A few months ago during spring break, my family and I decided to go visit a beautiful renowned garden in Martinique. Before getting there though, we stopped at a restaurant to have lunch. We had been to this restaurant a few times before but this time as I looked at the menu, I was pleasantly surprised. They had an extremely precise list with numbers for the top fourteen allergies and they would put numbers next to every dish for the dishes that contain allergens. I started to get pretty excited because I had stumbled upon a restaurant that seemed to really care and have really specific lists so that people with allergies could know what they could have on the menu.
My family though was a little skeptical but we agreed to let me have the entree, the chatrou fricassee (stewed octopus) because it wasn’t supposed to have allergens, and when we searched up recipes online we were pretty satisfied. And so I ordered it. I felt ecstatic because as a person with seven food allergies, I had never eaten anything in return other than fruit. When our entree arrived, I took a bite of my chatrou. At the same time, my dad asked the person who served us if it really had no milk. A few moments after, the person came back saying that it actually had cream inside!
I felt really scared and upset at that moment since the menu was so specific but the restaurant didn't even know that “cream” was considered a dairy product! So then, they immediately took my dish and I started eating my own meal that I brought. I had a little bit of trouble eating, but it wasn’t too bad and I wasn’t completely sure because at this point; it could have been just bad anxiety. After a few minutes more though, it became harder and harder to breathe so my mom administered my Epipen and I immediately started feeling better. My dad then promptly asked the restaurant to call emergency services.
When the paramedics arrived they asked me a lot of questions, checked my blood pressure, heart rate, and pulse, and then I was strapped into a wheeled gurney and lifted into the ambulance en route to the nearest children’s hospital. Luckily after that, I didn’t have another reaction, and I was just really bored for the next five hours; I couldn't leave until they were absolutely sure. This was a lesson for me to always ask questions and to never just rely on what I see or hear at first glance.
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