I decided to go to PF Chang's for a lettuce wrap. Apparently that was a bad decision. Remember my post last week about getting sick from touching the utensils on the salad bar? Well, that may be the reason I started out with a sore throat on Tuesday, but it's certainly not the reason why I had an emergency situation with my asthma. Nope. My breathing problems stemmed from under cooked shiitake mushrooms in the lettuce wrap. Since I am asthmatic, I assumed it was asthma. But I was wrong. And I could have died. As I struggled to receive relief by using an inhaler that had expired over a year ago, I kept having visions of scenes from The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. I haven't needed my inhaler in years, which is why I didn't realize it had expired.

It wasn't until Thursday that I connected the dots regarding the shiitake mushrooms. That's the day the RASH appeared. It's not just any old rash... it's a shiitake mushroom rash and it's nasty. I had it before (last October), so I knew what it was as soon as it appeared. I look like I've been attacked by a wild animal or flogged by an angry mob. Here's a picture of someone else with the exact same shiitake mushroom rash:

Man with shiitake mushroom rash

Yeah. That. All over my body. Fun times.

But I don't want this to be a "poor me" blog post. I'm writing it to educate you. The thing is, I am not allergic to shiitake mushrooms. I've eaten them many times without any kind of reaction. However, if they are not cooked thoroughly, they can be toxic. The rash is my body's reaction to the toxin lentinan, which decomposes when heated. But if it's not heated well enough, the decomposition is incomplete. Thus the reaction. 

In this case, unlike the previous one, I first experienced a closing of my airwaves. Two days later, the rash appeared, which can happen anywhere from one to three days after eating the under cooked mushrooms. The flagellate dermatitis was the telltale sign that let me know what was really happening. 

Last year, as soon as the dermatologist took one look at me, he asked, "Have you eaten any strange mushrooms lately." He knew right away it was a shiitake mushroom rash. 

Unlike an allergic reaction, this toxic reaction occurs when the lentinan causes dilation of the blood vessels which in turn leak small amounts of inflammatory compounds just beneath the skin. It's not intensely itchy, so the marks are not caused by scratching. I find the itch mildly irritating, but it's nothing that's driving me crazy on a minute-to-minute basis. But it is ugly. 

The rash on my arms is not whip-like. Rather, there are just raised red bumps everywhere. Without touching it, someone might just suspect sunburn, but running your fingers along it reveals a different story. Treatment involves an expensive steroid cream that, by absorbing into my system through my skin, causes my blood glucose levels to rise rather dramatically. Lovely.

Lessons learned and lesson shared: Avoid under cooked shiitake mushrooms. In my case, I'll be avoiding them altogether. When in restaurants (particularly Asian restaurants), ASK. 

Just think, had my friend met me for breakfast last Tuesday, this post would never have been written. Perhaps it just might save one of you from experiencing the nasty shiitake mushroom rash I'll be living with for another week or so.