While attending the 2015 Pi Beta Phi Convention at the Chicago Hilton, I had the experience of taking my first ride in an ambulance on a stretcher. The reason? I went into anaphylactic shock in front of the bank of elevators on the third floor. An allergic reaction hit me as I was setting up the historical display. My Pi Phi Headquarters staff friends were there and handled my medical emergency with their usual competence and caring. I am grateful for their efforts.
It wasn’t the first time I’ve had an allergic reaction, but it was the first time it happened in public. Luckily, I had a post-convention appointment scheduled with an allergist. The last time I had a reaction was just before our Disney trip in December and my offspring made me promise that I would try to get to the bottom of my allergy situation. They reminded me, en masse, that I had yet to take care of it.
I reviewed the meal I ate at the Officer’s dinner before the attack – a salad, chicken, and vegetables. I thought I might be allergic to something on the vegetables, so I spent the rest of convention avoiding vegetables and salads. My go-to food became a turkey sandwich, which, as it turns out, is a fairly safe food for me.
After filling out the myriad of forms and medical history, the allergist walked in and said “alpha-gal.” I kept thinking to myself, “What in the world is he saying?” After we talked for a bit, he explained it to me and shared with me information about the alpha-gal allergy. A blood test confirmed his suspicion.
So why am I writing about something called alpha-gal? It’s a public service. Not much is known about it, and in connecting with a few alpha-gal facebook groups, I realize that there are people who have been searching for a cause for their allergic reactions. It was first identified in 2009, although it has been around for a lot longer than that. A friend of a friend said, “I was my allergist’s first confirmed case in Carbondale 2.5 years ago.” My allergist, who is also her allergist, told me I was about his 200th case in southern Illinois.
The allergy has its beginning in a bite from a Lone Star tick. Frankly, I don’t remember being bitten by that specific tick five or six years ago, before these episodes began, but I have been bitten by ticks. I am not a fan of insects, so I do not keep track of these kinds of things.
A Lone Star tick
The allergic reaction is also different than most food allergies which happen immediately after eating a particular food (i.e. peanuts, shellfish, etc.). An alpha-gal allergy typically happens four to eight hours after ingesting or coming into contact with a mammalian product (beef, pork, lamb, goat, venison, etc.).
In talking with the doctor, I remembered that after my daughter and I arrived in Chicago at 1:30 p.m., we took a cab from Union Station to the Hilton, checked in, and unpacked a bit. Then we headed to lunch at Shake Shack (“100% all-natural Angus beef. No hormones and no antibiotics ever”), one of her favorite places to eat when she lived in NYC. It was about a mile and a half walk. By the time we ate, it had to have been about 3:00 p.m. The burger is what likely caused the reaction, not the chicken and vegetables I had later that evening.
Alpha-gal is an antibody acquired from the bite of a tick. It is a food-related allergy associated with a carbohydrate, rather than a protein. Alpha-gal allergies are a reaction to Galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose; the body is overloaded with immunoglobulin E antibodies on contact with the carbohydrate.
The symptoms include whole body itching (the first symptom I get is in my ears), extreme gastrointestinal distress, hives, and/or anaphylaxis as well as respiratory issues. I urge anyone who has had these symptoms to find an allergist who has worked with alpha-gal patients.
Does anyone else find it ironic that I would be afflicted with a condition with the world “alpha” in it? A Pi Phi staffer recounted that the medics kept asking me questions as I drifted in an out of consciousness. I was able to answer the “When was Pi Beta Phi founded?” question, but when the medic asked who founded the organization I said, “There were 12 Founders and I am not naming them for you,” and promptly faded out. I laughed when told about this particular exchange.
But alpha-gal really isn’t a laughing matter. If this post helps one person find a proper diagnosis, it was worth taking time away from the regularly scheduled Greek-Letter Organization programming.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
