Only Elphaba is Allergic to Water

December 22, 2024 7:57 PM

So, I've had 3 instances of apparent allergic reactions in the past week or so, with no prior food allergies. I'm looking for theories for the common denominator, because I'm out of ideas. Snowflakes, because that's all I've got

I've had a low-level metallic taste in my mouth/slightly prickly feeling for the past week and a half. I am only known to be allergic to environmental stuff: cat dander, pollen, dust. Never had any food allergies.

On 3 occasions, it got extra spicy.

1st occasion: At work (healthcare facility) they made snow cones (ice + syrup + condensed milk) with kitchen-made banana syrup. Definitely spicy mouth

2nd occasion: At work, I took a commercially-produced mac nut snowball cookie (flour, sugar, butter, mac nuts, baking soda, salt) from a plastic container. Spicy mouth and weird feeling, enough that I told my co-workers, just in case a medical response was needed, and would have taken a sick day for the rest of the day, if I wouldn't have been home alone.

3rd occasion: In my vehicle today (haven't worked since Friday), I took a sip of Soda-Stream carbonated Brita-filtered water from a Tervis cup that I had prepared just before coming out to the car. Instant spicy mouth.

You are not my doctor. My doctor is fairly useless. I will probably ask for a referral to an allergist, but I'd prefer to not have to visit the ER or mug my neighbor for her epipen in the meantime.

posted by DebetEsse to Health & Fitness (20 answers total)

What, precisely, do you mean by spicy mouth?
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 8:03 PM on December 22

Can you clarify what “spicy mouth” feels like or looks like?

If you’ve had any symptoms of swelling tongue or lips, request an EpiPen prescription from your doctor or an urgent care doctor tomorrow. Allergist wait times can be very long.
posted by moosetracks at 8:06 PM on December 22 [2 favorites]

Could you have oral thrush? I’ve had it and although I’m not sure I understand what you mean by spicy mouth it could be that.
posted by warriorqueen at 8:07 PM on December 22 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sure. Kind of prickly feeling, metallic tasting, definitely irritated, but no difficulty breathing
posted by DebetEsse at 8:18 PM on December 22

Response by poster: Follow-up: I see bumps at the back of my tongue, but they look pink. No white.some visible irritation with red dots on the soft palate
posted by DebetEsse at 8:22 PM on December 22

You might want to read about oral allergy syndrome. Sometimes people who are allergic to pollen also get a mild reaction (itching and/or swelling in the mouth) to foods with proteins that are similar to the pollen they're allergic to. Bananas and macadamia nuts are both foods that can cause this. Though it's normally just raw foods and I imagine the banana syrup was cooked, so maybe that's not it. And it wouldn't apply to carbonated water, unless it was contaminated or flavored with something.
posted by Redstart at 9:00 PM on December 22 [10 favorites]

If I had a had a low-level metallic taste in my mouth/slightly prickly feeling for the past week and a half I would take a covid test...
posted by ponie at 9:11 PM on December 22 [7 favorites]

The constant metallic taste doesn't sound like food allergies, it sounds like a chronic issue...maybe with some foods being more irritating. Get a different doctor if yours won't help you. COVID test couldn't hurt either. If you Google "metallic taste" there's a ton of potential causes.
posted by emjaybee at 9:23 PM on December 22 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I took two different brands of rapid tests when it first started, but I could do another round.
posted by DebetEsse at 9:35 PM on December 22 [1 favorite]

I had a similar situation with water. With some googling, I found burning mouth syndrome. It turned out my b vitamin levels were super low. Taking vitamins has eliminated the issue. I hope that yours is a simple fix as well.
posted by jennstra at 10:01 PM on December 22 [3 favorites]

I’m wondering if these foods also had some artificial flavors in them.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:00 PM on December 22

Have you eaten any pine nuts lately?
posted by gryphonlover at 12:19 AM on December 23 [9 favorites]

I'll add my suggestion to check for Covid (via nucleic acid test rather than a rapid test if you really want to rule it out). I'm an epidemiologist and this or some other viral infection (including subclinical cases) is a very common taste/smell changing experience.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:36 AM on December 23 [1 favorite]

I get "spicy mouth" if I drink anything out of a steel container. I think it's a nickle allergy.
posted by Mournful Bagel Song at 4:57 AM on December 23 [1 favorite]

Could your mouth have been drying out at night while you are sleeping? For some people this happens a lot once the central heating goes on, and especially if they are not drinking at bed time to avoid acid reflux, or waking up to go pee.

However a dry mouth while you sleep is not good. Without the saliva periodically washing over your gums and teeth the ordinary oral bacteria gets to reproduce much faster. The enzymes in your saliva aren't dissolving it. As well as encouraging gum disease, a dry mouth can result in damaged mucus membranes - think of chapped lips - and that can lead to mouth sores too.

If the tissue in your mouth is just a tiny bit thinner and rawer anything acidic or corrosive might give you a spicy mouth. The Soda Stream spicy mouth could be due to the carbonic acid produced by the carbon dioxide. - Soda is usually notoriously acidic. People sometimes use some commercial soda pops to dissolve stains and clean toilets.

Check by eating things that are either acidic or abrasive. If eating Captain Crunch gives you spicy mouth, and if drinking orange juice gives you spicy mouth, then you will have additional data points. You could even try eating your favourite curry and comparing that. If it seems to burn your mouth a bit more than usual it would indicate that the skin in your mouth is more delicate than usual.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:40 AM on December 23 [1 favorite]

Low kidney function is also associated with metallic taste. Are you feeling extra tired lately?
posted by mochapickle at 6:19 AM on December 23

When I started perimenopause, I broke out in chronic hives and had a number of unexplained allergic reactions (waking up with swollen lips, 3 episodes of anaphylaxis with ER trips). I went to a dermatologist who biopsied a hive and put me on a cocktail of drugs that suppressed the hives (and everything else.) I think this is now called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome - the meds she treated me with are also used to treat MCAS. And it’s now understood to be commonly associated with the onset of perimenopause. It turns out, in retrospect, it was one of my first signs of perimenopause.

At the time, allergists didn’t really want to touch it. Since I was in the midst of it, they couldn’t really do the proper allergy scratch tests on me. They did blood tests, which are often inaccurate. What it showed was that I most likely have oral allergy syndrome (which I already kind of knew), but that didn’t at all explain the anaphylaxis, hives, or swollen lips, etc.

I lucked into a specialist who was one of the top experts in idiopathic (of unknown origin) hives. My body was absolutely buzzing. It was misery and I feel like she saved my life.
posted by vitabellosi at 7:15 AM on December 23 [4 favorites]

I came to mention both OAS and MCAS. A lot of people ARE (often mildly most of the time) allergic to banana and banana-like chemicals (related also to walnut and latex allergy), and it's possible your primary reaction was the first incident and you just kept having histamine flares.

My doctor's recommendation for a while was to keep track of ingredients and if the reaction happened again to be carrying liquid or chewable (note: children's chewable is a half-dose, you can start there but go to the double dose if it doesn't work immediately) Benadryl to see if it shuts it down very quickly.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:30 AM on December 23 [1 favorite]

This is very unlikely your situation, but for someone else this may be helpful, we both felt this the other night after dinner and it turned out that there were still traces of Szechuan pepper on the tongs I used to serve dinner from a previous use.
posted by advicepig at 12:53 PM on December 23

Could you be pregnant?
posted by goo at 9:32 PM on December 23