I am allergic to cashews and pistachios. The first time I had an allergic reaction to cashews, I felt like I had a piece of food stuck in the back of my throat, but then it escalated to severe sinus congestion and one of my eyes swelled shut. Benadryl somewhat forestalled the reaction, but then I started to develop hives and had to go to an urgent care clinic. All this happened within hours of my mom’s death, and I had never had an allergic reaction to food before.
The last and most severe reaction was about two years ago. I was eating breakfast on a layover in the Zurich airport when I started to get a tingly feeling on my tongue. I monitored the situation while my husband asked the cook to write down the ingredients of what I was eating (we think offender was a commercial pesto), but neither nut showed up on the list (which had to be translated from German). I decided to use my EpiPen anyway, but it didn’t have much effect. I was able to get some prednisone from the pharmacy but then my tongue started to swell up. We ended up in the medical clinic at the airport, where they gave me an injection of prednisone that got me back on my way (we didn’t even miss our connecting flight).
My reactions to pistachios are not quite as severe, just the feeling of food stuck in my throat and some congestion. A shot of epinephrine usually takes care of it. The last time the pistachios got me, they were mixed in with grilled vegetables from the deli of a gourmet grocery store. Vegetables? Really? I can understand bread or cakes, but broccoli?
BTW, my allergist told me that you can become allergic to a food at any time (I was 35 when it first happened to me) and you will never have a reaction to something the first time you eat it—your body has to build up a reaction to the offending food or something like that. But now I never leave home without my EpiPen, and carry more than one in my luggage when I am traveling.