Watch out for the shell fish!

[catmad1]

Hi to you all.

As all fellow CLLers should know, it is advisable to avoid shell fish. Well all I can say is now, take heed of this advice, as in my case it seems to be correct. I appear to have picked up a nasty bowel infection , possibly from the crayfish tail sandwich I ate nearly three weeks ago. I am now being investigated for possible helicobacter pylori infection, which I wouldn't wish on anyone. Never again will I be tempted by anything that has a hard shell or crawls along the seafloor! Next time I am in touch I hope to be on the other side of this particular experience.

Cheers to you all

Catmad1

[Newdawn Administrator]

That’s really nasty for you Catmad, hope you feel much better soon.

I love seafood but am very wary of it now and particularly if it’s served at buffets. Having had campylobacter poisoning some years ago (from chicken), I know how miserable food poisoning is.

Take care,

Newdawn

[Berrytog]

You really surprise me, Seafood, along with fish and chicken and many other foods can cause your problem but are you sure it was seafood? I have had a bad mussel in France and I thought I was going to die but that was fifty years ago. I was off mussels for over a year but nowadays the treatment has changed. A bad oyster can kill you. So as a rule I buy from the boat, harbour or fish market the day of the catch. THe trouble with mussels, oysters and the like as well as bottom fish, flat fish like sole, plaice is that they feed on rubbish. Mussels love a sewer and bottom fish feed on anything that ends up on the seabed dead, so choose something fresh that swims rather than crawls and you might, after a while, get to like it again. As far as H.Plyori is concerned, most of us have it, generally passed by our mothers but it does no harm until there is an imbalance in our stomach acids. Killing it with antibiotics means that we must in future be careful with acidic foods.

[catmad1 in reply to Berrytog]

HI Berrytog,

Well if it wasn't the crayfish tails it could have only been the dressing they were in, or the very fresh salad that went with it. The only other things I ate that day were a very well cooked beef dish, with roasted vegs, brussel sprouts, and then bread and butter pudding, all cooked very thoroughly by my cousin, and as she had no problems, I can only think it was the crayfish tail sandwich filling. I think the smoking gun is there! I am aware that the H. compobacter bug is very widespread, but as up till then I have been as well as a watch and wait cll patient is normally, and I still feel like death warmed up nearly three weeks after the event, what do you think got at me?

CAtmad1

[Berrytog in reply to catmad1]

Well, yes, a conundrum. Still feeling bad after three weeks suggests something else, although a bug once embedded can be difficult to shift but bad food should have passed within a few days with copious trips to the loo. I would suggest a purge, try not eating, stick to toast for a day or two. You need to kill the bug, the dressing may be to blame, but everything else was well cooked and I assume consumed immediately not left. The most notorious food for bugs is cooked food kept hot under lamps. I sympathise with your ague having been there. four years ago I was in Jersey visiting my son, the day before I was due to leave we ate out on the quay at Gorey, a restaurant run by his neighbour, I had to start some sardines in a hottish tomato sauce, the fish was fresh. In the middle of the night I was rushing to the loo, then every half hour, in the morning I was due to catch the ferry but I was stuck in the loo, I checked out, managed to get to town, found a loo, just, then a chemist for Imodium plus, two pills and it was all over and did not need to go for three days. Not the same as you, try the purge then see the doctor, three weeks is too long. H.plyori, if it is your problem should be giving you problems with rich, spicy hot food.

[carnvellan]

Hi Catmad1 - I do hope you feel better soon. I was not aware that CLLers should not eat shellfish. I eat oysters, winkles, clams and mussels weekly and quite often flatfish such as sole. Where is the advice for CLLers on this?

[catmad1]

Hi there carnvellan,

I have looked and as yet I can't lay my hands on the appropriate bit of information, but I seem to think it may well have been at one of the conferences organised either by the CLLSA or LeukaemiaCare, when the perils of buffets and shared dishes were mentioned, also to use care when eating shell fish. Now I know that all commercially prepared shell fish undergoes some form of cleansing by immersion in filtered water, which may have some UV light above it, but there is also the case of the mayonnaise dressing, which should be made from eggs that are ok, but when eating out, I don't usually take risks. If anyone out there has the correct chapter and verse concerning food advice and the immune compromised patient, lets have it out in the open. I do realise that we can't wrap ourselves in cotton wool, and that all activities have risks, but this particular episode I would much preferred to avoid.

On thinking back to the advice re food I am more certain that it was at a Leukaemiacare patient/professionals conference in London around 2004. Yes I go long way back, and with a little bit of luck I intend on staying around to have an even longer life with CLL.

Cheers to you all.

Catmad1